We are fresh back from Quirk’s Chicago where we had the pleasure of networking with friends, partners, and new connections.
The InsightsNow team was so excited to lead the Chocolate Challenge – an opportunity for attendees to evaluate chocolates as a way to experience how we are reimagining competitive benchmarking. How can companies better compare their products’ attributes against competitors and find opportunities to improve their market position?
The traditional approach to competitive product assessments is expensive and time-consuming, usually including blind assessments (no branding) with descriptive analysis to understand how products differ in liking, and to uncover attributes to that need improvement to elevate liking scores.
However, liking is not always the differentiator to drive choice. This is especially true with chocolate, since everyone loves chocolate! Sometimes improving marketing communications is all that‘s needed. Other times, the product needs renovation that goes beyond liking, such as to implicitly signal the claims, promise and/or brand equity through packaging and/or product renovations better.
Our panelists – Cindy Dumlau (MARS Wrigley), Nikki Wollak (Imbibe), and Marcia Young (FlavorWiki) – provided an engaging discussion about:
- The merits of testing blind vs branded
- Using descriptive analysis vs consumer attribute profiling using FlavorWiki’s patented paired attribute technique
- Using attribute-benefit association scoring using InsightsNow’s patented technique
- When and how to include choice metrics
Of course, everyone also enjoyed evaluating the dark chocolates used in the Chocolate Challenge – a demonstration questionnaire through which attendees scored various brands and experienced new question types that reinvent competitive benchmarking.
Join in the fun! Experience the future of competitive benchmarking through the sensory experience of eating chocolate. Reach out to do the Chocolate Challenge!
Panelists in the Quirk’s session:
Emir Jamil, winner of the Chocolate Challenge takes home Vosges Waterfall Truffle Collection
Dave Lundahl
CEO, InsightsNow
Cindy Dumlao
Principal Scientist - Global Sensory at Mars Wrigley Confectionery
Nikki Wollak
Senior Manager, Insights and Innovation, Imbibe, Inc.
Marcia Young
Senior Advisor, Consumer Intelligence, FlavorWiki
March 26-27, 2024
