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The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of information about alcohol content, organic labelling and packaging on consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) of non-alcoholic sparkling mock wines.

In a two-step study, the consumer’s expectations and overall liking of two novel brands of mock wines were investigated by focus groups followed by a common hedonic test combined with a choice experiment aimed at measuring consumer WTP. A total of 240 consumers were assigned to two tasting groups of equal size: all were presented at least one brand of mock wine, while drinkers also tasted a familiar brand of low-alcohol sweet sparkling wine. A paper-and-pencil choice experiment followed the tasting sessions.

The results demonstrate that participants in blind or manipulated “informed” conditions are not able to discriminate among mock wines and wine, whereas significant differences in preferences for brands under investigation appeared when labels and other information were disclosed. In effect, drinkers and non-drinkers did not differ in hedonic scores of mock wines. While younger participants exhibited the highest scores in blind liking, the overall expected liking is significantly higher for non-drinkers and women if compared, respectively, to drinkers and men. WTP for mock wines is influenced by taste, glass bottle packaging and the organic label, while mock-wine colour is not relevant.

Although limited in sample size and representativeness, this study has brought some new insights into the consumption of non-alcoholic mock wines. In this study, a significant influence of blind sensory liking on WTP is demonstrated. This result has theoretical implications: while the effect of product information on WTP is well established, the relationship between hedonic scores and WTP – while theoretically consistent – is not so clear-cut in the literature. Further research is needed to confirm/disconfirm these findings.

Sparkling no-alcohol mock wines, despite their sweetness, appear not different in taste to medium-to-low APV (7.5 per cent) sweet wines.

The paper suggests that marketing of mock (no-alcohol) wines needs careful branding to elicit significant hedonic effects, while interacting sensory (blind liking) scores with price information in choice models may help to represent taste heterogeneity in WTP estimates in a better way.

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 health benefits of whole grains are well established, yet intake remains below recommendations. Knowledge and familiarity with whole grains may increase short-term intake, but sensory properties can limit consumption. These factors usually are researched separately, thus, this study aims to explore the relationships among sensory liking, knowledge, attitudes and intake.

This cross-sectional study had 69 college students participate in four tasks: sensory liking of whole vs refined grain bread, rice, pasta and tortillas; bitter taster status; knowledge and attitudes; and intake of whole grains.

Whole wheat bread and tortillas were liked, as well as their refined grain counterparts. However, white rice and pasta were liked significantly more than the whole grain products (p < 0.05), which are less familiar to most people. Higher consumers of whole grain foods preferred those samples to the refined product for some sensory attributes (p < 0.05). Bitter taster status was not related to sensory preferences. Understanding and recognition of whole grains was low, but attitudes were generally positive. Whole grain intake was overestimated by the food frequency questionnaire because of problems with the instrument and also subjects’ lack of understanding about these foods.

The link between preference and consumption warrants further study. The survey used to measure whole grain intake was a limitation and demonstrates the need for an accurate and efficient tool. Although knowledge about whole grains is limited, the positive attitudes expressed by participants can strategically inform outreach. If people believe that they consume more whole grains than they actually do, they may have a false sense of security. Further research with different age groups and a wider variety of foods is needed.

Participants overestimated their consumption of whole grain foods, indicating that consumers may think that they are meeting recommended amounts but they are actually deficient in whole grain intake; thus, improved education and promotional efforts are needed.

Few studies examine the inter-relationships among sensory preference, bitter taster status, knowledge, attitude and intake of whole grains.

The purpose of this paper is to show how sensory science can be used as a valuable tool to help develop products with a higher chance of long-term market success by reducing uncertainty during the development process. Future trends are discussed.

The description and case study approach highlight how sensory scientists must be involved during development as a research partner to develop appropriate study objectives, comprehensive research plans, and conduct studies in collaboration with other groups. This approach shows ways to deliver deeper understanding of the product and category through appropriate study execution and development of actionable insights.

The present review demonstrates ways that sensory scientists, including those focused mainly on consumer evaluation, interact with other groups within the research and development organization. This paper is focused on providing information about sensory science to non-sensory scientists and developers. Examples are shown.

This paper presents a guide for applying sensory and consumer science in an industrial setting that can be used by both industry and educational institutions who train students. It refers to current literature, presents real case studies in an abbreviated form, and traces the use of sensory in ways that may not usually be covered in some guides and books that focus on the more traditional uses of sensory in areas such as quality control.

This paper fulfills an identified need for contributions of sensory scientists to the product success continuum and the influence of getting appropriate sensory data to support research, development, and marketing decisions. The use and reference to specific examples make an original contribution to the journal.

Much of the innovation in the beer sector has focussed on flavour, resulting in a proliferation of flavoured beers. In this paper, the understanding of consumers’ flavour preferences is a relevant question for the beer industry; however, little is known whether consumer involvement influences beer flavour preferences, and the purpose of the present study is directed to shed light on this area yet under-investigated.

The research was conducted in Spain, where a total amount of 565 beer consumers were classified based on their level of involvement with beer. Data were analysed by analysis of variance, Tukey test, principal component analysis and multidimensional scaling (MDS) to examine consumers’ preferences for different beer flavours using a consumer hedonic approach based on like and dislike evaluation.

The findings support the existence of a homogeneous pattern in beer-flavour preferences, regardless of consumer involvement, showing a greater liking for conventional flavours. Further, highly involved consumers show a higher preference for unconventional or flamboyant beer flavours, than low or medium involved consumers.

Derived from the findings it can be stated that consumers do not accept all kinds of flavours and that their level of product involvement affects their flavour preferences.

The purpose of this study is to examine attitudes towards fish consumption, social pressure, fish preparation and cooking skills, sensory beliefs, health involvement and fish consumption in childhood as predictors of fish consumption among consumers in their early adulthood. While the impact of these factors on fish consumption has been examined in some extent among adult consumers, this is believed to be the first study where the focus is on people in their late teens and their early 20s.

A cross sectional sample of Icelanders between 17 and 26 years old (n=1,735) responded to a questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the direction and strength of relationships between variables.

The paper finds that attitude towards fish consumption, social pressure and fish preparation and cooking skills were correlated to fish consumption. Sensory beliefs and health involvement were also correlated to fish consumption, but this relationship was mediated by attitudes. Finally, there was a relationship between fish consumption in childhood and fish consumption but that relationship was mediated by sensory beliefs and attitude.

The number of external variables included in the model is limited and correlational methods were used to estimate the relationship between factors.

The decrease in fish consumption among young consumers is of concern. Understanding the role different variables play in their fish consumption habits can provide health authorities and managers in the fish industry with useful insights for strategies for increasing the intake of fish among young consumers.

Over recent years, brand semiotics have been gaining the marketing practitioners' attention for designing their brand strategy. Hence, to address this gap, the current study investigates the effect of semiotic product packaging on brand experience dimensions, brand trust and purchase intent of reputed major brands of fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) products.

The data for this study were collected by administering a questionnaire-based survey from 254 respondents from the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) of India, using systematic sampling. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the conceptual model and examine the hypotheses developed in the study.

The results present evidence of the growing influence of semiotic product packaging upon consumer brand trust and purchase intentions. The study suggests that brand semiotics positively influence customer brand experience, brand trust and purchase intention of FMCG products.

The research findings will benefit FMCG companies to identify how to apply semiotics in packaging to improve consumers' brand experience and influence intent to purchase.

Research in brand semiotics on product packaging is limited, as most prior studies focus on brand semiotics in advertising, product design improvement and retail design. The present study has investigated the impact of semiotics on brand experience dimensions in product packaging, which is emerging as a critical concern for the FMCG sector particularly in the post-COVID period.

The presented research aims to depict shoppers' touching behaviour in relation to the introduction of visual and olfactory sensory cues at point‐of‐purchase in a retail setting. In the field of retailing research, there is a paucity of knowledge on how visual and olfactory sensory cues impact on consumers' touch behaviour.

The author presents a review of theoretically relevant work from retailing and consumer psychology, and an original study examining the impact of visual and olfactory sensory cues on consumer touch behaviour. The study was a field experiment in the glass department of the Swedish retailer IKEA. The design was quasi‐experimental with a convenience sample of shoppers assigned to a control group (n=451) and an experimental group (n=435).

In the reported study, the author finds significant differences between shoppers' touching behaviour in a manipulated point‐of‐purchase compared to a conventional one. The findings show that visual and olfactory sensory cues have a positive impact on shoppers' touching behaviour, purchase intentions and total sale.

The findings demonstrate that sensory cues exert a positive impact on consumers' desire to touch. Sensory cues frame consumers' affective responses and decision making through involving the sense of touch.

The findings provide guidelines for managers of retail and service outlets, concerning the benefits of sensory cues in enhancing shoppers' touching behaviour at point‐of‐purchase.

The research demonstrates that the introduction of visual and olfactory sensory cues impact consumers' touch behaviour at point‐of‐purchase in a retail setting.

Chapter 8 synthesizes the research findings from the processes of sensory cognition into the design and configuration of the learning environment. The focus of cognition changes perspective and focus from the attributes of an external stimulus to the internal processes of integration with prior learning and internalization into a new cognition of the individual, which is labeled as the individual's learning ecology. These processes provide a plausible model for the design of the learning environment dimension, which internalizes the learning into transformational and ultimately lifelong learning. The processes of sensory cognition provide a viable and practical model to engineer learning cognition in the same way the brain does with sensory cognition. Like sensory cognition, learning cognition is the result of the structure of the learning environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumers’ cultural values and their functional food perception.

The research is qualitative in nature and uses the grounded theory method. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with three ethnic groups, Anglo-Australian, Chinese and Indian ethnic groups in Australia. The constant comparative data analysis approach was used to analyse the interview text.

The results indicate that there is a relationship between consumers’ cultural values and their functional food perception. Functional food perception depends upon the consumers’ predisposition towards their culture, their motives for functional food consumption and the level of perseverance towards functional foods.

The study includes only three ethnic groups and is qualitative in nature, which may limit its generalisability to the universe. The inclusion of more ethnic groups and additional sources of data could form directions for future research.

Functional food marketers can assess the kind of cultural values the ethnic groups in Australia uphold and capture those values in their marketing strategies. The cultural values in the framework could be used for the segmentation of functional food consumers. In a multicultural setting like Australia, segmentation of consumers based on the standard values would be more feasible and effective to target consumers spread across different ethnic groups but who uphold similar values.

The research has attempted to fill the gap in the existing literature about the relationship between culture and functional food perception. The latent variables in the theoretical framework proposed by the qualitative enquiry can be a good starting point for understanding the influence of cultural values on functional food perception and the development of a more comprehensive theoretical framework for functional food behaviour.