Multi-response approaches in product-focused investigations: Methodological variations across three case studies

Abstract

Consumers’ product experiences are increasingly uncovered using approaches that extend beyond acceptability and sensory perception. The present research is situated in this context and adopts a multi-response approach to jointly obtain attitudinal, conceptual, emotional, situational and/or sensorial evaluations. With the aim of greater methodological understanding, three case studies were conducted with samples in three product categories (fruit- and vegetable-based beverages (n = 10), seafood (n = 6) and chocolate (n = 7)) using consumers from New Zealand (n = 196), India (living in New Zealand) (n = 138) and China (n = 167), conducted in central location (CLT) or home-use test (HUT) settings. Showcasing this multi-response approach and demonstrating its versatility in product research is the main contribution of the research. Across the three case studies different combinations of response types and scaling formats were successfully used (including CATA (check-all-that-apply) questions, yes/no questions and rating scales), and it was also found that tasted foods and written stimuli (food names) served equally well as stimuli. The degree of liking or disliking for individual samples was a useful benchmark against which to interpret the other types of responses, and situational appropriateness, obtained as item-by-use (IBU) responses always contributed unique insights. Facial emoji to obtain product-emotion associations yielded less valuable insights than a conceptualisation task. As expected, and in accordance with the rationale for adopting a multi-response approach, the combination of response types yielded greater stimuli insights than would otherwise have been gained. This held for each of the three case studies and supported future applications using a multi-response approach that extends beyond many related initiatives by including four response types in each case study.