About the WUR consumer research group
We deliver actionable insights into food consumer purchasing and consumption behaviour, both key to influence consumer behaviour effectively.
As a cycle
Our expertise can be seen as a cycle:
- Starting with monitoring consumer behaviour, to gain insights into how consumers consume food products over time
- Then, researching drivers and barriers including sensory participation and acceptance, to understand why consumers behave the way they do
- Based on this, designing scientifically sound interventions supporting healthier and more sustainable behaviour
- And to close the loop, testing and scaling up those interventions in real-life settings to support actual change, which in turn can be assessed via monitoring behaviour
Monitoring consumer behaviour
Insight into consumer behaviour, or the consumer use of your products over time, is often key to success. We deliver insights on how consumers purchase, what they consume, why, when, and where. And we can tell how this behaviour changes over time, and which driving forces explain these changes.
Our approach
We use internationally accessible consumer panels and our own extensive database. We are also developing advanced methods and apps that help us to provide an effective and honest portrayal of the consumer’s relationship to your products. For example, an app that uses near-time measurements that provide an accurate overview of consumer consumption patterns in a respondent-friendly manner.
Our previous research
Researching drivers and barriers
Effective strategies for changing consumer behaviour require a thorough understanding of their motivations for purchasing and consumption. What aspects do consumers consider when they are standing in front of a supermarket shelf? Is health, taste, or convenience the deciding factor in a purchase decision? Or are more unconscious aspects, such as emotions, social norms and habits, relevant deciding factors? How does a household member’s lifestyle, medical condition, or taste preference affect dietary choices of other family members? Answering these questions will provide deep insights in why consumers behave the way they do.
Our approach
Perception and product acceptance are studied by using trained sensory panels and consumer studies. In addition to the use of apps and surveys, we are using Virtual Reality (VR), experience rooms and mood rooms to conduct research that supports us in identifying consumer motives. Especially in combination with implicit measures like heart rate and facial expressions, this allows us to identify more unconscious consumer behaviour towards your product and the factors that determine and influence purchasing behaviour. We are also using research methods like living labs and co-creation more frequently in our work. An example of co-creation would involve a collaboration between consumers and product managers from your organisation who work together to contribute to product improvement and effective marketing campaigns.
Our previous research
- Tool to Support Citizen Participation and Multidisciplinarity in Food Innovation: Circular Food Design
- Acceptance of Personalised Nutrition & Health by consumers
- A systematic review on consumer acceptance of alternative proteins
- Sustainability labels can be effective, but need improvement
- Breaking Habits for the Better
- What's cooking, if not meat?
Sensory perception and acceptance
Sensory perception and the related palatability are primary drivers of food choice and food intake. Thus, a deep understanding of sensory perception is needed to steer consumers’ diets to be healthier and more sustainable. Insights in perception, oral processing, and eating rate help design foods that moderate energy intake and fit in healthier and sustainable diets. In this respect understanding flavour release and perception is essential.
Our approach
We offer a diversity of sensory and consumer methodologies to assess perception, acceptance and consumption. We work with a trained panel to assess complex flavour, taste, texture profiling for new food products, and relate this with physical-chemical product properties including texture and flavour release. Consumer studies contribute to insight into the acceptance, liking and willingness to buy. Long term acceptance can be assessed by repeated exposure tests at home to increase the insight of success on the market. Insights in individual differences in oral processing and sensory perception may help to design and optimise products and dietary advises.
Our previous research
Designing scientifically sound interventions
The next step involves designing interventions that fit the underlying drivers of consumers, which is crucial for the intervention to be effective. We deliver interventions based on our state-of-the-art consumer behaviour knowledge, tailored to a specific client’s context. By developing and testing interventions in controlled settings, we develop a deep understanding of which mechanisms are effective. Controlled interventions allow to be more flexible: we can explore multiple options, and find the most effective means that can be applied in real life.
Our approach
Together we will design intervention strategies, that can be conducted at our own test locations, at home, virtually or online. We use tools and novel techniques, such as online shop apps, to explore more unconscious interventions to support consumer behaviour.
Our previous research
Interventions in real life settings
To be truly effective, interventions need to fit reality. And a comprehensive approach is imperative to stable, long-term behavioral change. Luckily, we are also experts in testing the effectiveness of interventions in real life. That enables us to support in the implementation of the most promising interventions tailored to your specific context. We determine the best possible intervention strategy for success.
Our approach
We will test these well-thought-out intervention strategies in a real-life situation while, focusing on the practicability, organisational acceptance, and cost-related feasibility. You can often choose these test locations yourself to ensure that the results will be representative of your objectives.
We will also measure the impact of interventions on consumer behaviour while paying special attention to consumer satisfaction and willingness to pay. This is how we design effective strategies with a lasting impact.