Hedonic and emotional responses after blind tasting are poor predictors of purchase behavior

The association between amount of product information, hedonic ratings (pleasantness and purchase intention), emotion ratings and actual purchase behavior of spoonable fermented fresh dairy products (quarks) was examined. Two product information conditions were included: blind tasting and branded tasting. A CLT was carried out to measure hedonic and emotional responses towards three blueberry flavored protein quarks (n = 107). The samples were first tasted blinded (blind tasting) and then with brand and package picture on the screen (branded tasting). After the tasting session, respondents were sent a questionnaire asking about the products they had bought during the last two weeks. The questionnaire was sent twice, two and four weeks after the tasting session. Stronger association between hedonic responses and purchase behavior after branded compared to blind tasting was found. Purchase intention had the strongest association with purchase behavior, while pleasantness and emotion responses had only minor association with purchase behavior. Of the emotions, desire contributed the most to the prediction of purchase behavior. To conclude, prediction of purchase behavior with hedonic responses after blind tasting was poor. When taking into account purchase intention after branded tasting, purchase behavior was predicted the best.