Tim Obermowe

Organic food labels as a signal of sensory quality—insights from a cross-cultural consumer survey

Organic food labels are promising tools to transmit the positive image of organic products to consumers. Besides health-related aspects and environmental concerns, declaration of organic quality may have a positive impact on consumers’ taste perception. Many studies have proven the positive image of organic products, but very few have considered the link between labeling a product as organic and the consumer’s evaluation of sensory quality. This paper therefore investigates how organic consumers from six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) are influenced by the information that strawberry yogurt is produced organically or conventionally. Within the framework of a European Union-funded research project, a cross-cultural survey with a total of N = 1,797 respondents was conducted between October 2010 and February 2011. Standardized computer-assisted interview techniques were combined with sensory tests. Results show that the presence of an organic label may lead to an enhancement of taste perception. With the exception of Italy, consumers evaluated the same product sample slightly better when an organic label was shown. For the evaluation of conventional products, the opposite effect was found for three out of six countries. These findings reveal that the positive sensory image of the organic food branch transfers to single organic products, resulting in a better taste evaluation. However, the relatively weak label effect observed in all study countries suggests that an improvement of the sensory image of organic products is advisable. This can be addressed by enhancing the sensory performance of food products as well as by implementing extensive sensory marketing activities.

SENSORY MARKETING: EVIDENCE FROM A CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF GERMAN CONSUMERS

In the consumer behaviour literature regarding food consumption the food-related lifestyle (FRL) approach conceived by Grunert et al. (1993) is a well-established tool to target groups based onlifestyle and dietary habits. On the contrary, studies attempting to identify consumer groups according to their sensory preferences are rather scarce. In this article, we present an approach that combines elements of the FRL approach with variables of sensory perception of food. The findings show that it is meaningful to build a consumer typology based on both food-related lifestyle variables and sensory preferences. The six clusters resulting from this study differ significantly from each other so that managerial recommendations are derived.

Prüfkriterien in Lebensmittelwarentests: Verbraucherwünsche und -erwartungen an sensorische Testergebnisse

ZusammenfassungIm Lebensmittelbereich spielen sensorische Eigenschaften für den Erfolg eines Produktes am Markt eine wichtige Rolle. Nur die aus Verbrauchersicht sensorisch guten Produkte werden auch wieder gekauft. Da solche Produkteigenschaften jedoch erst beim bzw. nach dem Kauf vom Verbraucher überprüft werden können, versuchen Warenprüfungen objektive Informationen für Verbraucher bereits im Vorfeld bereitzustellen. Die Überprüfung sensorischer Fehlerfreiheit steht dabei im Zentrum der Analysen. Mittels einer Online-Befragung von 292 deutschen Konsumenten zu ihren Erwartungen und Wünschen an sensorische Testergebnisse wird der Status quo der Prüfpraxis mit den Ansichten der befragten Verbraucher abgeglichen, um Handlungsempfehlungen für die Warentestpraxis abzuleiten. Anhand der drei Prüfinstitutionen Stiftung Warentest, Öko-Test und den Lebensmittelprüfungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft werden exemplarisch Einstellungen zur Prüfpraxis erfragt. Es lässt sich feststellen, dass die befragten Verbraucher großes Interesse an sensorischen Testergebnissen haben, ihre Erwartungen an die Testkriterien aber nicht mit der aktuellen Prüfpraxis übereinstimmen.