TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring consumers’ health perception across cultures in the early stages of new product development: Dried mango as a case study
AU - Sulistyawati, Ita
AU - Sijtsema, Siet
AU - Dekker, Matthijs
AU - Verkerk, Ruud
AU - Steenbekkers, Bea
PY - 2019/9/2
Y1 - 2019/9/2
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ health perception and demonstrate its relevance in product and process design in early stages of new product development. Design/methodology/approach: A dried mango was used as a case study involving three countries: Indonesia, China and the Netherlands. Data were collected from nine focus groups (n=53 participants) and were content-analysed to acquire in-depth insights. Findings: Four themes of health perception emerged, namely, nutrition, naturalness, taste and well-being, which were all expressed on different levels of abstractness. Participants’ health perception of dried mango varied, it is related to the product category it is compared with, e.g. candy or fresh fruit, and the eating context, e.g. position in the diet either as a snack or a meal. In extension participants mentioned product and process characteristics. Application of the insights into product and process design was performed through iterative interactions between consumer scientists and food technologists. The development of two product concepts was elaborated to transform the insights into technical product and process specifications for a natural dried mango product. Originality/value: This transformation suggests that iterative interactions are necessary to achieve relevant product and process characteristics in the simultaneous design of the technical product and process specifications based on consumer perceptions.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ health perception and demonstrate its relevance in product and process design in early stages of new product development. Design/methodology/approach: A dried mango was used as a case study involving three countries: Indonesia, China and the Netherlands. Data were collected from nine focus groups (n=53 participants) and were content-analysed to acquire in-depth insights. Findings: Four themes of health perception emerged, namely, nutrition, naturalness, taste and well-being, which were all expressed on different levels of abstractness. Participants’ health perception of dried mango varied, it is related to the product category it is compared with, e.g. candy or fresh fruit, and the eating context, e.g. position in the diet either as a snack or a meal. In extension participants mentioned product and process characteristics. Application of the insights into product and process design was performed through iterative interactions between consumer scientists and food technologists. The development of two product concepts was elaborated to transform the insights into technical product and process specifications for a natural dried mango product. Originality/value: This transformation suggests that iterative interactions are necessary to achieve relevant product and process characteristics in the simultaneous design of the technical product and process specifications based on consumer perceptions.
KW - Consumer-oriented new product development
KW - Dried fruit
KW - Focus groups
KW - Food perception
KW - Health
KW - Product and process design
U2 - 10.1108/BFJ-02-2019-0091
DO - 10.1108/BFJ-02-2019-0091
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85069907246
SN - 0007-070X
VL - 121
SP - 2116
EP - 2131
JO - British Food Journal
JF - British Food Journal
IS - 9
ER -