Understanding Consumer Perception in Food Product Development: Key to Market Success
New food products are constantly being developed to satisfy market demands for sustainable, safe, and nutritious products. Upon entering the market, however, the product must find its place, and to achieve this, it must be created to meet the needs and prerequisites of the target market and consumer perception.
Importance of Consumer Perceptions
It is important to understand consumers’ perceptions of these products. Consumers’ opinions will determine the product’s success on the market, and it is essential to bring this into the beginning of the product development process. As such, sensory analysis helps develop new products. In addition to the technological and safety characteristics that food needs to be analyzed for, its sensory properties (taste, smell, texture, etc.) must also be considered in the innovation process, as these properties are decisive for consumer acceptance.
Many techniques can be used to investigate consumer responses, such as their preference and/or liking, about new products, instead of or together/combined with the conventional questionnaire-based research method. Such techniques give companies and organizations the insight necessary to optimize new products and increase the profitability of existing products. These methods can be categorized as qualitative and quantitative, summarised in Table 1 (see below).
What are the quantitative and qualitative research methods?
Qualitative and quantitative methods differ and are, therefore, used for specific research purposes and needs. Qualitative research is a more exploratory method that seeks a deep understanding and perspective on the problem. In contrast, quantitative research aims to quantify data by applying statistical analysis, testing hypotheses, making predictions, and generalizing the results to the population of interest.
Some examples of qualitative methods are:
- focus groups,
- in-depth interviews,
- observations,
- ethnography and
- projective techniques
Similarly, examples of quantitative methods are:
- conjoint currency analysis,
- experiments,
- physiological measures and
- panel and scanner data
The use of consumer analysis in the development of new product
One way to attend to the consumers’ demands for new products described above is through non-thermal processing technologies. In these technologies, the products are submitted to treatment for a minimal duration, and they use lower temperatures than thermal treatments, which maintain the product fresh and with minimal damage to nutrients, flavors, colors, and other sensory attributes.
Nevertheless, when applying new technologies, it is essential to consider that food innovation is not always well regarded by consumers and new products may not be accepted on the market. The consumers are the ones who will determine whether this technology or product will be a success or failure in the market; their voice is powerful and can significantly prevent technology from being successful in the market, as was the case for irradiation and genetic modification (GM).
Reflecting on the development of genetically modified foods, such foods were developed with a focus on productivity, efficiency, and benefits for the industry. In contrast, consumer opinions about these products were largely ignored. When these products went to market, consumers could not see their benefits and perceived too many risks, so they were very reluctant to use them. Therefore, it is essential to consider the consumer’s points of view and how they form their opinions in the initial stages of developing new products and technologies.
Transit-Training Network Research Project
As part of the Transit-Training Network research project, consumer perceptions of new non-thermal processing technologies, including high-pressure processing (HPP), non-thermal plasma (NTP), pulsed electric field (PEF), and ultrasound (US), are investigated. In non-thermal technologies, the products are treated for a very short time (e.g. seconds) and the temperature is not the principle method for the inactivation of microorganisms and enzymes, thereby maintaining the freshness and organoleptic characteristics of the product similar to those of the raw material. This part of the project aims to involve consumers early in product development, hoping to uncover their views on risk and trust. These crucial elements influence the market success of products born from these technologies.
The introduction of a new technology into the market is important as it shows progress and is also a way of meeting the desire for cleaner label products. Nevertheless, it is important to be careful when entering the market, as we must avoid what happened with GMO and irradiation, where there was a very high barrier when introducing products processed using these technologies, as the consumer perception was not taken into account initially. It is therefore important to bring consumers into the early stages of the development of new technologies, to understand their perceptions so that products produced by these technologies can be better introduced to the market.
The project aims to bring the consumer into developing new products and processes, understanding their behavior to help introduce these products into the market. It seeks to understand which factors affect the perception of risk, and those that affect consumers’ willingness to pay, as well as how and what emotions each product brings to consumers and, finally, through sensory analysis, how each product compares with those on the market.
Further Reading
Non-thermal plasma (NTP) for the improvement of food safety and quality
The Impact of Strain Variability on the Inactivation Efficacy of Ultrasound Technology
Exploring Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) Microbial Inactivation for Food Processing
