Aplicação de métodos sensoriais rápidos e de neurociência para capturar consumer insights

Abstract

There are several sensory analysis methods of great importance to the food industry, aimed at identifying consumer perceptions. Studies in this area have been gaining traction, and researchers have proposed faster and easier-to-apply methodologies, including emerging methods such as Check All That Apply (CATA), Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS), Word Association, and, more recently, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is also being used to evaluate consumers' preferred characteristics, alongside Eye Tracking tests. In this context, the objective was to analyze the application of emerging sensory and neuroscience methodologies on consumer perception, with the intention of enhancing the efficiency and practicality of the methods. The Word Associati on, CATA, TDS, IAT, and Eye Tracking methods were applied to a food product familiar to consumers, such as fractionated coating chocolate. The Word Association method showed that the most frequently cited class of words was “feelings/sensations,” with “sweet” being the most frequently mentioned word. The CATA test identified the attribute “creamy” in both studies where it was applied, while the dominant attributes in TDS were “melts in the mouth,” “greasy,” “sweet,” and “grainy.” In the Implicit Association Test, no attributes were perceived by the consumers, while in Eye Tracking, attributes such as “dark color,” “shiny,” “creamy,” “greasy,” “ideal/balanced sweetness,” and “happy” were identified. Neuroscience methods proved to be complementary to emerging methods and effective in capturing important perceptions and insights observed by consumers.