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PREFERENCES FOR SOUTHWESTERN SALTED SNACK FLAVORS: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AT THE CONCEPTUAL LEVEL AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A PRODUCT LINE
Author(s) -
MOSKOWITZ HOWARD
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of sensory studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.61
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1745-459X
pISSN - 0887-8250
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-459x.1997.tb00050.x
Subject(s) - flavor , taste , product (mathematics) , psychology , line (geometry) , sensory system , product category , cognitive psychology , computer science , mathematics , food science , advertising , business , chemistry , geometry , neuroscience
Individuals differ in what they like, both from a sensory basis, but also from a conceptual basis. For a product to be purchased, the concept (or even the flavor name) must be acceptable just as the physical product itself must be acceptable. This paper presents the results of a study in which the panelists rated degree of interest in 12 different new flavors for a snack chip positioned at the start of the study to have a “taste of the southwest.” The results show the substantial variation in acceptance for the different flavors presented as names only (viz., concepts, rather than actual products). Segmentation by attitude of consumers on the basis of the pattern of liking revealed differences among consumers, but did not show the typical opposing patterns found when sensory segmentation is done using actual products having different flavors. These individual differences require that a line of different flavors be developed. There is no simple organizing principle, however, underlying the individual differences. Thus to create the line of flavors requires a different approach. The approach selects various combinations of flavors, identifies the proportion of consumers who would accept at least one flavor of the line (so‐called “satisfied consumer”), and then maximizes the number of such “satisfied consumers” for a line comprising a given number of flavors.