You had a brilliant day at an event. You sold loads of your product. People were saying lovely things. You drive home thinking, yes, this is working. But here's what most food and drink brand founders in this exact moment never think to ask. And it could completely change the way you look at that brilliant event.

Today, I want to talk about something called the echo chamber effect. And it's one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a food and drink brand.

The Botanical Tea Stand That Made Me Realise This

Not so long ago, I was at an event with loads of food and drink stands. And I came across one with a botanical range of teas. I think it was six of them. Really beautiful branding, really thoughtful concept.

So obviously, I tried most of them. And let me tell you something. They were so challenging.

One of them had a very strong garlicky note. Another one tasted more like cooked vegetables. Some of them were really earthy and some of them had a very unpleasant lingering aftertaste.

So as a flavour expert, being in the food industry for more than 10 years, I know straight away this is going to be a problem for a lot of consumers.

And actually, while I'm standing there, there are two other people who did exactly the same as I did. Separately, they tried most of the teas and they came with the same conclusion as I did.

Out of the six products, only one they liked and I liked two. It was actually the only one that was sweet. I think it was mint with something else. All of the rest they didn't like.

So I have my own trained tasting notes. I have two independent consumers giving the exact feedback. So I'm starting to talk with the founder.

And the response I got from this founder was, yes, but the product has a lot of health benefits. That's why people buy them.

The Most Dangerous Belief in Product Development

And here's the thing. I completely understand where that comes from. When you've built something, when you genuinely believe in what your product does for people, it's incredibly hard to hear that the flavours are actually not working.

So I'm not judging that at all, but I want to explain why that response, that belief, is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a food and drink brand.

And there is actually a name for it. It's called the echo chamber effect and it's not a food industry term. It comes from psychology and sociology.

The echo chamber effect describes a closed, self-reinforcing environment where you only encounter information that confirms what you already believe. And anything that contradicts that belief gets filtered out, dismissed or explained away.

And when you hear this, you're probably thinking, yes, it's social media or politics. But it happens all the time in food and drink product development.

And this is one of the main reasons why food and drink brands end up absolutely convinced that their product is amazing, is perfect, nothing needs to be changed, while their consumers are quietly not coming back.

How the Echo Chamber Builds Up

Think about how feedback works when you're a founder.

You launch your product. Your friends and family try it, they love it. Or at least they'll tell you they love it because they love you and they support you.

Your team has been working on it for months and they're obviously completely immersed in it.

Your more loyal customers at this type of event, they are the ones that stop, they are the ones that engage, they talk to you, they give you really good feedback and they buy your product.

And the people who didn't like it at this type of event, they just walk away. No comments, no feedback. They just quietly didn't buy.

So the information you are collecting without even realising is systematically biased towards the positive.

And over time, that positive feedback reinforces your belief that the product is perfect. And any negative signal that does reach you, a bad review, a bad feedback, testing or experts telling you that something is off, they just get brushed away just because it doesn't fit the story that this echo chamber has built around your product.

She Wasn't in Denial, She Was in an Echo Chamber

And this is exactly what I witnessed at that event. This founder was not in denial. She was not being difficult. She was genuinely operating inside this echo chamber that she built up over time.

She even admitted that her customers were saying the same thing. But the belief the health benefit justifies the taste was so reinforced that even consistent, real-time, negative feedback right in front of her couldn't get through.

Now, you may be thinking, okay, well, but if customers are buying, surely it's not that bad.

And this is where I really want to challenge you, because there is a big difference between someone buying your product once and someone buying your product again and again.

First Purchase vs Repeat Purchase

First purchase is driven by so many things. The packaging, the concept, the health benefit, the recommendation from a friend, the atmosphere at an event. Taste doesn't always stop the first purchase.

But you hear me saying again and again, taste is almost always the reason for second purchase or the reason there isn't one.

And when you are in retail, this becomes really critical because a customer who buys once and never comes back is not a loyal customer. And building a base of loyal customers, that's what keeps your brand growing in the FMCG sector.

And if the flavour is not right, that number will never grow as much as it could, no matter how strong your health benefits are, no matter how beautiful your packaging is.

Research shows consistently year after year, except during COVID time, that taste is the number one driver of repeat purchase in food and drink.

And yet, because of this echo chamber effect, so many food and drink brands genuinely do not have accurate, objective data on what their product actually tastes like.

How to Break Out of the Echo Chamber

So what do you actually do about this? And how do you break out of this echo chamber you may not even be aware you are in?

The first thing is to start paying attention to the people who taste your product on the stand, but they don't buy.

Don't just focus on the ones who bought your product. It can be just a rough mental note, or it can be just a little scribble on the table. Approximately how many people have tasted my product and bought it, and how many people have tasted my product and they didn't buy it.

Because that ratio, even if it's approximate, will tell you something really important.

And when someone tastes your product and they don't buy it, ask them with genuine curiosity why they didn't buy your product and if there is anything that you can improve.

Asking from this genuine curiosity mindset and tone of voice, people are more likely to tell you the truth.

And if you hear the same thing two, three, four times, that is not one person's opinion anymore. That's a pattern. And patterns are the things you cannot afford to ignore.

What Negative Feedback Actually Means

And if the negative feedback is definitely about the taste, it can mean two very different things.

Either they already have a similar product at home and they don't see why they switch to your product, or they simply didn't like the taste enough to buy. Or they didn't like the taste at all.

And both of those are really, really important pieces of information.

Because with so many products out there, you cannot afford to have an average taste or a taste that is just like everyone else's.

I always say think about your flavours as one of your USPs. Create a taste that is better than the competition. Something that makes people think, I have never tasted something quite like it before. Make them feel excited and curious.

You Need External Objective Feedback

The second thing you need is external trained objective feedback. Someone who has never tested your product before, who has no emotional investment in it, who has been in the food industry for a while.

They will be able to tell you what is working, what is not working, what needs to be changed before you scale up or you walk into retailers or investors and say, yep, my product is ready.

The brands I see struggling the most are not the ones who ask for help too early. They are the ones who ask too late after the launch, after the listing, after the reviews had already started to do the damage.

The Echo Chamber Is Not a Bad Thing, But You Need to Recognise It

The echo chamber is not a sign you are a bad founder. Of course not. It's actually a sign that you care really deeply about your product.

But caring is not the same as knowing.

And the food and drink brands that win long term are the ones who are brave enough to seek out the feedback that is uncomfortable and challenge what they believe. Because that is where the real growth is.

Break Out of the Echo Chamber

If you have a functional product and you know something isn't working but you don't what it is, start with the Flavour MOT.

You'll get objective feedback from a food scientist with 10+ years experience, detailed tasting notes, and clear recommendations on what to fix. Fast, affordable, actionable. Perfect for breaking out of the echo chamber and getting the truth about your product.

Because the brands that win long term are the ones brave enough to seek the feedback that's uncomfortable.