Food & Beverage Testing（关于产品测试 我谷到的文）
Food & Beverage Testing
Food and Beverage tests are not only ideal for introducing potential new concepts and products to a brand line, but also reformulating existing products. The basis of food and beverage testing focuses primarily on examining future purchase interest and what specifically influences a customer’s likelihood to purchase the product at hand, and most importantly what is the optimum product line. Testing can be conducted centrally at a testing facility, at home, on-site within the brand store itself, or as in the case that concepts only are tested (no tangible product is introduced), through online or IVR. Whatever the case, most taste tests are used to determine the potential market reach each product or product line has to offer.
How is it conducted?
Typically Food and Beverage testing is conducted in stages:
Concept Testing – to determine which concepts (flavors within a product line, or differing product lines) resonate most with consumers
Sensory Testing – taste tests to determine which concept formulations translate best when created
In-Store Tests – once a product is either packaged or produced at the restaurant level it is important to test how the product is perceived by customers purchasing the final ‘shelved’ product.
For Concept Testing there are a variety of methods. However, online testing has recently witnessed the greatest benefits in terms of being time efficient and cost effective; pending it’s appropriate for that product and consumer.
For Sensory Testing, the most commonly utilized research design for food and beverage testing include monadic, sequential monadic, paired-comparison and protomonadic. Each has their benefits and drawbacks pending how many products there are being introduced and what the final goal is – is it a comparison against the competition, is it to choose the best between one or two products, or is it to choose the most desired products among an entire line-up?
！Monadic
- Testing one product by itself, customer evaluates just that product. Creates use of normative data, stimulates real life, and provides the most accurate results as there’s no comparison between products or burn out from tasting other products.
！Sequential-Monadic
- Evaluating two products, but makes no comparison among them. Tastes one product, evaluates it, tastes another product, and evaluates it. Often times the order of how each product is served is alternated to reduce rotational bias.
！Paired-Comparison
- Evaluate two products and make comparisons among the two.
！Protomonadic
- Consumer evaluates one product by itself. The consumer then is given a second product which they evaluate against the first. The order is rotated so that results can accurately be compared both monadically across products and comparatively.
And for In-Store Testing, packaging or including an invitation to take an online or telephone interview with the purchase will allow a ‘real-world’ evaluation of the final product to help explain any fluctuations in predicted versus actual sales.
What else?
While there are several methods to consider when conducting tests in the food and beverage industry, the key to delivering a successful test regardless of method is consistency from start to finish - From preparing the product exactly the same each time, testing products that are the same age, providing the same packaging for each, to delivering the same questionnaires to each customer, and providing the same direction.
It’s also critical to obtain sample that includes both users and non-users of the brand. However, how well the brand is actually established often determines if more weight is placed on one category than another. For instance, with a well established brand share, more weight is often assigned to users of the brand rather than non-users, while on the contrary, if the brand share is low, it may be more appropriate to weight the opinions of non-users rather than the latter.
Food and Beverage tests are not only ideal for introducing potential new concepts and products to a brand line, but also reformulating existing products. The basis of food and beverage testing focuses primarily on examining future purchase interest and what specifically influences a customer’s likelihood to purchase the product at hand, and most importantly what is the optimum product line. Testing can be conducted centrally at a testing facility, at home, on-site within the brand store itself, or as in the case that concepts only are tested (no tangible product is introduced), through online or IVR. Whatever the case, most taste tests are used to determine the potential market reach each product or product line has to offer.
How is it conducted?
Typically Food and Beverage testing is conducted in stages:
Concept Testing – to determine which concepts (flavors within a product line, or differing product lines) resonate most with consumers
Sensory Testing – taste tests to determine which concept formulations translate best when created
In-Store Tests – once a product is either packaged or produced at the restaurant level it is important to test how the product is perceived by customers purchasing the final ‘shelved’ product.
For Concept Testing there are a variety of methods. However, online testing has recently witnessed the greatest benefits in terms of being time efficient and cost effective; pending it’s appropriate for that product and consumer.
For Sensory Testing, the most commonly utilized research design for food and beverage testing include monadic, sequential monadic, paired-comparison and protomonadic. Each has their benefits and drawbacks pending how many products there are being introduced and what the final goal is – is it a comparison against the competition, is it to choose the best between one or two products, or is it to choose the most desired products among an entire line-up?
！Monadic
- Testing one product by itself, customer evaluates just that product. Creates use of normative data, stimulates real life, and provides the most accurate results as there’s no comparison between products or burn out from tasting other products.
！Sequential-Monadic
- Evaluating two products, but makes no comparison among them. Tastes one product, evaluates it, tastes another product, and evaluates it. Often times the order of how each product is served is alternated to reduce rotational bias.
！Paired-Comparison
- Evaluate two products and make comparisons among the two.
！Protomonadic
- Consumer evaluates one product by itself. The consumer then is given a second product which they evaluate against the first. The order is rotated so that results can accurately be compared both monadically across products and comparatively.
And for In-Store Testing, packaging or including an invitation to take an online or telephone interview with the purchase will allow a ‘real-world’ evaluation of the final product to help explain any fluctuations in predicted versus actual sales.
What else?
While there are several methods to consider when conducting tests in the food and beverage industry, the key to delivering a successful test regardless of method is consistency from start to finish - From preparing the product exactly the same each time, testing products that are the same age, providing the same packaging for each, to delivering the same questionnaires to each customer, and providing the same direction.
It’s also critical to obtain sample that includes both users and non-users of the brand. However, how well the brand is actually established often determines if more weight is placed on one category than another. For instance, with a well established brand share, more weight is often assigned to users of the brand rather than non-users, while on the contrary, if the brand share is low, it may be more appropriate to weight the opinions of non-users rather than the latter.
