Sensory Science and Consumer Experience
This year’s Pangborn Symposium was a great introduction of new techniques that get at the heart of the consumer experience and to unlock the insights into ensure successful product launches. The speakers have a deep knowledge around human behavior, physiology, and techniques to measure the impact of product changes (visual, tactile, functional, taste and smell, environmental impact, sustainability, etc.) that impacts product perception and repeat purchase. The conference is always an intriguing bellwether in the state of our discipline. We look forward to it for so long and it vanishes far too quickly. Reflecting on the camaraderie of our discipline and the friendliness of our peers, some recurring themes occur. First among them is the combination of Sensory’s steps towards a more thorough understanding of the science of consumer experience.
New Techniques to understand Consumer Repeat Purchases
There are many new and exciting techniques to understand truly what drives consumer behavior when it comes to repeat purchase and ultimately product sales. Measuring product success must include not only the traditional measurement of taste and smell but all the stimuli that contributes to the whole consumer experience. New techniques such as A.I. can monitor and measure the impact of factors important to the overall consumer experience and repeat purchase such as social setting, environment, manipulation of texture characteristics, perceptual measures using consumer-friendly terms such as: natural, nutritious, indulgent, delightful, unique, satisfying, etc.
Marrying Sensory Science and Social Science
Sensory scientists are partnering with consumer insights, psychologists, and physiologist teams to ensure terms and behavioral inputs are captured when asking consumers their opinion of a given product. These techniques allow consumers to not only tell you what they like and don’t like but to have them respond to their perception of a given product in consumer-friendly terms. This gives a more complete picture of final consumer behavior and whether the product meets their expectation for products claims (i.e., healthy, nutritional, sustainability, etc.). Of course, there is a time and place for the traditional method, (consumer acceptance, product descriptions with expert tasters) however these techniques alone are not always a good predictor to product success after the first bite.
Pangborn 2025 and Consumer Experience
As we anticipation Pangborn 2025 and our rendezvous in Philadelphia, PA USA, it will be exciting to how new research paired with social and behavioral scientists and A.I. technologies can be used to bring more of this research to light. Sensory and Consumer sciences is all about what moves the needle for consumer behavior and choices made.
