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Predicting Consumer Responses

The document discusses measuring and predicting consumer acceptance of food products. It covers understanding consumer perceived quality through grading characteristics, physical and chemical analysis, descriptive sensory analysis, and consumer evaluation. It also discusses establishing relationships between these factors and improving studies through proper design, methods, analysis and interpretation.

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dr.maroof
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9 views

Predicting Consumer Responses

The document discusses measuring and predicting consumer acceptance of food products. It covers understanding consumer perceived quality through grading characteristics, physical and chemical analysis, descriptive sensory analysis, and consumer evaluation. It also discusses establishing relationships between these factors and improving studies through proper design, methods, analysis and interpretation.

Uploaded by

dr.maroof
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 25

MEASURING AND

PREDICTING CONSUMER
ACCEPTANCE

Edgar Chambers IV, Ph.D.


The Sensory Analysis Center
Kansas State University
Why Study Consumer Acceptance?
! Consumer
acceptance
ultimately is the
most important piece
of information
related to all types of
food production.
Meat Quality Evaluation

! Grading Characteristics
! Physical and Chemical Analysis

! Descriptive Sensory Analysis

! Consumer Evaluation
Understanding Consumer
Perceived Meat Quality
! If we want to understand and
predict consumer acceptance why
not just measure consumer
acceptance and forget predicting it
from other tests?
Why not?

! Because consumer tests are:


! Expensive
! Time consuming

! Take a lot of sample

! Destructive
Common Expected Relationships
! Grading Characteristics:
! Carcass Age - tenderness

! Marbling – Flavor and Texture Characteristics

! Physical and Chemical Analysis (common


examples) relationships:
! Shear Value – tenderness/toughness

! Color – “freshness”

! Cooking Loss – juiciness

! Proximate Analysis – juiciness, flavor

! Descriptive sensory analysis relationships


! Texture and flavor characteristics
Aren’t These Relationships
Established?

! Yes, Maybe, and No


! If I order a U.S. “Prime” steak will the meat be
more tender than if I order a U.S. “Select” steak?
! If I measure a Warner Bratzler Shear force of 3.5
kg on a piece of meat from Carcass A and 5 kg
on a piece of meat (same muscle) from
Carcass B, doesn’t that mean that Carcass A is
more tender than Carcass B?
! If a trained panel tells me that a slice of roast
from Carcass R is slightly juicier than a slice of
roast from Carcass T, will consumers be more
likely to purchase meat from that carcass?
How can we establish better
relationships?
! Understand methods
! What can a method test and
what can’t it test.
! Machines don’t yet measure
like a human mouth or nose.
! Understand limitations
! Variability – within and among
carcasses, research techniques,
and even consumers
perceptions of quality.
Understand Methods
! Warner-Bratzler Shear
! Measures cutting force
! Does not measure chewing or crushing
! Tensile Stretch
! Measures breaking strength
! Does not measure cutting or chewing
! Fat Content
! Measures amount of fat
! Does not measure moisture, “moistness”, or
“juiciness”
Understand Methods
! Descriptive Sensory Analysis
! e.g., Juiciness
! Measures perceived juiciness by “experts” at a
given time, temperature, cooking method, etc. in
a given muscle (very controlled situation)
! Does not measure juiciness of situations not part
of the experimental conditions
Understand Limitations
! Product
! Intact meat is variable, within an
animal and from animal to animal
! Even structured meats are variable

(end to end, inside to outside)


! Sampling. Just what it says – a “sample” – that
we hope represents a larger group of products.
! Limited number of observations
! Variability in samples and the “population”
! Range of attribute variability studied may be different
Understand Limitations
! Test Methods
! Don’t measure what a consumer senses
! Have their own innate variability
! Measure single dimensions – consumer measure
integrated attributes and concepts
! Consumers
! What is important to one
consumer may be less important
to others – predicting for one
segment may not provide
information for another
Understand Limitations
! Analysis
! Statistical Methods relate data, not perceptions
! Many statistical methods – which one gives the “best” or “right”
answer
! Interpretation
! Have a tendency to give results
rather than attempt to interpret
what those results mean.
! Have a tendency to interpret

sased on what we think we already


know rather than what we
have learned
Design Study
! Make sure what you want to predict is
actually predictable from what you will
measure – probably have to measure
multiple things if you want to “predict”
consumer responses.
STUDY – Products and Sampling
Select products
appropriately for the
study. Getting a
selection that is too
broad or too narrow
reduces the ability to
properly interpret the
data.
STUDY – Test methods
• Determine test methods that actually
measure what you want to measure.
• Conduct tests consistently in the best way.
• Use appropriate equipment; Use appropriate
descriptive panel
STUDY – Consumers

• Use appropriate
consumers
STUDY – Analysis and Interpretation

• Select appropriate
analytical procedure

• Interpret data; don’t


just restate results.
STUDY – Statistical Procedures
! Univariate
! Histograms
! Scatter Plots, Correlation
! Analysis of Variance
! Uni or Multivariate
! Regression
STUDY – Statistical Procedures
! Multivariate (Usually provide
multi-attrbiute relationships and
allow mapping)
! Principal Components Analysis
! Cluster Analysis
! Partial Least Squares
STUDY – Interpretation

• Understand Results,
but go beyond stating
results – give
implications,
recommendations,
suggestions
STUDY – Interpretation Example

• Results: The
correlation between
total water and fat
content and juiciness
was 0.76.
STUDY – Interpretation Example

• Interpretation: Total fat and water


were correlated with juiciness
2
(R =0.76) suggesting that these
may account for approximately
half the variation seen by consumers
in juiciness. Additional variables should be
measured in future studies to determine if
they add information on juiciness.
Reminder

! Prediction is not a matter of


finding a significant
correlation, regression,
difference, relationship, etc.
in one study.
! Prediction is the ability to
forecast what usually will
happen given some data.

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