Consumer Involvement and Evaluation of Green Peas¹

This paper reports the effect of consumer involvement on overall acceptance of frozen peas used in green salad and the effect of consumer involvement on the consumer's ability to perceive variations in a set of physical/chemical characteristics such as AIS (Alcohol Insoluble Solids) and color. The results reveal that consumers with high involvement evaluate 16 experimentally varied pea samples more in accordance with quality indicators used in the industry than consumers with low involvement. In our study 61% of the consumers were highly involved. For low involved consumers there was no relation between average acceptance and the quality indicators used by producer/retailer and retailer/consumer. High involved consumers could identify more of the physical/chemical variation in the pea samples than the low involved consumers. The results stress the importance of a preliminary segmentation of consumers. The low involved consumers do not seem to have any specific preferences for any of the samples included in the study although samples are varied considerably with respect to size, color and amount of sucrose. It may be considered as indifference. An obvious conclusion to draw from the results of this study is to concentrate on the highly involved consumers in further product development.