The product development process 105 Properties Physical Chemical Microbiological Sensory Nutritional Company's basic functional product aging Aesthetics Brand Price Advertising Total company product Competitors Environment Use Media Society Communication Consumer's product ig. 3.5 The total food product(Source: From Schaffner, Schroder and Earle, Food Marketing: An International Perspective, o 1998, by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies) benefits and psychological benefits-and these need to be integrated into the final consumer preference Product profile, the group of product characteristics which is the unique identification of the product- it is the product's DNA or fingerprint In developing a product strategy to introduce meat pies to Malaysia by a New Zealand company, the activity was to identify the product benefits required by Chinese and Malaysian consumers, three techniques were used focus group consumer survey, and multidimensional scaling(MDS)as shown in Table 3.2 Table 3.2 Product benefits for meat pies in Malaysia Multidimensional Focus groupT Consumer survey scaling Taste(sweet-savoury) Convenience Taste Product type(bread-non-bread) Freshness Cleanliness Origin of product (local-foreign Smell Freshness Local flavour Healthy(good for you Healthiness Convenient to obtain Chinese and Malay women in Malaysia. t Malaysian students in New Zealand Source: After Lai. 1987
benefits and psychological benefits – and these need to be integrated into the final consumer preference. • Product profile, the group of product characteristics which is the unique identification of the product – it is the product’s DNA or fingerprint. In developing a product strategy to introduce meat pies to Malaysia by a New Zealand company, the activity was to identify the product benefits required by Chinese and Malaysian consumers; three techniques were used – focus group, consumer survey, and multidimensional scaling (MDS) as shown in Table 3.2. Fig. 3.5 The total food product (Source: From Schaffner, Schroder and Earle, Food Marketing: An International Perspective, 1998, by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies). Table 3.2 Product benefits for meat pies in Malaysia Multidimensional Focus group Consumer survey* scaling* Taste (sweet–savoury) Convenience Taste Product type (bread–non-bread) Freshness Cleanliness Origin of product (local–foreign) Smell Freshness Local flavour Healthy (good for you) Healthiness Convenient to obtain * Chinese and Malay women in Malaysia. Malaysian students in New Zealand. Source: After Lai, 1987. The product development process 105
106 Food product development The consumers compared the pie, particularly in the mds, against the sweet and savoury baked/fried snacks already eaten in Malaysia. The MDS identified the main characteristics, and the focus group and the consumer survey identified general product benefits. To design the products more information was needed, and a sensory ideal product profile was identified by a small group of the consumers tasting the preliminary experimental products. The consumers sensory characteristics were 7 for the pie top, 5 for the pie bottom and 14 for the pie filling. The five scales for the pastry bottom with the consumers' ideal scores re shown in Fig. 3.6 The scales with their ideal points were included in the product design specification. The product profile needed to be analysed in two ways- what do the consumers mean by an ideal score of 5 for the pastry thickness? Can a physical measurement mimic this sensory characteristic? It is easy for thickness Texture can also be measured in a physical instrument, but it may be necessary to train a panel to judge'flour smell and oiliness'unless a chemical test can be found for them The important product benefits may include the type of raw materials and rocessing,as in organic foods and environmentally friendly foods, as well as he recognised consumer concerns of nutrition, safety, eating qualities and the psychological benefits such as prestige and fun(Earle and Earle, 2000). There has been a concentration on sensory benefits as shown by the rapid development of sensory science but this needs to be made much wider to include all benefits An example of a product concept strongly based on the psychological needs is described in Box 3. 1, a product concept for pet foods The concept of the package often follows the more traditional path of industrial design, developing a product architecture that defines the major subsystems of the package such as the inner, outer, closure, seals. Product architecture can also be useful in building up products such as complete meals with various meat, vegetables and noodles in some type of display pack. Thickness of pastry very thin Texture of pastry soft, crumbly ough, hard Saltiness of pastry absense of alty flavour Greasiness/oiliness of pastry sense of greasiness/oiliness Flour smell strong smel flour smell of flour I is the ideal score Fig 3.6 A product profile for pastry(Source: After Lai, 1997)
The consumers compared the pie, particularly in the MDS, against the sweet and savoury baked/fried snacks already eaten in Malaysia. The MDS identified the main characteristics, and the focus group and the consumer survey identified general product benefits. To design the products more information was needed, and a sensory ideal product profile was identified by a small group of the consumers tasting the preliminary experimental products. The consumers’ sensory characteristics were 7 for the pie top, 5 for the pie bottom and 14 for the pie filling. The five scales for the pastry bottom with the consumers’ ideal scores are shown in Fig. 3.6. The scales with their ideal points were included in the product design specification. The product profile needed to be analysed in two ways – what do the consumers mean by an ideal score of 5 for the pastry thickness? Can a physical measurement mimic this sensory characteristic? It is easy for thickness. Texture can also be measured in a physical instrument, but it may be necessary to train a panel to judge ‘flour smell’ and ‘oiliness’ unless a chemical test can be found for them. The important product benefits may include the type of raw materials and processing, as in organic foods and environmentally friendly foods, as well as the recognised consumer concerns of nutrition, safety, eating qualities and the psychological benefits such as prestige and fun (Earle and Earle, 2000). There has been a concentration on sensory benefits as shown by the rapid development of sensory science but this needs to be made much wider to include all benefits. An example of a product concept strongly based on the psychological needs is described in Box 3.1, a product concept for pet foods. The concept of the package often follows the more traditional path of industrial design, developing a product architecture that defines the major subsystems of the package such as the inner, outer, closure, seals. Product architecture can also be useful in building up products such as complete meals with various meat, vegetables and noodles in some type of display pack. Fig. 3.6 A product profile for pastry (Source: After Lai, 1997). 106 Food product development
The product development process 107 Box 3.1 Four-legged trends How many times have you seen a cat prey on a chicken or, heaven forbid, a turkey? But then cat food with blackbird or field mouse doesn't sound very discerning to a petfood shopper, Let there be no doubt that Britain's petfood shoppers are discerning and willing to show the colour of their money to satisfy their pets taste buds The dominant trend over recent years has been the humanisation of petfood Supermarkets stock an awesome display, encompassing not just a plethora of brands but also variants. A cosseted cat can start the day with a bowl of muesli and a splash of cat milk, enjoy chicken in jelly for lunch and perhaps have some tuna for supper. Meanwhile, the family dog can enjoy beef chunks at noon and 'a complete dry meal to round off the day. In essence, the petfood sector has expanded to cater for owners perceptions of what their pet equires. This is echoed in pack design. In design terms, humanisation manifests itself by mimicking the same brand- building cues used for human brands. For example, Trix dog snacks bear a triking visual similarity to the human treat Minstrels, or equally they could be mistaken for a beef flavour packet of crisps. Similarly the packaging of Whiskas cat milk seems to draw inspiration from Carnation long-life milk There is also a move towards injecting appetite appeal into petfood packaging, with stylised displays of the product depicted on-pack. The use of expensive illustrations and top food photographers confirms this move. It has reached the point where the only difference between human and petfood packaging is the animal images on-pack The way forward for packaging design in the petfood sector is to aim for the right balance between traditional petfood brand values and those of the tinned food destined for human consumption. Yes, appetite appeal is a very important sales tool in this arena, but the trade-off shouldnt be a loss of hims and humour Source: From Petrie, 1995 by permission of Marketing Week, published by Centaur Communications( London) Think break For the project identified in the previous Think Break: 1. Generate five ideas for new products within the area of the aims 2. Consider these product ideas against the aims and constraints for the product and choose the three most suitable products
Box 3.1 Four-legged trends How many times have you seen a cat prey on a chicken or, heaven forbid, a turkey? But then cat food with blackbird or field mouse doesn’t sound very discerning to a petfood shopper. Let there be no doubt that Britain’s petfood shoppers are discerning and willing to show the colour of their money to satisfy their pet’s taste buds. The dominant trend over recent years has been the humanisation of petfood. Supermarkets stock an awesome display, encompassing not just a plethora of brands but also variants. A cosseted cat can start the day with a bowl of muesli and a splash of cat milk, enjoy chicken in jelly for lunch and perhaps have some tuna for supper. Meanwhile, the family dog can enjoy beef chunks at noon and ‘a complete dry meal’ to round off the day. In essence, the petfood sector has expanded to cater for owners’ perceptions of what their pet requires. This is echoed in pack design. In design terms, humanisation manifests itself by mimicking the same brandbuilding cues used for human brands. For example, Trix dog snacks bear a striking visual similarity to the human treat Minstrels, or equally they could be mistaken for a beef flavour packet of crisps. Similarly the packaging of Whiskas cat milk seems to draw inspiration from Carnation long-life milk. There is also a move towards injecting ‘appetite appeal’ into petfood packaging, with stylised displays of the product depicted on-pack. The use of expensive illustrations and top food photographers confirms this move. It has reached the point where the only difference between human and petfood packaging is the animal images on-pack. The way forward for packaging design in the petfood sector is to aim for the right balance between traditional petfood brand values and those of the tinned food destined for human consumption. Yes, appetite appeal is a very important sales tool in this arena, but the trade-off shouldn’t be a loss of whimsy and humour. Source: From Petrie, 1995 by permission of Marketing Week, published by Centaur Communications (London). Think break For the project identified in the previous Think Break: 1. Generate five ideas for new products within the area of the aims. 2. Consider these product ideas against the aims and constraints for the product and choose the three most suitable products. The product development process 107
108 Food product development 3. With some consumers build simple product idea concepts for these product ideas 4. Expand the product idea concepts with knowledge of the processing, marketing and the technical characteristics of the product. Select the two most promising product idea concepts with the consumers 5. Finally with the consumer group, build product concepts for design of the two remaining products 3.1.3 Product design specification Building the product design specification from the product concept includes both research and design. Market research provides more details about the target market characteristics and size, the methods of marketing that might be used and the position of the product as compared with the competitors. The market study is progressing into consumer and retailer surveys in consumer marketing and customer surveys in industrial marketing. The technical research involves the searching of the scientific and technological literature, including patents, as a preliminary investigation into the possible products, processing and physical distribution. The designer is starting to create the products and often needs to make models so that ideas on the product characteristics can develop. The modelling can be on paper or computer, and some preliminary laboratory research makes the products on a small scale. Of course in incremental development, the basic product is already known and both the marketing and the technical research, and product model building are much less and indeed may not be done at all The product design specification has for a long time played an important part in design in other industries and now is considered the area that has a major effect on quickening development and ensuring product success. The use of computer techniques such as CAD(computer aided design), CAID (computer aided industrial design), CAM(computer aided modelling), especially with more modern versions, has given the opportunity to design on the computer and to present the product ideas on the computer to other project members and even to consumers. The computer designs can be transferred into engineering design and linked to small-scale production units producing the experimental prototype for the consumer to discuss. Some of the newer tools in product design are shown in Table 3.3 All of these new developments are changing industrial design and making it wicker. These techniques can be used for food packaging and for a structural food such as a loaf of bread and snacks. Snacks have already been designed using earlier CAD versions. Word descriptions of food product characteristics have been used in computer techniques such as conjoint analysis for a number of years to build and evaluate food product concepts(Moore et al., 1999). The question is how far can the food industry use computer design build product concepts and product design specifications? Certainly the
3.1.3 Product design specification Building the product design specification from the product concept includes both research and design. Market research provides more details about the target market characteristics and size, the methods of marketing that might be used and the position of the product as compared with the competitors. The market study is progressing into consumer and retailer surveys in consumer marketing and customer surveys in industrial marketing. The technical research involves the searching of the scientific and technological literature, including patents, as a preliminary investigation into the possible products, processing and physical distribution. The designer is starting to create the products and often needs to make models so that ideas on the product characteristics can develop. The modelling can be on paper or computer, and some preliminary laboratory research makes the products on a small scale. Of course in incremental development, the basic product is already known and both the marketing and the technical research, and product model building are much less and indeed may not be done at all. The product design specification has for a long time played an important part in design in other industries and now is considered the area that has a major effect on quickening development and ensuring product success. The use of computer techniques such as CAD (computer aided design), CAID (computer aided industrial design), CAM (computer aided modelling), especially with more modern versions, has given the opportunity to design on the computer and to present the product ideas on the computer to other project members and even to consumers. The computer designs can be transferred into engineering design and linked to small-scale production units producing the experimental prototype for the consumer to discuss. Some of the newer tools in product design are shown in Table 3.3. All of these new developments are changing industrial design and making it quicker. These techniques can be used for food packaging and for a structural food such as a loaf of bread and snacks. Snacks have already been designed using earlier CAD versions. Word descriptions of food product characteristics have been used in computer techniques such as conjoint analysis for a number of years to build and evaluate food product concepts (Moore et al., 1999). The question is how far can the food industry use computer design techniques in building up product concepts and product design specifications? Certainly the 3. With some consumers build simple product idea concepts for these product ideas. 4. Expand the product idea concepts with knowledge of the processing, marketing and the technical characteristics of the product. Select the two most promising product idea concepts with the consumers. 5. Finally with the consumer group, build product concepts for design of the two remaining products. 108 Food product development
The product development process 109 Table 3.3 Tools at the cutting edge of product design ware Describes both the exterior and interior of the product in three dimensions irtual-reality desig Aid interaction of the computer models in a manner that resembles real life using Tests new design concepts with models using plastic materials such as polyamide/epoxy Collaborative design tool Use an internal Net or the Internet so that people can design together Source: After Schmitz. 2000 ersonal computer is being used actively in the product concept stage- Internet for desk research, software for interpretation of statistical market research, computer-based literature searches and databases(Hegenbart, 1997). Newer developments are the use of detailed product models of present and past products to use as an information base to design new products onsdottir et al 1998) What are specifications for product design? The product concept states clearly the needs and wants of the consumer or customers, but it does not provide specific guidance for design of the product in technical terms. It is often subjective and leaves room for different interpretations. Product concept engineering interprets the consumers' product characteristics into measurable terms, metrics, which can be tested in the product prototypes to see if the design is meeting the specification. An individual specification consists of a metric and a value, for example protein content between 20 and 30%, or thickness between 0 I and 0.2 cm, or an ideal target value with an acceptable range, for example, strength of onion flavour, 7, range 6.5 to 7.5 on a linear flavour scale. Metrics and their values should be critical to the consumer consumer-acceptable ideal value and range of values, practical and capable of being achieved The product design specification is a set of individual specifications. Too many metrics should not be included, as this will limit the area in which the designer works and cause problems with too much testing. Only the metrics recognised as important by the consumer, or needed for the consumer such afety, or for food regulations, are usually included, but sometimes there may be specifications dictated by the process or the distribution. Also it is important to choose metrics that are achievable, for example it may not be possible to choo itamin C as a metric because heat processing conditions needed to ensure a
personal computer is being used actively in the product concept stage – Internet for desk research, software for interpretation of statistical market research, computer-based literature searches and databases (Hegenbart, 1997). Newer developments are the use of detailed product models of present and past products to use as an information base to design new products (Jonsdottir et al., 1998). What are specifications for product design? The product concept states clearly the needs and wants of the consumer or customers, but it does not provide specific guidance for design of the product in technical terms. It is often subjective and leaves room for different interpretations. Product concept engineering interprets the consumers’ product characteristics into measurable terms, metrics, which can be tested in the product prototypes to see if the design is meeting the specification. An individual specification consists of a metric and a value, for example protein content between 20 and 30%; or thickness between 0.1 and 0.2 cm, or an ideal target value with an acceptable range, for example, strength of onion flavour, 7, range 6.5 to 7.5 on a linear flavour scale. Metrics and their values should be: • critical to the consumer; • consumer-acceptable ideal value and range of values; • practical and capable of being achieved. The product design specification is a set of individual specifications. Too many metrics should not be included, as this will limit the area in which the designer works and cause problems with too much testing. Only the metrics recognised as important by the consumer, or needed for the consumer such as safety, or for food regulations, are usually included, but sometimes there may be specifications dictated by the process or the distribution. Also it is important to choose metrics that are achievable, for example it may not be possible to choose vitamin C as a metric because heat processing conditions needed to ensure a Table 3.3 Tools at the cutting edge of product design 3D solid modelling software Describes both the exterior and interior of the product in three dimensions Virtual-reality design tools Aid interaction of the computer models in a manner that resembles real life using stereoscopic eyewear which tracks with the computer Rapid-prototyping Tests new design concepts with models using plastic materials such as polyamide/epoxy resins Collaborative design tools Use an internal Net or the Internet so that people can design together. Source: After Schmitz, 2000. The product development process 109