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The overall aim of this study was to explore long-term consumer acceptance of new environmentally sustainable alternatives to meat. We investigated whether meat substitutes, which are relatively new food products, would be better appreciated after repeated consumption. Eighty-nine non-vegetarian participants joined an in-home use test and consumed one type of product with their self-selected hot meal for 20 times during 10 weeks: Quorn (meat-like), tofu (not meat-like) or a meat reference (chicken filet). Initial liking (100-mm line scale) for chicken was higher (81 ± 19) than for Quorn (60 ± 28) and tofu (68 ± 21). On a product group level, boredom occurred with all three products and after 20 exposures there were no significant differences in product liking anymore. However, there were noticeably different individual responses within the three product groups, showing both ‘boredom’ and ‘mere exposure’ patterns. Mere exposure occurred significantly more frequent with tofu, with more than half of the participants showing an increased liking over time. We also found that meal patterns were related to boredom: bored persons used more different types of meals, probably to alleviate product boredom. This study demonstrates that liking of meat substitutes can be increased by repeated exposure for a segment of consumers. In addition, it indicates that the meal context should be considered in future in-home repeated exposure studies. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Both consumers and organizations hold a dualistic attitude towards product innovativeness. Consumers are known to hold an inherent tendency to approach (neophilia) and avoid (neophobia) new food products at the same time. Similarly, at a managerial level it is not all that clear whether revenues of innovation strategies should come primarily from incremental or more discontinuous innovations. This paper reviews product newness in relation to new product performance. We describe studies that show that newness per se is not related to market performance but that it does so if it provides meaningful differentiation to consumers in the market place. We zoom in on the consumer perspective on how consumers respond to newness and briefly discuss three dominant approaches in the study of consumers and product newness. We then discuss how firms in their product development strategies and processes can enhance the likelihood that such meaningful differentiation is achieved. At a strategic level market orientation can be an important strategy to enhance product meaningfulness. At a more tactical level, we discuss problems with traditional approaches for idea generation and the fuzzy front-end of new product development.