Examination of effects on situational appropriateness when co‐elicited with hedonic product responses

Abstract

The present research examined the effect of co-eliciting situational appropriateness with hedonic product responses. This contributed methodological insight regarding the use of the item-by-use (IBU) approach in product research with consumers. The research involved 9 consumer studies (105 to 289 consumers per study). In each study, participants were randomly divided into two groups. One of the groups evaluated samples for situational appropriateness only, whereas the other group evaluated hedonic responses and situational appropriateness. Five studies elicited IBU responses using check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions and four studies used 7-pt rating scales. The inclusion of the hedonic question introduced significant changes in IBU responses in eight of the nine studies. When effects were established, they were largely systematic in the sense of reducing term frequency/average ratings of the focal situational uses. That is, a given situational use would generally be evaluated as less appropriate under co-elicitation (H + IBU) than when situational appropriateness was measured alone (IBU only). The effect was larger for CATA questions and mirrors previous research on hedonic and sensory co-elicitation. The most likely explanation is that the inclusion of a hedonic question reduces participants' cognitive effort when completing the CATA questions. Practical Implications Situational appropriateness is often positioned as an adjunct to hedonic responses rather than the main focus of a study, and as such co-elicitation of these two types of responses are common. In this research, situational appropriateness data (as itemby-use [IBU]) were elicited with and without hedonic scores (H + IBU vs. IBU only). It was found that when co-elicitation alters the situational responses, the effect on the IBU data was, in most cases, minor and without large practical relevance. 1 | INTRODUCTION 1.1 | Background and motivation for the research Situational appropriateness represents the degree of fit between products and use situations, and helps to explain why certain foods, despite being well-liked, are rarely eaten in the mornings (e.g., lamb chops) or at dinner-time (e.g., cereal) (e.g., Schutz, 1988). For decades, there has been a small but steady interest in situational appropriate