Asking the right question: How should category fit be determined and what is its relationship with sensory attributes of milk and milk alternatives?

Abstract

When considering how consumers determine if a product fits into a food category, it is assumed that consumers use sensory attributes of products as part of their decision-making process, but this has not yet been measured. To examine how sensory attributes factor into the category determination process, we simultaneously collected descriptive information of 12 milk and milk alternatives using napping analysis, while asking consumers their perceptions of category fit in those 12 products. Category fit was measured in two ways: participants in the prototypical group were asked if products were representative examples of milk (n = 54) and participants in the consideration set group were asked how likely they were to use the products as a substitute for milk (n = 55). We found a significant negative correlation between the sensory distances to an individual's reference milk (i.e., the sample with the highest category fit rating) and their perceived category fit of the product, regardless of the way category fit was measured, showing a clear relationship between category fit determination and sensory attributes. However, participants in the consideration set group were more lenient with the types of products they were likely to substitute for milk and included several plant-based options, while participants in the prototypical group only considered the dairy milks as representative examples of milk. These results suggest that there might be a disconnect with the way that food analogues are developed (i.e., if they are designed to mimic an established prototype) and the factors that affect consumers' purchase decisions.