Client
A leading frozen food brand looking to benchmark its products against key competitors and understand how consumers perceived its offerings when brand influence was completely removed.
Background / Challenge
In highly competitive food categories, brand recognition can significantly influence consumer perception. While a strong brand may drive trial, long-term success
ultimately depends on the product itself.
The client wanted to answer a critical question:
Would consumers still choose our product if they didn’t know it was ours?
Before investing in reformulation, product improvements, or market expansion, the brand needed objective, statistically reliable insights into how its products performed against competing offerings – and which sensory attributes truly influenced consumer preference.
The objective was not simply to identify a winning product, but to uncover the drivers of purchase intent and overall liking that could shape future product development.
Approach
Thinking Forks designed and executed a comprehensive Consumer Preference Mapping Study to eliminate brand bias and generate actionable product insights.
Blind Sensory Evaluation
The study was designed to ensure every evaluation reflected the product alone.
- All products were tested under blind conditions, with no brand or packaging cues
- Samples were presented one at a time to maintain independent evaluations
- Serving order was rotated across respondents to eliminate sequence bias
- Controlled testing conditions ensured consistency across all evaluations
Commercial Benchmark Framework
Before consumer testing began, clear success criteria were established to define commercial competitiveness.
Products were benchmarked against the following parameters:
- Mean overall liking score above 8 on a 10-point scale
- At least 80% positive ratings (scores of 8–10)
- Less than 10% rejection (scores of 1–5)
- Performance at par with or exceeding the benchmark product at 95% statistical confidence
This framework ensured the results could directly support product and business decisions.
Consumer & Sensory Analysis
The study was conducted among active frozen food consumers:
- Men and women
- SEC A households
- 25–45 years of age
- Regular purchasers and consumers of frozen food products
Products from five competing brands were evaluated across six critical sensory attributes:
- Taste
- Aroma
- Flavour
- Juiciness
- Texture
- After-taste
These attributes were analysed against two key business outcomes:
- Overall liking
- Purchase intent
Using correlation analysis, Thinking Forks identified which sensory parameters most strongly influenced consumer behaviour and where product improvements would deliver the greatest commercial impact.
Results Delivered
- Independent benchmarking of 5 competing frozen food brands
- Robust statistical framework enabling confident product comparison
- Identification of after-taste as the strongest negative driver of both overall liking and purchase intent
- Actionable sensory insights to guide future product optimisation and reformulation
- Clear understanding of competitive strengths and weaknesses before market intervention
- Data-driven recommendations that reduced guesswork and enabled more focused product development
Rather than relying on assumptions, the study gave the client precise evidence of what consumers actually experienced—and what truly influenced their decision to buy again.
Closing Statement
At Thinking Forks, we combine sensory science, consumer research, and statistical analysis to help brands make better product decisions. By understanding what consumers genuinely experience—not just what they say—we enable businesses to optimise products, reduce development risk, and build stronger competitive advantage.
