Influence of consumer expectation on the acceptability of organic cachaça

Abstract

The influence of consumer expectation on the acceptability of four samples of commercial brands of organic and conventional cachaça was assessed by fifty-six consumers. The cachaças were evaluated in blind sensory test, expectation test and real sensory test. In blind test, consumers evaluated the samples in absence of any expectation, followed by expectation test, when consumers had read organic cachaça information and indicated how much they expected to like or dislike the drink and finally, in real test, evaluated the drink with information and carry through new sensory evaluation. The assessed attributes were appearance, overall liking, flavor liking and purchase intention. Information of organic cachaça had positive influence on sensory acceptance and improved buying intention of all evaluated cachaças. Predominant effect were assimilation under negative disconfirmation, that is, although cachaças samples were not as well received by consumers as expected, consumers higher expectations resulted in higher acceptance of the samples, whether they were organic or not. The effect of consumer expectation on the acceptability of the beverage was statistically significant (p < 0.05) for all samples evaluated.