Marketers (and many others) have a tendency to see sensory testing as something relevant only to the food industry. I have had many marketers comment – “Oh yes, you do sensory testing – I’m not in the food business”. Clearly their image of sensory testing is one associated with people in white coats, small hutch-like booths where individuals sit in silence and munch their way through various food samples. Whoever limited it to food? Not me, or any of my colleagues who work in the very widest possible range of industries.
Food is a sensory experience but so is a firework display, the smell of a rose or the feel of a soft fabric. Sensory testing refers to all the senses. The best way I can describe the field is one which seeks to measure perceptions of products, concepts or services. It has a large technical tool bag to assist our understanding of customer perceptions and reactions to ideas and products. The challenge for all of us is to use the tools to help less traditional areas of product development.
Tell me about your “impossible” product which needs assessment and see what ideas I have!
Brilliant Reflections/Consumer Research Specialists 