Sensory marketing research - Identification of the ideal sensory product profile

Abstract

International suppliers of food and beverages have to answer the question in which way their products need to be adjusted to the sensory preferences of their target groups in different countries. This question also plays an important role in tourism: Every year millions of European tourists visit other European countries, and the foreigners often differ in their food preferences from the resident population. In this context, a Descriptive Panel is needed to gather all perceivable sensory product attributes and their intensities. Furthermore, an affective consumer test has to be conducted in each country in order to obtain starting points for necessary product differentiations. Only the combination of the two data sets using multivariate calibration finally provides the necessary information. For each country market those sensory attributes can be identified that influence the acceptability judgments of consumers the most. Maximizing, minimizing and optimizing these characteristics will eventually lead to an "ideal" sensory product profile for which the consumer acceptance can be estimated. This approach is illustrated by the example of optimization of frozen croquettes for the German and Italian market.