Coffee Label Assessment Using Sensory and Biometric Analysis of Self-Isolating Panelists through Videoconference

Abstract

Label concepts, information, logos, figures, and colors of beverages are critical for consumer perception, preference, and purchase intention. This is especially relevant for new beverage products. During social isolation, many sensory laboratories were unable to provide services, making virtual sensory sessions relevant to studying different label concepts and design preferences among consumers. This study proposed a novel virtual sensory system to analyze coffee labels using videoconference, self-reported, and biometric analysis software from video recordings to obtain sensory and emotional responses from 69 participants (power analysis: 1 − β > 0.99) using six different label concepts: (i) fun, (ii) bold, (iii) natural, (iv) everyday, (v) classic, and (vi) premium. The results show that the label concept rated as having the highest perceived quality was premium, presenting significant differences (p < 0.05) compared to all of the other concepts. The least perceived quality score was attributed to the bold concept due to the confronting aroma lexicon (cheese dip), which is supported by previous studies. Furthermore, even though graphics, colors, and the product name can be considered positive attributes, they do not determine perceived quality or purchase intention, which was found for the bold, everyday, and classic concepts. The findings from this study were as expected and are consistent with those from similar publications related to labels, which shows that the proposed virtual method for sensory sessions and biometrics is reliable. Further technology has been proposed to use this system with multiple participants, which could help beverage companies perform virtual sensory analysis of new products’ labels.

Differences in Hedonic Responses, Facial Expressions and Self-Reported Emotions of Consumers Using Commercial Yogurts: A Cross-Cultural Study

“…A total of n = 62 participants answered the questions for the sensory tasting of the six different yogurt samples. The participants included 47% self-identified Western consumers (29) and 53% Asian consumers (33), 68% females (42) and 32% males (20), with ages ranging from 21 to 58 years. The Western consumers were mainly Australian (14), European (8), North/South American (3) and Latin (4), and the Asian consumers were mainly Chinese (19), Indian/Sri Lankan/Bangladeshi (7), Korean (2), Filipino (1), Persian (1), Vietnamese (2) and Malaysian (1).…”

“…This makes it significantly important to understand the role or acceptance of the yogurts by different cultures using a cross-cultural sensory experiment [19]. There have been several studies involving various products, such as coffee labels [20], chocolate [21], beer [22] and artificial sweeteners [23], where a combination of implicit and explicit sensory methods have been successfully integrated together to assess the consumer acceptability. In the case of the study with coffee labels, the biometrics technology of facial expression recognition was also shown to be a reliable method for sensory evaluation [20].…”

“…There have been several studies involving various products, such as coffee labels [20], chocolate [21], beer [22] and artificial sweeteners [23], where a combination of implicit and explicit sensory methods have been successfully integrated together to assess the consumer acceptability. In the case of the study with coffee labels, the biometrics technology of facial expression recognition was also shown to be a reliable method for sensory evaluation [20]. However, the sensory analysis of chocolate using other biometrics responses, such as skin temperature and heart rate, did not show any significant differences for the tasted samples [21].…”

Novel Method to Conduct Remote Sensory Sessions and Biometrics during Isolation

“…Further developments involve the assessment of multiple participants to record their biometrics simultaneously and optimize the sensory session time. , and subconscious responses such as Joy and Smile (Figure in the Poster as supplementary material) [1]. Study 2 showed that consumers had more positive emotions and higher perceived quality towards beers, with higher liking of foamrelated parameters.…”

“…Some of these were that the Premium label was associated with perceived coffee strength, brand as the preferred area of interest (AOI), 😍, and valence and relaxed subconscious responses. On the other hand, the Everyday label was associated with pleasantness, colors as preferred AOI, 😀, 😋, 🤩, and subconscious responses such as Joy and Smile (Figure in the Poster as supplementary material) [1]. Study 2 showed that consumers had more positive emotions and higher perceived quality towards beers, with higher liking of foam-related parameters.…”