New research approach for consumer brands puts the customer at the heart of new product development.
‘EROS’ identifies the Rules of Success for a new product, putting customers at the forefront of early stage product development to help shape successful products quickly and ‘right first time’.
MMR Research Worldwide (MMR) has developed a new one-day workshop-style research technique which gets switched-on consumers together with a company’s marketing and R&D teams. These stakeholders work closely together through a semi-structured process, reaching a detailed understanding of what a product needs to deliver to appeal strongly to consumers and fit perfectly against a brand’s intended market position.
‘EROS’, for Early Rules of Success, uses MMR’s sensory, proposition development and Brandphonics emotional profiling techniques to understand how consumers experience products and how they attach meaning to them, ensuring ‘consonance’ between product, concept and brand. MMR then translates this information into actionable guidelines for the product development and marketing teams – including a rulebook for success in the wider market context and help in the formulation of a detailed and targeted product development brief. EROS has been developed predominantly for MMR’s clients in the food, drink and personal care sectors, although it is applicable to any product which has strong sensory attributes and rouses emotion.
“We see many companies bringing the consumer in towards the end of the product development process to simply validate a product or to score their “most liked” formulation from a final shortlist. This is too late,” says Mat Lintern, managing director of MMR Research. “In today’s competitive markets, a successful product is often one that represents the best possible match between the sensory experience of a product and the intended positioning of a brand. It’s about more than liking, and EROS really helps our clients to understand how to design products to leverage emotional connections and create truly differentiated and rewarding propositions.”
MMR has already completed EROS projects for some food, drink and personal care manufacturers. Food brands are realising its potential not only for new product development, but also for product renovation and better category understanding.
“EROS is being considered for a wide variety of reasons,” says Lintern. “For some, it creates a very practical framework for bringing marketing, R&D and consumers closer together at the early stages of new product development. Others want to revitalise a product or extend the range but don't know how wide to throw the net; EROS can measure this for them, showing them how far to go while still protecting the brand’s sensory signature. Others are looking to identify the emotional associations and sensory cues of their products so they can develop the most compelling communications.”
EROS calls heavily on MMR’s experience in sensory science and its ability to screen consumers for sensory perception and an ability to articulate their sensory experiences. Typically, only one third of category-users possess the required skills to become an EROS ‘Innovation Explorer’. In contrast to most qualitative research, the consumers are made fully aware of the goals of the exercise and work as partners with the clients in the process.
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About MMR Research Worldwide
MMR Research Worldwide (MMR) is a leading research partner for food, drink and personal care companies with offices in the UK, USA, Singapore and China. With profound expertise in sensory research, product testing, packaging innovation, NPD and emotion-based research, MMR provides innovative, creative and scientifically-robust research and is a trusted advisor on all product, brand and packaging strategy decisions. MMR’s clients have access to a variety of unique proprietary research assets including Brandphonics® – an approach to identify what influences consumer choice – and in-house sensory facilities. MMR is part of the MMR Group which is a privately-owned research company employing in excess of 130 people. Founded in 1989 by Professor David Thomson, the Group is headquartered in Oxfordshire, UK. www.mmr-research.com
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