Subjective quality of yogurts of two Slovene private and two national brands having equal objective quality

Abstract

In order to compare the subjective quality of yogurts sold on the Slovene market under private and national brands, 100 randomly selected consumers were asked to taste samples of yogurts presumably belonging to two Slovene private brands (PB1 and PB2) and two Slovene national brands (NB1 and NB2). The samples offered to participants did not differ in terms of objective quality (the same product was placed in all 4 samples). The participants assessed their quality by assigning to each sample a mark between 1 and 7 (1 meaning the lowest quality, 7 the highest). The average value of marks assigned to samples of presumably national brands was higher (5.61 for NB1 and 5.26 for NB2) than the average value of marks given to samples of presumably private brands (4.85 for PB1 and 4.72 for PB2). The paper discusses the possible reasons for such perception of brands and the potential consequences of the findings for milk producers.