Search results

Past research suggests that small details during a service may have a big impact on the service experience. Drawing from this literature, this study aims to test the impact of offering dark chocolate during a service on service performance outcomes.

Three scenario-based studies and one field study tested the hypotheses. The scenario-based experiments varied in both service context (e.g. restaurant and mobile phone store) and service quality.

Eating dark chocolate positively impacts service performance outcomes. This effect is fully mediated through mood. However, this effect disappears in negative valenced service encounters.

This paper makes a unique contribution, by testing whether changing a small detail at the start of a service improves mood and, in turn, customers’ outcomes in different service quality contexts.

There is a growing interest in measuring emotions evoked by food products to gain additional insights in how consumers perceive and choose food products. The aim of this study was to investigate if consumers' emotions are influenced by flavour, gender, consumption habits, actual tasting or consumer attitude towards a product. Chocolate was chosen as the product under study as its consumption is associated with evoking several emotions.

During a between-subjects experiment at a local food fair, consumers (n = 910) evaluated either the name “chocolate”, plain dark chocolate or raspberry flavoured dark chocolate. Participants rated the intensity of 24 emotions and answered the 24 statements of the Attitude to Chocolate Questionnaire.

The results showed that sensory characteristics have a significant influence on the emotional profiles whereas no difference was found between tasting and not tasting. Gender and prior liking had little to no influence. Finally, the results suggested that consumption frequency and attitudes towards chocolate did have an influence on the emotional profiles.

The results show that producers should try to evoke positive emotions which could be emphasised through marketing. Gender differences for emotional profiling advocate that future research should not only analyse global results but also separately analyse by gender. Moreover, usage frequency and attitudes towards chocolate had an impact on the emotions meaning that future research should consider those when setting up research.

This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. It examines the added value of actual tasting chocolate while prior research focuses either just names or just sensory evaluation. Also, this paper further explores to which extent flavour, gender, consumption habits and attitude impact the emotional associations of chocolate.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how chocolate lovers balance taste and ethical considerations when selecting chocolate products.

The data set was collected through a survey at the 2014 “Salon du Chocolat” in Brussels, Belgium. The authors distributed 700 copies and received 456 complete responses (65 percent response rate). Choice experiments were used to estimate the relative importance of different chocolate characteristics and to predict respondents’ willingness to pay for marginal changes in those characteristics. The authors estimate both a conditional logit model and a latent class model to take possible preference heterogeneity into account.

On average, respondents were willing to pay 11 euros more for 250 g fairtrade labeled chocolate compared to conventional chocolate. However, taste clearly dominates ethical considerations. The authors could distinguish three consumer segments, each with a different tradeoff between taste and fairtrade. One group clearly valued fairtrade positively, a second group valued fairtrade to a lesser extent and a third group did not seem to value fairtrade.

Chocolate can be seen as a self-indulgent treat where taste is likely to dominate other characteristics. Therefore it is unsure to what extent ethical factors are included in consumer decisions. Interestingly the results indicate that a significant share of chocolate buyers still positively value fairtrade characteristics when selecting chocolate varieties.

Literature indicates that those solid chocolate particles cannot be detected by human beings that are smaller than a critical value between 25 and 35 µm. Chocolate containing particles larger than this range is thought to be perceived as grainy. However, there does not seem to be any publication which justifies this threshold. Hence, the main aim of this work is to determine if the threshold at which particles can be detected is indeed 30 µm.

Three dark chocolates containing solid particles of expected D_v,90 of 30 µm, 40 µm and 50 µm were produced. Particle Size Distribution (PSD) was determined using static light scattering while hardness and melting behaviour were characterised using a penetration test and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), respectively. Sensory analyses were performed with a trained panel (n = 9).

PSD analyses indicated that the solid particle D_v,90 of the three chocolates were around 30 µm, 40 µm and 60 µm, respectively. DSC measurements showed no significant difference in melting behaviour between the chocolates. Hardness measurements showed that the “30 µm chocolate” was significantly harder than both the “40 µm chocolate” and the “60 µm chocolate”, while trained panellists found that the graininess of the 60 µm chocolate was significantly higher than that of the 40 µm and 30 µm chocolates.

These results suggest that particle size detection threshold is higher than 40 µm. Chocolate manufacturers could thus increase the size of the biggest particles from 30 µm to 40 µm, leading to a decrease in production cost.

This is the first study to examine the particle detection limit of chocolate.

This paper aims to advance theory‐building in the area of food consumption research, by exploring how consumers experience chocolate consumption in different contexts and by viewing these inductive findings in the light of the relevant existing body of knowledge.

A qualitative study is conducted on a non‐student sample of Italian consumers. The qualitative diary research technique is used as it is particularly suitable to capturing sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours related to various chocolate consumption contexts. Content analytical and interpretive principles are followed in the production of the study findings.

Chocolate generates rich and complex consumption experiences as a function of various contextual forces. Seven main contextual chocolate consumption categories are identified: context of physiological need, context of sensorial gratification, context of memories and nostalgia, context of escapism, context of materialism, context of chocoholism, and context of interpersonal and self‐gifts. On the basis of these chocolate consumption categories and ideas from past consumer behaviour research, four more general contextualized chocolate consumption experience types are extracted: chocolate consumption experience as medicine, as mind manoeuvring, as regression and as ritual enhancement.

Past research has not explored how different chocolate consumption contexts shape and define these experiences, even though contextual variation in food consumption experiences is recognized as important. The nuances of chocolate consumption in various contexts are explored to the unprecedented depth, a conceptually novel typology of contextualized chocolate consumption experiences is presented, the field of application of self‐congruity theory is expanded and the profiles of chocolate consumer segments identified by past research are enriched.

The aim of this paper is, by using a semiotic approach to marketing, to evaluate the role of color and its influence on the choice behavior of children with regard to products where flavor is represented by color.

The study was carried out as an experiment with children aged between 7 and 11 years of age.

The study showed that the color codes of the market are not used very much by children to make their product choice and also that the influences of metonymical logic (color of the component responsible for the flavor) and aesthetics (favorite color) dominate this choice. In a choice situation, flavor preference prevails more often over color preference.

From an academic point of view, this paper informs the studies in sensory marketing used in the children's market. In particular, it enhances the work on the impact of color on children's decision‐making process. From a methodological point of view, it adds to the range of experimental designs used to research the child target.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of sensory attributes of milk chocolate on consumers’ emotions and their hedonic ratings using three commercial brands of milk chocolate.

Quantitative descriptive analysis by a trained panel (n=8) was performed to obtain the sensory evaluation of the samples. A group of 127 consumers evaluated the samples to indicate their hedonic ratings (nine-point hedonic scale) and emotions (EsSense Profile®).

The sensory profiles for the three chocolate types showed clear differences. EsSense Profile® methodology revealed that each type of chocolate had a distinct emotional profile. The premium brand was associated with the highest number of positive emotions, whereas the traditional brand was associated with most of the negative emotions (“bored”, “disgusted” and “worried”). The drivers of liking were mainly positive and unclassified emotions. Also, gender differences in emotional profiling were found.

This study illustrates that sensory and emotional measurements can contribute to a better understanding of consumers’ hedonic liking. Moreover, gender differences found in emotional profiling should raise awareness that gender may lead to different emotional profiling. These gender differences are of interest to food companies, for instance, for food product development or marketing purposes.

This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. By combining sensory evaluation by a trained panel and emotional profiling by consumers, this paper explores how combining these measurements can contribute to a better understanding of the drivers of liking for milk chocolate.

The purpose of this paper is to gain better insights into the conventional and organic/fair trade (O and/or FT) future chocolate market in four EU countries: Italy, the UK, France and Germany.

Delphi method was used to investigate several characteristics, actors and marketing mix components which will drive the conventional and organic/fair trade chocolate market in the future by presenting two rounds of questionnaires to experts of the chocolate market.

The findings identify the most influential actors, product attributes, promotion and distribution channels and characteristics of the chocolate market in both sectors. They reveal that they will have more of a positive effect on the O and/or FT sector than on the conventional one, since the first will grow faster than the second.

Despite low expert participation, participants belong to some of the most important companies/organisations in the sector in terms of market share.

The paper has important implications for stakeholders in the cocoa‐chocolate chain in terms of developing their business strategies in the future; they will need to concentrate upon consumer preferences and marketing mix elements which will have more appeal.

The value of the paper lies in joining together opinions of experts coming from different chain levels (industry, research and consultancy) in an attempt to forecast the chocolate market characteristics and the consumer behaviour of the future.

The purpose of this case study is to describe the Costa Rican coffee roaster and retail company Grupo Britt and provides sufficient information for readers to discuss the company's growth options in the US and Latin American markets. It has been prepared to facilitate discussion and learning about appropriate growth strategies and the building, positioning and branding of companies from emerging economies within the internationalization processes.

The case study is based on primary research conducted in conjunction with the company, including interviews with senior management and an ample review of documents. Secondary research was also conducted into the relevant environmental, industry and competitor trends and characteristics.

The case presents the ways in which Grupo Britt has been successful in developing a new business model based on the concept of a “sense of place.” This translates as meaning that the company generates products and services that highlight the particular characteristics of the place(s) in which it operates.

This is a complex, in‐depth case study suitable for use with advanced MBA students and practitioners. Depending on the aims of the instructor, different aspects of the case can be highlighted and it can be used in a course or module focussing on strategies for growth or internationalization, international business or marketing, or brand management

In the House of Commons recently Sir Kingsley Wood, the Minister of Health, was asked by Mr. Rickards, the member for the Skipton division of the West Riding, whether “the new process of adding germicide to milk for destroying bacteria had been brought to his notice?; whether he would have the process tested and investigated?; and consider whether any modification of the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act would be required to permit of milk so treated being sold on a commercial scale?”—Sir Kingsley Wood in reply disclaimed all official knowledge of the germicide. He also pointed out that to treat milk with a germicide would be contrary to the provisions of the Preservatives Regulations, and of the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act. We understand “germ” to be a more or less popular term frequently and somewhat loosely used when reference in general is made to pathogenic organisms; and a germicide is a material something that kills, or is supposed to kill, germs when it comes in contact with them, or the medium in which they exist. A disinfectant is a germicide. In the simple judgment of the ordinary householder the more it smells the better it is for purposes of disinfection. When a germicide is used in cither medicine or surgery the term antiseptic is frequently employed. Familiar instances of both disinfectants and antiseptics are chloride of lime, carbolic acid, iodine, boron compounds, formalin, sulphur dioxide, or sulphites.