Summary Sensory perception and consumer preference (MCB30806)

2021-2022

, Contents
L1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................2
L2 Sensory information processing (part 1)..................................................................................................9
L3 Sensory information processing (part 2)................................................................................................17
L4 Food marketing to children....................................................................................................................26
L5 Categorization and expectation management.......................................................................................32
L6 Emotions in the consumption experience..............................................................................................38
L7 Multisensory integration and product design........................................................................................47
L8 Construal level theory and nudging........................................................................................................54
L9 Sensory factors and quantity of consumption........................................................................................62
L10 Type 1 and Type 2 Information processing...........................................................................................73
L13 Sensory cues in retailing.......................................................................................................................76
L14 The retail assortment...........................................................................................................................84
Practice exam with answers........................................................................................................................89




1

,L1 Introduction
Assignment within course




When are (new) products successful?
- If they stimulate healthy/sustainable consumption
o To do so they must be
- Relevant (meaningful and motivating)
- Differentiated (different from the rest)
- Have a level of “protection” (imitability)
o From product technology (food technology)
o From its marketing positioning (consumer studies)
o A combination of both (synergy from collaboration)

What does the experiment tell us? (explained before in the lecture)
- Scent (as a sensory influence)
o Can have a non-conscious effect
o On cognition (thinking) and behaviour (doing)
o Through associations with scent, the cleaning concept came into consciousness
(accessible)
- There are many of such effects
o Sensory labels of food
o Signature scents in hotels
o Packaging cues (such as Orangina)
o Crispy food sounds

How sensory input affects response
- Direct affective response to the physical/sensory stimulus
o Sensory liking / sensory product quality
o Somethings smells nice or terrible. It has a direct effect. Some are esthetic, some
are not. Some music you like, some you don’t like.



2

, - An affective response to the match between the physical / sensory aspects of the
stimulus and the internal representation or schema associated with the stimulus
o (in-) appropriateness and schema affect
o Sometimes something is congruent of incongruent with the brain. Incongruent
the brain does not like. The senses are deemed appropriate of inappropriate by
the brain.
- Affective response to the meaning to the stimulus beyond the physical / sensory aspects
o Associations to concepts in knowledge structures (pine & Xmas)
o Sometimes it is not sensory based, but based on cognitions on the sensory cues.
- By affecting the judgemental and decision environment
o Sensory can induce affect which affects decision making
o Has to do with your mood

What is sensory perception & consumer preference?
- The senses are the window to the outside world
- Senses include: vision, audition, gustation, olfaction and somesthesis (sight, sound, taste,
smell and touch/texture)
- They bring outside information inside the human system
- Provide the basic inputs from which we make sense of the world
- The sensory information guides perception, preference and behaviour
- Understanding how this works and how this translates back into offering, allows for
better marketing strategy

How this works (simplified)




Can be studied from different angles




Sensation is just neural activity in your sensory system. It is not a sour apple, it is an apple
with a certain wavelength you interpret as green.

How it relates to what you already know



3