Cross-cultural sweetness preferences for a sports drink

Graduation date: 2000Asian countries have become one of the largest export markets for US food\ud developers during the past decade. Understanding consumer expectations and needs in a\ud cross-cultural framework has gained importance for new products to succeed in the\ud international markets. A sports-drink, which is a functional drink for athletes, has been\ud successfully introduced in the US. The product is also growing in popularity\ud internationally. However, the concept and product sports-drink is relatively novel among\ud Asians. The overall objective of this study was to investigate cross-cultural consumer\ud acceptance and fundamental factors driving diversities in food acceptance using a sportsdrink\ud varied in sweetener concentration.\ud In the first part of the study, respondents (372) from Indonesia, Korea, Mainland\ud China, Taiwan, Thailand, and United States evaluated sports-drink samples at four\ud sweetener levels. Respondents' expected sensory characteristics, concept fitness,\ud functionality, and experience with twenty commercial beverages were also evaluated.\ud The results show that the optimal sweetness level for the sports-drink was lower for\ud Americans than Asians. The degree of increase in perceived sweetness intensity over\ud sweetener levels was greater among Americans than Asians. Also, there were\ud considerable cultural differences in expectations for various beverages. In addition,\ud experience with a product was another key factor affecting expectations.\ud Based on the results from the first part of the study, a model delineating the\ud processes of hedonic and intensity rating incorporating familiarity, concepts, and context\ud effect was developed. To investigate the significance of this model, expectations were\ud rated and sensory testing was carried out by modifying concepts and using different\ud contexts of beverages. People (256) from Mainland China, Indonesia, Korea, and United\ud States (US) participated in this experiment. The length of exposure to a sports-drink was\ud a key factor affecting the optimum sweetener level for a sports drink. Concept influenced\ud both expectation and taste rating of a sports-drink for the panelists who had been exposed\ud to the sports-drink longer. Less exposed panelists were only affected in their taste rating\ud by different concepts. When the concept was less acceptable, the acceptance rating of the\ud optimum sweetener sample was also lowered. US panelists had a different expectation for\ud a lemon-lime flavored beverage than did Asians. Ideal sweetness intensity ratings for\ud general beverages was a good predictor in determining for panelists' optimum sweetener\ud level for a sports-drink. Based on the model proposed, cross-cultural diversities in\ud sweetness preference were better understood