Translation of customers needs into sensory product characteristics – application of a systematic model to integrate Marketing and R&D
Robert Möslein; ISI GmbH Göttingen Germany
Andreas Scharf; University of Applied Sciences, Nordhausen
Innovation processes are a must for companies – especially in the food sector. Often isolated approaches of the Marketing department and of the product development are encountered. Marketers focus on the consumers and research the wants and needs. On the other hand, the R&D department aims to develop the "best” prototype which has a superior sensory quality. Problematic is the interrelationship between those two perspectives.
Consumers can specify their requirements only in a very subjective language which delivers no valuable information for the product development. Otherwise, the appreciation of food products by consumers directly depends on the perception of single sensory attributes. So for successful innovation processes, this interaction between the consumer’s perspective and the internal R&D is of critical importance.
In order to research the relationship between the sensory perception of a product and the thereby evoked images and benefits by consumers, an empirical research has been conducted. 10 representatively selected cheeses were profiled by a descriptive panel in order to objectively measure the perception. Additionally, a consumer study was carried out. The innovative aspect of this work was that not only the sensory acceptance of all 10 cheeses was measured but also the consumer images and associations regarding these cheese samples.
Via PLS regression, a "bridge” between the internal perspective (objective sensory perception of the panel) and the consumer perspective (acceptance and evoked images) has been build, revealing important insights for product optimisation. The results are very promising and show that there is not the "one and only” cheese which is ideally suitable for each situation. Moreover, a cheese has to provide different sensory characteristics to be suitable for certain situations. For example, a cheese which is perceived as especially sticky and melting is seen as specifically suitable for gratins and to cook soups.
The research showed that in the future it is essential to simultaneously consider both perspectives. Consumers have situation-specific wants and needs and require different sensory characteristics for these varying consumption situations.