The Context

Our client, a start-up beverage company, had created a product that was gaining momentum among a niche of customers. They wondered if they had a product that could resonate with a broader audience (and justify broader distribution). In addition, they were interested in optimizing the recipe to ensure its taste and appeal exceed those of category incumbents.

The Strop Solution

STROP launched a study with two elements:

• The first was a taste test that would gather important diagnostic information regarding customer’s taste preferences among the new developed concepts as well as controls that were used for benchmarking
• The second was a “consumption preference” test in which customers were asked to watch a short film – while watching they were encouraged to drink the beverages served to them previously. After the video, STROP measured the amount consumed to determine true consumer preferences

Our Impact

Taste test results provided the client concrete recommendations of small formulation changes to sweetness and color that would optimize the product for a broad array of interested customers. Preference test results provided a more accurate measure appeal of our client’s product vis-à-vis a host of competitors – collected in a non-intrusive way, not purely “stated” appeal but an actual measure of beverage consumption when facing trade-offs.