How descriptive food names bias sensory perceptions in restaurants

Sensory description labels for food affect consumer product choice

“…The aim of the observational study did not include observation of the overall consumer behaviour during the choice of apple, though a higher involvement by the consumers was noticed by the researchers when the consumers evaluated the labels with sensory characteristics. This result is in line with previous work showing that sensory description menus in a restaurant setting affected consumer choice (Wansink et al, 2001(Wansink et al, , 2005; our findings indicate similar results with more extensive sensory description labels. Wansink et al (2001Wansink et al ( , 2005 also reported that descriptive labels have a positive influence on customers' attitudes toward a restaurant and their intention to return.…”

“…Rectifying this situation was another primary objective of the present study; to apply sensory descriptions within marketing to show that labelling of the food product may affect consumer purchase behaviour. Previous research has used sensory description labels in a restaurant setting (Wansink et al, 2001(Wansink et al, , 2005 with some surprising results. However, it could be argued that the sensory descriptions used in the study by Wansink et al (2001Wansink et al ( , 2005 were quite limited; the labels were not very informative and were quite restricted in their precision and detail; for example, the name "Seafood filet" was changed to "Succulent Italian seafood filet".…”

“…Previous research has used sensory description labels in a restaurant setting (Wansink et al, 2001(Wansink et al, , 2005 with some surprising results. However, it could be argued that the sensory descriptions used in the study by Wansink et al (2001Wansink et al ( , 2005 were quite limited; the labels were not very informative and were quite restricted in their precision and detail; for example, the name "Seafood filet" was changed to "Succulent Italian seafood filet". When developing sensory descriptions for food products within the discipline of sensory science, a more thorough vocabulary is used, and relevant attributes and intensities are considered (Lawless and Heymann, 1999).…”

“…In this case, ELISE is to be considered as an example for communicating some appealing attributes in sessions two and three (see Figure 1). It is well known that different attributes have different relevant importance for consumer preference regarding apples (Hedderley et al, 1996;Jaeger et al, 1998), and it is essential to elicit appropriate attributes for use on marketing labels, to allow the consumer to relate to them (Wansink et al, 2005). This is one of the reasons why the approach of combining the two disciplines of sensory and marketing science is important, and why advantage should be taken of the terminology used within the sensory science procedure.…”

“…For example, Enneking et al (2007), who studied consumer decision making regarding soft drinks, argued that focusing on a product's intrinsic attributes is not enough to meet the requirements of today's fast moving markets, and that extrinsic product information such as innovative labelling is important and may influence consumer choice. Wansink et al (2001Wansink et al ( , 2005 found that the use of descriptive names on restaurant menus (e.g. "Succulent Italian seafood filet" EJM 46,11/12 rather than simply "Seafood filet") could increase sales by 27 per cent and also affect the consumer's perception of the meal.…”