The announcement that United Biscuits is to revert to a former recipe for its digestive biscuits because some consumers had missed what the company called the ‘taste, texture and dunkability’ of the original recipe, highlights the importance of undertaking detailed and repeated consumer research before fundamental changes to favourite products are made.
A lot of the time, research will need to consider the motivation for the reformulation. It’s important to generate the right expectations so that you get an accurate reflection of how consumers will react in the real world. This is why some testing is undertaken blind and some branded.
Sometimes, though, the questions will also be dictated by whether the reformulation is being driven by internal factors such as a need to reduce cost, or an external motivation such as reduced fat or salt in response to pressure to be healthier.
History is littered with examples of new formulations of favourite products being withdrawn in favour of the original. Notable among these is New Coke, the reformulation of Coca-Cola that was introduced in 1985 to replace the original Coca-Cola. Public reaction to the change was less than favourable, leading to the subsequent reintroduction of Coke’s original formula.
It’s essential to get your research positioning right. If you tell me the product is ‘light’, I may have different reactions or expectations than if you don’t. If everyone around you is reducing salt levels in their products, you may be able to reduce salt at a faster rate than if you are alone in doing it, as other products will affect people’s taste tolerances. But you are likely to be testing products several months ahead of when they hit the shelves so research needs to take this into account.
Using qualitative product testing, where consumers work on product and concept simultaneously, ensuring that both are optimised, we can stop too much time and effort being wasted on concepts that cannot be realised, and/or products that fulfil no clear need.
Hetta Bramley is qualitative director of customer insight agency Engage Research. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
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