Product Acceptance
If you have a new product that you would like to launch, it makes sense to gauge consumer response from your target audience.
Product acceptance research allows you to see what the average consumer truly thinks of your product. You will get detailed analysis of product performance, broken down by specific attributes, which you can use to make any necessary tweaks to your product. The data can also be used to validate how good the product is and how likely it is to succeed in a competitive market place.


Positive results can also be instrumental in providing reassurance to retailers that there is a demand for the product, it is of high quality, and therefore likely to be a success.
This type of research can be done in a central location with strict scientific conditions or as a home use test where consumers use / eat the product in their normal manner.
Product Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of asking typical consumers to assess your products, along with those of your competitors, in order to find out where your product ranks is in terms of consumer preference. It is usually carried out in a central location using a representative sample of your target market. A central location test provides a controlled environment where we can ensure test products are prepared and delivered under identical conditions.

Appearance
Texture
We can find out how consumers rate your products compared to others on the supermarket shelf. We ask a series of detailed questions to target each product’s main attributes such as appearance, aroma, flavour, texture and overall acceptance.
We then analyse the data using statistical significance to see if there are genuine differences between products for each attribute. If any statistically significant differences are seen, one product can be considered preferred to another product for this attribute.
Using this data, clients also have the ability to either approach new customers with evidential proof that their product outperforms the competition, or use it in a way to improve their current products. Consequently, clients would hope to see increased exposure to potential consumers, and thus an increase in sales.

The Case Study
A leading savoury pastry brand wanted to determine their position in the marketplace by assessing the performance of their core product lines against those of their main competitors. There was a range of products to assess and a large number of competitor products for comparison.
A series of central location taste tests was commissioned using 100 typical consumers to compare each of the brand’s products with those of their main competitors. To ensure fairness of the test, WSS sourced all products for testing from local stores to replicate the consumer experience as closely as possible. Additionally, coded plates were used to debrand the products and the order of presentation was rotated to ensure against brand bias and order effects.
The products were assessed against a number of key criteria designed to explore consumer liking of appearance, aroma, flavour and texture qualities, along with an overall score for each product.
A report was generated to show the performance of each of the client’s key product lines compared to those of their competitors. Significant differences between the products were highlighted at 95% confidence to clearly identify where the products differed in terms of consumer acceptance.
Based on the feedback from the research, we were able to demonstrate to our client the exact strengths and weaknesses of each of the products in the eyes of the target consumer. The client was then able to reformulate any products that fell short of expectation, to maximise consumer acceptance.