The role of sensory-specific satiety in attribute-level variety seeking

The variety seeking theoretical paradigm offers little guidance regarding the attributes of a stimulus that are most likely to drive the desire to switch. We review 25 years of research in physiobehavior, arguing that it can be extended in a natural way to predict that consumers are more likely to switch between sensory attributes (e.g., flavor) than nonsensory attributes (e.g., brand). Specifically, we examine the work on sensory-specific satiety, a term used to describe the phenomenon whereby the pleasantness of a food just eaten drops significantly while the pleasantness of uneaten foods remains unchanged. These findings lead to the thesis explored in this research that consumers are more likely to seek variety on sensory attributes, which is then tested across three studies comparing flavor switching to brand switching. Study 1 uses ACNielsen wand panel data for purchases of tortilla chips and cake mixes from almost 2,000 consumers over a three-year period. Study 2 examines actual consumption behavior using a six-week consumption diary panel from over 850 consumers in two cities. Heterogeneity across the samples in terms of the observed effects is examined in both studies. Study 3 employs a survey methodology to ascertain whether the differential role of flavor-based versus brand-based variety seeking is mediated by factors other than sensory-specific satiety. The findings strongly support the relevance of sensory-specific satiety to attribute-level variety seeking. Across the three studies, consumers switched more intensively on flavor than brand in 14 of the 15 categories examined and other factors such as preference heterogeneity and perceived risk fail to explain this difference.