The food industry has been exploring the fermented milk due to its technological and functional potential, creating different formulations and fulfilling the recent market demands. In this context, evaluate the consumers' behavior and perception through qualitative approaches helps to identify the factors that may impact the consumption and purchase of those dairy products, guaranteeing a commercial advantage in a highly competitive market. This study aimed to evaluate the perception and to elucidate the buyers' profile of different types of fermented milk through two projective techniques—Word Association (WA) and Haire's Shopping List (SL), respectively. In addition, their willingness to buy was also investigated. The tasks were completed through online quizzes by groups of respondents within a sample of 550 participants, shared between WA (100) and SL (450). The results showed that the participants considering the consumers of all varieties of fermented milk were consciousness regarding their food, which evidence the products' positive reputation for health. Moreover, these dairy products could also be considered as foods with striking sensory characteristics and remarkable marketing strategies. Additionally, the formulations light and lactose free presented lower purchase intent when compared to the other types, possibly for being associated to low sensory quality conditions and consumers' health restrictions, respectively. Practical applications The projective techniques showed themselves as useful to comprehend the perceptions and beliefs about food products and can be applied in steps, such as development of new products, reformulation, and in marketing strategies.

This study aimed to evaluate the application of preferred attribute elicitation (PAE) methodology for assessing the perceptions of consumers from different regions of Brazil (Northeast, Southeast or South, n = 20) about Coalho cheese samples. Northeast Brazilian consumers elicited a higher number of attributes (22 vs. 13-15) and had a higher frequency of consumption (3 vs. 1.3-1.6 times a week), while those from South region had higher reliability (RV = 0.95) with a low number of consumers (n = 16). Consumers from different Brazilian regions elicited common sensory descriptors considered important for Coalho cheese characterization, such as yellow color, presence of eyes, brightness, Coalho cheese aroma, salty taste, bitter taste, acid taste, and rubbery texture. Furthermore, there was no impact of the region on the acceptance of the products. In conclusion, Brazilian consumers from different regions characterized the Coalho cheeses in a similar manner, and PAE methodology could be used in intra-cultural investigations, being recommended a minimum of 19 consumers. Practical ApplicationsConsumer based methodologies are gaining popularity in the sensory and consumer science. This is the first study that evaluated the application of PAE methodology regards an intra-cultural consumer perception using as stimulus Coalho cheese, a typical Brazilian cheese. The findings are relevant to improve the processing of the Coalho cheese taking in account the consumer perception as well as to develop efficient marketing strategies of commercialization of this product.

The choice and consumption of eggs are made considering a consumers' multidimensional perception, and their understanding becomes essential to the production targeting and the products' success in the market. In this context, this work aimed to verify the consumers' perception about the distinct types of hens' eggs, using a projective technique of completion task combined with presentation of images. A hundred consumers (n = 100) evaluated the main factors, both positive and negative, involved at the purchase time of eggs besides estimating their price. Between the positive factors that guide the eggs' consumption and purchase, the category with highest mention of terms was "Health," whereas negatively it was highlighted the category "Price." Concerning the perception of price, the results showed that the factory farm white eggs' value was the one that least differed from the average market price, possibly due to the nearness and familiarity with this variety. The methodology of completion task combined with presentation of images proved as being a practical and efficient tool to capture the consumers' perception of eggs, capable of providing valuable information to the ones involved in the production chain and commercialization of these products.

The bottled mineral water sector is strategic to countries like Brazil and understanding the factors that guides the purchase and consumption by men and women becomes vital to the product's commercial success. In this context, projective techniques are important tools to comprehend the consumers' perception and to the development of target strategies of marketing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the gender differences about the bottled mineral water's perception through using Word Association (WA) alongside with the Partial Least Squares—Discriminant Analysis (PLS‐DA). The results demonstrated that from the 12 listed categories for the product, the most common were: “necessity,” “well‐being,” “quality,” and “appearance,” and it was possible to identify through PLS‐DA the main differences (p < .05) between genders. The bottled mineral water consumption by the female public is possibly directed to necessity and well‐being, despite practicality, while the male public made the purchase and consumption of the product associated to brand and informal places. Yet, it was realized that the product's presentation and quality parameter were highly impactful in the consumers' attitudes from both sexes. It is highlighted that the WA and PLS‐DA tools, used together in an innovative way, contribute to the deep acknowledgment about the bottled mineral water's consumption, and their application can be expanded and adopted routinely in marketing research and in the new marketing strategies. Practical applications This study brings relevant information about the factors which should be considered by consumers at the moment of purchase and consumption of bottled water, emphasizing the differences by gender, with the advantage of the results being obtained using simple sensory methodologies, as the Word association task which taken in account the consumers' perception and evaluated for multivariate approaches, as Partial Least Squares—Discrimination Analysis. These findings should be considered to bottled water industry to elaborate marketing messages to increase their sales in an effective way.