ABSTRACT Products and concepts are often evaluated on rating scales to quantify degree of liking, level of purchase interest, intensity of an attribute, degree of difference or level of agreement with a statement. Rating scales are constructed in many different ways, but usually involve options labeled with numbers, words or symbols. In some cases...
ABSTRACT In our Spring 1998 newsletter, we discussed a method for the analysis of liking data. The goal of this method was to discover attributes that drive liking. The method, called probabilistic unfolding, displays products and ideals as distributions. Preference data can also be unfolded to provide insights into ideal product characteristics, and can...
ABSTRACT The effects of mixtures on the chemical senses are complex and puzzling. One of these effects is called “synergy”. This term is used loosely to describe effects that cannot be explained by additivity of the components alone, and is used even more loosely to describe effects greater than “expected.” There is a lack...
ABSTRACT A competitor has introduced a new fragrance for young females into a market that your company dominates with an existing fragrance. Since these fragrances are quite different according to your perfumers, you decide to test them among separate consumer samples to avoid effects introduced by testing the different fragrances on the same individuals....
ABSTRACT Suppose that an ingredient supplier has changed a key ingredient used in the manufacture of your company’s chocolate chip cookies. Based on the baking chemistry of this new ingredient, there is reason to suspect that the new ingredient will make your cookies harder. Additionally, recent market research data has connected cookie hardness with...
ABSTRACT As part of an effort to compare a new deodorant with a competitor’s product, 10 experienced judges evaluate the two products on the left and right arms of 30 subjects. In a counterbalanced design in which the two products are alternately placed on the left or right arms within a subject, each judge...
ABSTRACT Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your own and your competitors’ brands is an area of mutual concern to product developers and market researchers. In this report we assume that consumers base overall liking and preference decisions on the sensory effects that products have on them and on non sensory variables that...
ABSTRACT Product developers and marketers are often faced with the problem of selecting a reduced set of products or concepts from a large array based on consumer choice information. Good examples are selecting sets of chewing gum flavors, flavored beverages or salad dressings. Since individual consumers vary in their likes and dislikes, a difficult...