The impact of brand perception and the sense of taste, a sensory marketing element on consumers' price and quality perceptions

This thesis investigates the impact of taste, as one of the core elements of sensory marketing, on consumers' perceptions of price, quality, and brand. A threestage experimental design was conducted with undergraduate students from Pamukkale University. In the first stage, participants evaluated the products with their original brand information; in the second stage, a blind tasting method was employed; and in the third stage, packaging manipulation was applied. Each experiment was carried out with distinct participant groups, and the analyses were conducted independently for each stage. The findings indicate that the sense of taste and consumer brand perception have significant effects on both price perception and perceived quality. In particular, visual cues such as packaging and brand information, when combined with taste perception, play a decisive role in consumers' price estimations and quality evaluations. The results highlight the potential of sensory marketing to shape consumer behavior and emphasize the necessity of designing marketing strategies with a multisensory approach.