• August 15, 2011

For three years, Kraft Foods has been developing a sophisticated new research method, emotional profiling, to derive actionable answers about the differences between "liking" and "preferring" a product or brand, reports CPG Matters.

Because of the proliferation of new products and other factors, products that score the same in testing can perform very differently in the marketplace.

Melissa Knorr, principal scientist for Kraft Foods Research, Development & Quality, would not reveal specifics about the methodology, but confirmed that the technique can help in identifying and communicating the most powerful product attributes, and in product development and relaunches.

For example, Knorr said, after reformulating one product, consumer acceptance/"liking" tests showed the old and new to be on par.  However, in-depth emotional profiling research on both products uncovered weaknesses in the new version, involving sensory attributes that hadn't previously been measured.

As a result, the product was returned to a formulation closer to the old one, and proved successful.