CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS ON BREADED CHICKEN USING WORD ASSOCIATION METHODOLOGY

Word association methodology is a useful tool for the investigation of consumers’ attitudes and perceptions, and may help to define market opportunities for the development of new products. The aim of this study was to evaluate consumers’ perceptions and attitudes on different concepts of breaded chicken using word association. A total of 160 participants evaluated five different concepts of breaded chicken, all of them presented with identical images: “breaded chicken”, “breaded chicken with protein addition”, “breaded chicken with fibers addition”, “breaded chicken with sodium reduction” and “breaded chicken with protein and fibers addition and sodium reduction”. The participants were invited to evaluate the stimuli and write the four first images, thoughts, associations or feelings that could come to mind while visualizing them. The recurring terms in each concept were grouped into categories. Chi-square test (χ2) was applied to verify the different associations that participants made with the stimuli. It was established 29 categories for the stimuli associations, and 18 of them attended to the conditions for χ2 test. The 18 categories were significant (χ2 = 858.96, p ≤0.001), revealing an association between the categories and the concepts under study. The concept “breaded chicken” was mainly associated with the categories: “positive hedonic”, “descriptive sensory”, “fry/fat” and “health prejudicial/fattening”. “Breaded chicken with fibers addition” was mainly associated with “positive hedonic”, “health”, “sensory descriptive”, “good for the intestine and digestion” and “nutrition”. “Breaded chicken with protein and fibers addition and sodium reduction” was mainly related to “health”, “hedonic positive”, “nutrition”, “sensory descriptive”, “innovation” and “intention to purchase and consumption”. The categories: “positive hedonic”, “descriptive sensory”, “fitness”, “health” and “nutrition” were the most cited for the other evaluated concepts. The terms used in the concepts (addition of protein and fibers and reduction of sodium) have made the products healthier in the participants’ perception. Word association was useful in helping to interpret the associations of consumers with the concepts of breaded chicken. In addition, the technique helped to define decisive factors about the development of breaded chicken with healthier characteristics that can be successfully incorporated into meat industry.