Ice cream: Analyzing product and consumer characteristics

Ice cream is an emerging sector in today's business world. The study was conducted to identify and explore the sensory characteristics of ice-cream that drive consumer liking, to identify factors that influence purchase decision and to explore the relationship between consumer characteristics and their preferences for ice-cream. A sample size of 100 (30 assessors+70 consumer) was selected conveniently from Sadar upazila of Mymensingh district. Data were collected through field survey by using two pre-designed and pretested semi-structured questionnaire; one for sensory panel and the other for ice-cream consumer. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and t-test. The main finding of the study was the assessor's sense worked strongly in favor of Igloo Chocobar than Polar Chocobar. Similarly, Igloo cone gained comparatively higher intensity ratings than Polar Cone for all attributes except convenience. But Polar Box (0.5 liter) gained higher intensity ratings than Igloo Box (0.5 liter) for five attributes. The intensity scoring of female assessors was higher than the male assessors indicating that the female assessors' sensory organs responded much more than the male.