CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS ON QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF LIQUID FOOD PRODUCTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON URBAN HOUSEHOLDS

Abstract

This study examined empirically the urban consumer perceptions on key food quality attributes, including price, food safety, labeling and packaging for four liquid food products, namely bottled water, pasteurized milk, ready-to-drink fruit juices and carbonated drinks. Given the multidimensional nature of issue, the Perceptual Mapping Method explained in the Multidimensional Scaling multivariate data analysis techniques was employed to estimate and map the variations in consumers’ similarity judgments on the quality attributes. A structured questionnaire was administrated with 300 households in the urban areas in the Colombo district to collect data from May to July 2011. The outcome of analysis revealed that, irrespective of the product, price plays the most significant role on consumer decision making process followed by food safety. Nevertheless, consumers were judged differently on these quality attributes as they decide on purchasing different product combinations and this behavior is correlated with the socio-economic status of a consumer. The results imply that manufacturers of these products shall pay attention to the food quality attributes in concern in their attempt to cater into their client-base and penetrate into new food markets