4.1. Influence of package shape and colour on consumers’ expectations, expected liking and willingness to purchase milk desserts
Both colour and shape significantly affected consumers’ associations, expected liking and willingness to purchase.
Consumer associations regarding package colour were mainly related to flavour; in agreement with previous studies (Hutchings, 2003, Lavin and Lawless, 1998 and Marshall et al., 2006). Differences in expected liking scores due to package colour might be related to consumers’ hedonic reaction towards the expected flavour of the desserts. This could explain the fact that colour had a larger influence than shape in consumer expected liking and willingness to purchase scores. Consumers seemed to prefer packages that were associated with sweet, vanilla and dulce de leche flavoured milk desserts.
On the other hand, differences in consumer associations due to differences in package shape were mainly related to sensory expectations related to texture characteristics (e.g. runny and thick) and to specific types of desserts (e.g. egg custard or low-calorie desserts) (c.f. Table 3 and Fig. 3).
Apart from influencing expected flavour, package colour also affected texture expectations regarding the creaminess and softness of the desserts. As shown in Table 3, yellow round packages were more frequently associated with creamy and soft desserts than black or white ones.
These results show the relevance of package characteristics, such as colour and shape, in creating sensory expectations on consumers, which could affect their product perception and acceptance. Besides, participants also associated certain package shapes and colours with specific products, such as egg custard or low-calorie desserts. Thus, during product and package development it would be important to study which sensory expectations packages are able to create in consumer’s mind.
4.2. Methodological issues
The combination of word association and conjoint analysis provided interesting and valuable information regarding the influence of package shape and colour on consumer perception of milk desserts. The use of MFA allowed evaluating simultaneously consumer scores and free associations, providing a synthetic view of consumer’s perception of the packages.
Expected liking and willingness to purchase scores were useful to evaluate the influence of package shape and colour on consumer hedonic expectations and their purchase intention. However, both scores provided different results. This could also be related to the fact that price was not taken into account in the present study. Consumers did not take into account price when indicating their willingness to purchase the desserts despite the fact that this variable could have a large impact in consumers’ purchase decisions (Jaeger, 2006).
Furthermore, word association task provided an insight on the expectations generated by the packages on consumers. Considering that at purchase stage consumers would not spend more than a few seconds evaluating a package, the first ideas that come to their minds would be the ones that determine their behaviour and expectations regarding the product. In this context, word association could be a powerful technique to identify consumer spontaneous associations regarding food packages. Compared to other methodologies, such as focus group, this approach has the advantage that consumer responses might not be influenced by other participants or highly trained interviewers.
Results from the word association task, expected liking and willingness to purchase scores provided concordant results. It can be said because the expected liking and willingness to purchase scores were correlated to words that implied a hedonic reaction towards the desserts (such as delicious and disgusting).
Word association and conjoint analysis provided information about both how package features influenced consumer purchase intention and which sensory expectations were created by the packages. This approach consists on a simple task for consumers and could be useful during package design in order to assure that the package attracts the consumer, and creates appropriate expectations regarding the product. If sensory and hedonic expectations created by the packages are not met when consumers try the product, disconfirmation could occur; decreasing the probability of consumers repeated purchase. Thus, assuring that consumers expect the product that really is inside the package could lead to a higher consumer satisfaction. However, further studies focusing on product tasting and satisfaction have to be carried out, in order to investigate how disconfirmation of the sensory and hedonic expectations generated by packages affect consumers reaction to food products.
Moreover, further research is recommended in order to investigate the applicability of the proposed methodology to more complex products, including other package features.