Abstract:

A project team selecting products for a category appraisal must contend with a number of competing objectives. One of these objectives is to obtain information on the performance of its own products and those of its competitors. This usually leads to extensive discussion and debate among the product development and market research members regarding the inclusion of different products in a study with a limited number of product slots. A second objective, often overlooked and of more interest to the research analysts, is the need to span the drivers of liking sensory space so that a robust account of the resulting maps is obtainable. Such an account is essential if the model that underlies the landscape will be used to predict the acceptability of products not tested in the original study.