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Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping

Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Pro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brown, Allison L., Bakke, Alyssa J., Hopfer, Helene
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7641343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33147215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177
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author Brown, Allison L.
Bakke, Alyssa J.
Hopfer, Helene
author_facet Brown, Allison L.
Bakke, Alyssa J.
Hopfer, Helene
author_sort Brown, Allison L.
collection PubMed
description Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Projective mapping revealed that participants segmented products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors. We found that American premium chocolate consumers use search attributes such as segmentation, price, availability, and packaging as quality determinants. Additionally, they desire credence attributes that convey trust through, for example, the presence or absence of sustainability certifications, or a semblance of meaning. Premium chocolate consumers seek out experience attributes such as utility and/or joy, which are achieved by purchasing a chocolate product as a gift, for its nostalgic purposes, or for desired post-ingestive effects. We propose a Desirable Chocolate Attribute Concept Map to explain our findings.
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spelling pubmed-76413432020-11-10 Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping Brown, Allison L. Bakke, Alyssa J. Hopfer, Helene PLoS One Research Article Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Projective mapping revealed that participants segmented products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors. We found that American premium chocolate consumers use search attributes such as segmentation, price, availability, and packaging as quality determinants. Additionally, they desire credence attributes that convey trust through, for example, the presence or absence of sustainability certifications, or a semblance of meaning. Premium chocolate consumers seek out experience attributes such as utility and/or joy, which are achieved by purchasing a chocolate product as a gift, for its nostalgic purposes, or for desired post-ingestive effects. We propose a Desirable Chocolate Attribute Concept Map to explain our findings. Public Library of Science 2020-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7641343/ /pubmed/33147215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177 Text en © 2020 Brown et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Brown, Allison L.
Bakke, Alyssa J.
Hopfer, Helene
Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title_full Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title_fullStr Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title_full_unstemmed Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title_short Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
title_sort understanding american premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7641343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33147215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177
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