THE RELATION BETWEEN SENSORY, LIKING AND IMAGE ATTRIBUTES - THE CASE OF SOAP

This paper discusses the relation for soaps between sensory attributes and both liking and image attributes. A clear relation emerges betwee n sensory attribute level and liking, but no clear relation emerges be tween sensory attributes and image attributes. There are two possible conclusions to be drawn from these results. One conclusion is that con sumers can validly assign ratings to the image attribute of a soap, bu t that there is no way to trace this image rating back to sensory inpu ts. This conclusion suggests that more research is needed to understan d the meaning of image attributes. The second conclusion is that consu mers cannot validly rate the image attributes of a soap, even though t hey can complete the questionnaire. This second conclusion implies tha t consumers can validly rate some attributes (e.g., sensory, liking), but not others (e.g., image), and that it may be misleading to collect and attempt to analyze image ratings for health and beauty aids produ cts.