Disconfirmation of Taste as a Measure of Trust in Brands: An Experimental Study on Mineral Water

Abstract

The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less studied area. The typically related attributes of consumer judgement in the case of low involvement can vary widely, ranging from price sensitivity to habits. However, assessing the role of brand reputation and trust from a sensory perception perspective is not a common approach. This paper examines the impact of trust on consumer value judgements for a frequently consumed beverage such as mineral water. Combining trust and sensory attributes with the Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) framework provides insights into the weight of taste, trust and reputation in product evaluation. A tasting experiment was carried out using a representative systematic random sampling method. A mixed method was applied; EDT was used to analyze quantitative data and grounded theory methodology was performed in the case of qualitative data. Results indicate complete assimilation for the most preferred brand and negative contrast for less well-known brands. It can be stated that the applied methodology is suitable as a certain kind of trust measurement and also can function particularly well as a reinforcement and complement to other methodologies (e.g., neuromarketing methods). This study suggests that brand names positively influence value judgment. Origin bounded brands compared to imported brands can help companies mitigate trust issues in developing countries as they convey a particular reputation, which helps reinforce trust.

The Perception of Food Quality and Food Value among the Purchasing Intentions of Street Foods in the Capital of the Philippines

“…In their study, if the food they consume would affect their health, consumers would be more careful about this food based on their perception of its value and quality. This was further justified by the study of Kokthi et al [106], who explained that sensory perception and awareness of brands, in this case, the type of street foods, affects consumers' judgement. Since street food may not be perceived as being healthy overall [11][12][13], people would still choose the consumption of it based on their own control.…”

Neuromarketing and consumer behavior: A bibliometric analysis

“…Therefore, initial two words used in the search string were neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience. Since marketing is also related to advertisement and branding, therefore neuroscience is combined with the keywords advertisement and branding to dwell deep in the sub‐areas of marketing (Kokthi et al, 2022). The application of neuromarketing is extensively used in the consumer decision‐making process (Harris et al, 2018; Lim, 2018).…”

Peculiarities of sensory marketing

“…Once a customer's loyalty is established, when he needs a product related to his taste or something he has tried, he automatically associates it with that brand. Kokthi et al (2022) stated that the main initial properties in the first phase were sensory properties that were related to taste and characterised by pairs of contrasts such as "heavy" and "light" or "dense" or 'sweet' and 'bitter'. Uncertainty arose in the use of grammatical structures such as "maybe", "probably", and "seemed".…”