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Browsing by Author "Sabbah, Mikael"

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  • Sabbah, Mikael (2018)
    Packaging has a pivotal role in stimulating interest in a product, as well as informing customers by providing insight to the product’s attributes and quality. The aim of this study was to investigate whether beer packaging affects customers’ expectations, and to determine what kind of impact these expectations have on the perceived quality, taste and hedonic liking. For this study we conducted a consumer test to measure the effects various packaging designs, cans, and bottles had on consumer satisfaction. Research reviewed for this study focuses on multisensory perception processes and how our sensory modalities are integrated for creating multimodal perception. Theoretical models of the interaction between expectation and perception show how clues of a product’s characteristics can affect perceived quality. The impact of external and internal cues on perceived quality is especially evident in the studies reviewed herein. External cues set expectations for a given product’s physical characteristics during consumption, such as taste. Lastly, we examine the difference in attributes and characteristics of packaging as an external cue. We collected research material for this study with a consumer test carried out in a public space. 105 subjects reviewed the quality and hedonic liking of a beer. Subjects were divided into two groups, with the first group reviewing canned beer and the second group reviewing bottled beer. Responses between the groups were investigated using tests for independent and unpaired samples, and correlations were calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The results suggest that packaging has an influence on both the expected and perceived hedonic liking. When packaged in a bottle, subjects perceived beer to be more pleasant in taste, visual and overall liking. Additionally, differences in individually perceived sensory qualities such as bitterness were more readily detected. The available evidence and results from our study substantiate claims that packaging affects consumer’s perception of product’s intrinsic characteristics such as taste. Inasmuch, brand owners should take into account the possible effect of the packaging when developing and bringing products to market.