5.6.2 Consumer survey in the early stages of product development
When more quantitative data are needed, for example in determining the target
market and predicting the sales to the target market, a consumer survey using a
randomly selected sample of the population is needed. Consumer surveys are
usually personal interviews using a formalised questionnaire, but sometimes a
qualitative unstructured interview can be used where there is little information
Table 5.10 Multistage idea generation and screening for a meat product for hotels and
motels in Melbourne, Australia
Activities Participants Techniques
Preliminary idea generation Food technologists, Nominal group technique
caterers Brainstorming
Synectics
Preliminary screening Researcher Qualitative: fulfil consumer
requirements, offer benefits for
menu planner, value for money,
competitive advantage
Outcome: 30 product ideas in categories
Development of ideas Menu planners Focus group on list of product
ideas
Consumers Focus group on a list of product
(beef eating) ideas
Outcome: 30 ideas with benefits, attributes needed by consumers and menu planners
Technical feasibility screening 2 meat technology Interview on technical feasibility,
experts technology availability,
competition, demand volume
Outcome: 32 technically feasible products
Checklist screening 4 food technologists Individual scoring on marketing
and technical factors
Outcome: 14 product ideas in 5 categories
Development of Menu planners Focus group
product descriptions Consumers Focus group
Outcome: 14 product descriptions
Suppliers’ company Managers Individual scoring
specific screening Food technologists Individual scoring
Outcome: 5 Agreed product descriptions for development
Raw beef product untreated – tender beef in thin slices.
Raw beef product treated – flavoured pickled beef.
Prepared ready-to-cook product – fricadelle (new beef burger), coated beef product.
Pre-cooked beef product – precooked meat loaf.
Source: From Roberts, 1997.
228 Food product development
about the new product. Methods of organising a consumer survey in product
development projects are described in West and Earle (1987).
The consumer survey usually compares three or four new product ideas that
have been generated. The information sought can be past and intended
behaviour; general opinions and attitudes on eating characteristics, nutritional
value, safety, cooking/serving/eating needs, size of packs and related cost; and
demographic data such as socioeconomic characteristics and level of knowledge.
It is useful to identify the usage patterns for products at present on the market
and to assess consumer attitudes and opinions on particular types of products, as
well as seeking information on the new products. The information can be
analysed to give market share by consumer classifications, method of purchasing
products, frequency of purchase and ways of using products. The researcher
defines the market segments and forecasts the market potential. From
consumers’ opinions, attitudes and general comments, assessment can be made
of product needs and the inadequacies of present products.
With information from the consumer survey, new product descriptions can
evolve to product concepts, with definition of basic product attributes such as size,
storage life, function, price range, ingredients, desired eating characteristics and
cooking method. The target market segment(s) are identified, so that the choice of
representative consumers for developing the product idea concept for the product
design can be made. Consumers in the original focus groups are probably chosen
as representative of the segment that the researcher believes will accept and buy
the product. But there is a need to confirm this is correct in a larger survey. Target
consumers can be identified on demographic factors such as age and education,
but target segments based on such factors as usage of product, life style,
personality and social groups can be more directly related to the product.
5.6.3 Product concept definition and optimisation
The product concept is built up in stages – attributes identification and
screening, attributes measurement, complete product concept, product concept
evaluation. Saguy and Moskowitz (1999) said ‘Innovative products possess
spatial and temporal limits’ and what is attempted in product concept
development is to outline these limits and in the product design specifications
to give them quantitative values. Development of the product concept and the
product design specifications are outlined in Fig. 5.10, showing the consumers
Fig. 5.10 Attributes in product concept and product design specifications.
The consumer in product development 229
after their acceptance of a new product description, identifying the product
attributes important to them in the product. The product designers with
consumers and analytical technologists build up metrics, that is quantitative
measurements of the product attributes, as the basis for the product design
specifications. Often, these activities are not sequential from consumers to food
technologists but they are cycling backwards and forwards between the three
groups, as the concepts of the product characteristics identified by the
consumers gradually become the physical and chemical testing of the food
technologists.
The consumers who take part in developing the product concept are category
users or, if it is an innovation, the predicted category users. The consumer focus
group is invaluable for building up the product concept. Usually 30–60 but
sometimes up to 200 consumers take part in small discussion groups of six to
eight people. The discussions are usually free ranging so that the consumers can
discuss their own attitudes and behaviour towards the products and identify their
needs in the product. The consumers are using as models the company’s present
products, competing products and early product prototypes.
In identifying product attributes for the product concept, it is important to
discover from the consumers everything they recognise in the product so as to
discover all the product attributes. The consumers combine what they identify as
similar attributes into one attribute; then they develop a description of this
attribute. The attributes are grouped by the consumers into core values, functional
attributes and unimportant attributes. The core values are what consumers wish to
feel/achieve when they buy/eat the food and after the food is eaten, for example
feeling healthy, happy, not hungry. The functional attributes are the qualities of
the product needed for use. The essential attributes, the ‘benefits’ that consumers
identify to differentiate the products and also the ‘risks’ that they identify with the
product, are recognised. Included are all the different types of attributes – basic
product, package, use, psychological, social, cultural and environmental.
Think break
A simple product description given to a focus group of women with children was:
A new fruit salad topping is to be produced, using fruit, and containing no
synthetic flavours and colours. It is to be used like other toppings on ice cream
and other desserts.
The focus group identified some important product attributes:
• Target consumers: bought by families, used by children.
• Functional: packed in 300 ml ‘squeeze’, plastic container, same viscosity as
present toppings on market, used on ice cream, pancakes, etc.
• Values: natural, real fruit, low calories.
• Economics: price £1–1.50 for 300 ml.
230 Food product development
It is important that the consumers examine the attributes together, as they
often interact with each other in the product. Consumers may not be able to
describe new products, especially radical innovations that they have never seen,
but they can compare different combinations of product attributes and select
what suits them. The next step in the development of the product concept is to
test different combinations of the identified attributes. The attributes are brought
together as a variety of combinations in separate product concepts and assessed
for acceptance (or purchase intent) by the consumers. The different product
concepts can also be compared with competing products to see how they
perform competitively. Using statistical modelling such as conjoint analysis, the
product designer can identify the crucial attributes, recombine them (adding any
new attributes that the consumers have identified as missing) and gradually
optimise the product concept. Concept screening not only helps to select the best
concept and determine the contribution of individual attributes, but also shows
how concepts can be restructured.
The multi-attribute approach for product concept generation and evaluation
has led to a systematic method instead of the old ‘try it and taste’ method. It has
increased the basic knowledge of food products, and their relationships to each
other both on product platforms and positions in the market. It has identified the
common attributes related to types of products, and also the differences between
specific products. The use of statistical techniques with their associated
computer software has given a quantitative base for product and attribute
identification. The techniques include factor analysis, clustering methods,
multidimensional scaling (MDS), conjoint analysis (Shocker and Srinvasan,
1979; Martens et al., 1983; Green et al., 1988), and in sensory studies,
descriptive sensory analysis and principal components analysis (Gacula, 1997;
Meilgaard et al., 1999). These methods have been widely used in the food
industry (Schutz, 1988; Moskowitz, 1994; Saguy and Moskowitz, 1999).
Multivariate analysis is used in grouping attributes. Ninety-two New Zealand
consumers compared 45 meat cuts, including beef, lamb, hogget, mutton, pork,
1. Study the product attributes identified by the focus group. Can any of these
attributes be combined? What other product attribu
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