Effective communication of novelty: The case of ripened cheese

• Effect of description on acceptance of a novel cheese.
• Description affected expected purchase intent but not expected pleasantness.
• Communication of novelty more useful if presented to those with low FNS and FTNS.
• Understanding of consumer’s psychographic characteristics aids communication.

Acceptance of foods is affected by a multitude of factors, not least information. The objective was to ascertain the effect of description on the acceptance of a novel Emmental-type cheese. Participants (n = 229, 19–63 years) completed a questionnaire on demographics and psychographics and received a cheese sample for home-use. They were allocated to one of four information groups of similar size, balanced for age, sex, food neophobia score (FNS) and food technology neophobia score (FTNS) and were sent an online questionnaire 2 days later. The cheese was described as ‘Traditional Emmental “Blue Label”’; ‘New-type ripened cheese’; ‘New-type ripened cheese made from low-pressure homogenised milk’ or ‘Cheese’. Participants rated the pleasantness, purchase intent and suitability of descriptive words before (expected) and after (actual) tasting. Description did not affect expected pleasantness but did affect expected purchase intent, where age and FTNS score also influenced the predictive model. The ‘New-type’ group reported highest expected purchase intent and the ‘Cheese’ group the lowest. Participants expected the cheese to be saltier and less mild than when tasted. Communication of the novelty of the process raised purchase intent of those with low FNS and low FTNS. Understanding of psychographic dimensions of target consumers helps to formulate a message which emphasises favourable aspects of the product or prevents associations that may banish key customers.