Launching a new product or enhancing an existing one often involves navigating the challenges of consumer acceptance and strategic market timing. Gathering feedback from your current consumers or desired target market is crucial. In our recent blog post, we investigated various methods that empower brands to listen to their consumers, with sensory testing emerging as a powerful approach. Despite its potential, some brands shy away from sensory testing due to perceived high cost, inaccessibility, and/or complexity.
However, sensory testing is an investment against market missteps and a key to product success. For over 40 years, Canadian Viewpoint has partnered with a wide range of companies in multiple verticals, refining our services to be holistic, cost-effective, and tailored to each client’s unique needs.
Why Brands Hesitate
- Complexity and Cost: Brands often perceive that conducting sensory testing involves multiple partners, making the process seem both complex and costly.
- Target Audience Reachability: Reaching the right target audience can be challenging, especially for niche markets or hard-to-reach demographics. Clients might be concerned about the difficulty in bringing the right audiences to a facility or effectively reaching them through at-home testing methods.
- Logistical Concerns: Brands worry about whether perishable items can be sent to participants’ homes or if they must be tested in a facility. Additionally, there is a perception that logistics will be challenging.
Through decades of experience, we’ve streamlined processes and shipped even the most challenging of products. We have expertly guided our clients through sensory testing from inception to completion, including sourcing hard-to-reach audiences, selecting the optimal methodology, managing logistics, and coordinating seamless execution.
- Central Location Tests and Mall Intercept
- Offline Recruitment to Focus Groups, Ethnographies, IDIs & Usability Labs
- IHUT
- Programming, Hosting and Data Processing
- Packing, Shipping, Product Procurement
Demonstration of Our Sensory Testing Process at the CRIC Conference
Last week at The Canadian Research and Insights Council (CRIC) conference in Toronto, we took sensory testing to new heights with an ice cream-tasting experience. Our booth became a hub of excitement as attendees indulged in two different kinds of ice cream.
Behind the scenes, our dedicated teams orchestrated a seamless sensory testing journey. Our operations team procured the ice cream varieties and meticulously labelled them with unique codes for de-branded unbiased testing. The frozen treats were stored in a freezer to maintain their freshness throughout the event.
Our programming experts developed a questionnaire that invited participants to share their feedback through surveys, capturing detailed insights into flavour preferences and overall satisfaction.
To showcase our end-to-end capabilities, our logistics team helped us to demonstrate the precision and care involved in shipping frozen and perishable items. From the packaging materials used to ensure product integrity to the shipping process itself, attendees gained a firsthand glimpse into our logistical expertise.
23% of participants preferred C25, while the majority, 69%, preferred V91.
Sensory testing is a valuable approach for understanding consumer perceptions of your product and enhancing its appeal. Incorporating feedback from real consumers enables you to refine products and align them with consumer preferences, ultimately driving sales.
Undoubtedly, the logistics and process of sensory testing require meticulous attention and expertise. Partnering with an experienced provider who offers comprehensive services is crucial for successful testing outcomes.
If you’re ready to test your product, whether in a controlled facility environment or by shipping samples to consumers’ homes, let’s chat.
We’d love to hear about your goals and discuss how we can assist you in achieving them!
