There were no significant differences for most affective ratings between data obtained from the HoloLens evoked café and real café (p ≥ 0.10), suggesting that mixed reality could provide an ecologically valid context for consumer research.

Participant affective response (overall liking, attribute liking, emotional response, and snack choice) towards two commercially available tea break snacks (caramel slice and chocolate digestive biscuit) was assessed in three different consumption settings using a balanced crossover design. Here, we compared the effect of consumption setting (traditional sensory booth, mixed reality projection café, and a café) on consumer affective responses, and to investigate the effectiveness of using Microsoft HoloLens technology, an Augmented Mixed Reality device, as an ecologically valid alternative to natural consumption eating for sensory evaluation. Sensory evaluation for the investigation of food consumption is often conducted in a controlled laboratory environment, which does not reflect consumption behaviour in real world. Companies introducing highly context-sensitive products could specifically benefit from immersive test environments. Our results emphasize the importance of considering an appropriate environment when testing products for sensory acceptance during new food product development. We also identify specific sample size thresholds at which immersive consumption environments outperform sensory lab settings for rather context-sensitive and rather context-insensitive products. We address this concern by presenting the results of six acceptance tests of two product categories, which show that consumer segments derived from an immersive environment overlap more strongly with those derived from a natural consumption environment than those from a sensory lab. This disregard of segmentation results is problematic, because consumer segments’ sharp differences in terms of product acceptances are not necessarily manifested in different aggregated mean acceptance scores. Prior research is of limited help in this regard, since it only considered consumers’ mean acceptance ratings rather than comparing consumer segments as commonly done in industry practice. Research has started investigating whether tests in immersive consumption environments can combine both settings’ advantages by achieving high levels of generalizability, while also accelerating the product development cycles and reducing their costs. Both types have merits, but also limitations. These tests are either carried out in sensory labs or in natural consumption environments (field tests).

(2004) on the enhancing effects of context variables on product acceptance, and on how the relationship between context effect and consumer acceptance may not be consistent within and across meal components.Įvery year, food manufacturers spend billions of dollars on sensory acceptance tests in new food product development processes. The results of this study confirm some of the results of King et al. There were significant age and gender effects in the two restaurant settings, but not in the laboratory central location test. Meal context and the consumer’s ability to choose had the strongest positive effects on acceptance ratings, while social interaction and enhanced environment had no noticeable effects on the acceptability scores.

Two main dishes (lasagna, cannelloni), salad, breadsticks and iced tea were served either as individual items or as part of a meal. Consumer acceptance of food and beverage was measured in three different settings/locations: a central location test in a laboratory facility, a central location test at one unit of a national chain restaurant and a customer satisfaction survey at the same chain restaurant in multiple cities.

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