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If you're a food and drink brand and your product isn't performing the way it should, maybe the sales have slowed down or the review. Keep mentioning that the taste is not that great. I have created something to help you. It's called the Flavour Blueprint. It's a free guide that based on the process I use with my clients to fix their underperforming products.
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If you're tired of guessing and you want clarity before another batch, download your free flavour blueprint. If you want to create food or drink products that actually taste amazing, get the repeat purchases and see your sales go up.
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You need the flavour strategy. I'm Manon Galizzi, food scientist and flavour expert and in this podcast I share what I've learned from helping food and drink brands create new products from scratch. Choose the right flavour direction or fix the flavours that are not working. Welcome to another episode of my 30 days podcast challenge.
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Today I answer a question I had on Instagram which was my functional food product isn't selling. What should I do? You have two ways of looking at the problem. If people don't buy at all your product, it can be done to your branding, your messaging, your visibility or your price or anything around that.
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But if people bought your product once or twice and they stop buying, the number one reason is always taste and flavour, nothing else. So in this case, forget about anything else.
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Forget about your branding, your packaging, anything like focus on the taste of your product. The truth is people want healthier and more functional product with a lot of health benefits. But if your product doesn't taste good, good, they won't buy it again even if it has tons of health benefits.
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Remember, you're not selling a medicine. You can't get away with that. You are selling a food or drink product. Remember why people buy a food or drink product is for something that is good is to fulfill an emotion is to have a pick me up.
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They maybe want to offer your product to someone they love. Think about Christmas is coming soon and if you don't believe me, I can give you an example with one of my clients. So this client I've been selling for more than 10 years, plant based and clean label, spoon nutrition product.
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So protein shake, electrolytes, vitamins, these kind of things with a lot of health benefits. But they never focus on the taste. They just took some of the commons flavours like vanilla and strawberry. They picked almost randomly some flavours and sales were fine because at that time there were not a lot of functional and clean label and vegan type of product, especially in the spoon nutrition area.
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So the cells were absolutely fine. They were thriving until recently because the market is more and more saturated with a lot of very similar product. And they focus on health benefits.
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So having health benefits at the center of your selling position and your messaging is not enough, especially if you want to have repeat purchase. It also have to taste good. And more and more I see on Instagram, on LinkedIn Food and Drink brands, they focus on the flavours, they focus on the taste because they know it's not enough anymore.
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So it's the war. And around flavours, our product tastes the best. We have this taste award, and this and this. It's the war not only about benefits and healthier product and good for your product, it's the war of which one of these products tastes the best.
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Let's talk now about the solution. You have to listen to your target consumer feedback and only your target consumers. Remember, we are not trying to please everyone. You won't be able to please everyone. So focus on pleasing only your target consumers.
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You have to pivot and adjust your recipes and your flavours. Look at the reviews, look at the comments, have one to one with your target consumers to understand a little bit better what can be approved, what is going wrong?
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What are they not really liking your product? They stop buying. When you have enough data around how you can improve your food or drink product, then tweak the flavours and other characteristics. Remember, one doesn't go without the other.
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So it's not just about changing the sweetness or the saltiness or changing the flavouring. If you change one, you may have to change the other. Remember about ingredient interaction. Most of the time the problems around flavours are that the flavour profile is not right for the product.
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So for example, I see a lot of creamy fruity drinks like electrolyte or flavoured water and it just doesn't feel right. You want something that is much light, uplifting. So having maybe a fresher strawberry, rather than something that is very creamy, the brain doesn't really understand like what, why it doesn't fit.
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Trust me, it just doesn't fit. So the flavour profile is not right for your product. The other problem, very common is one of the flavour overpower the other. So if for example you have a lemon and lime, then if the lemon overpower the lime, or if the lime overpower the lemon, if the flavours are not balanced, that is always a problem.
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And the last one is when the flavour is too weak and therefore it's not strong enough and you can't really Taste it, Think about value for their money. When people buy your food and drink product, they want to have strong enough flavour so they know what it is.
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If it's supposed to taste like a strawberry and it doesn't, and you can't really taste the flavours, they're gonna be disappointed. I know I am. So once you have, let's say, two final samples and you're not sure which one to go for, then you ask again your customers.
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You send them free samples, for example, you ask them opinion and which one they prefer and why. And you repeat this process until you reach the sweet spot. Remember, you won't be able to please everyone.
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So try to fix a certain KPI. Let's say for example, 60 or 70% of your consumers you ask pick the same sample so then you know when to stop. Because if, again, if you try to please everyone, you will have to do this again and again, again and again.
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This is just impossible. You have to understand what is going through the head of your target consumers when they buy your product and the consumer journey and the consumer experience when they eat or drink your product.
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So what is the experience where they have the product in, what are they looking? What are they looking for? Is it easy for them to buy your products or all of that journey until they actually have it in their mouth and then what is their experience?
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You have to understand everything about the target consumers and how to make that journey as much smooth and easy and pleasant as possible. One of the bad example I can give you, I was recently at the Bread and Jam Feel Good submit and I could try a lot of different products on display.
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So I tested the product and I commented on the fact that not only the packaging didn't mention the flavour. So I had to turn, look at the back of pack to see that it was a blueberry flavour, for example.
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But I was looking for ages. It was very small at the back of the pack and I also mentioned that the flavours were too weak. I couldn't taste very much the flavours. So I know I'm not the target consumers.
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But as an expert, it was more to give them an overview of what may go wrong and understand more the market. And oh boy, it didn't go very well. They were basically very angry at me and they were saying that consumers will only buy their product for the health benefits.
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So on the front of PAC it was saying immune or relax or I can't remember what the health benefits was. And they were saying that basically people will buy only because they want something to boost Their immune system.
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They wanted something only to relax. And the flavour was secondary, even for the taste. And that, to me is a big mistake. And it's telling me that that person do not understand the consumer journey.
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And the flavour is actually one of the most important aspect of your product. An example I can give you. For me, for teas, for example, I hate licorice. I hate licorice. So any product that has a strong stevia in it, I can pick it up easily and absolutely horrible.
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I can pick up the licorice, note the aniseed notes, and I just. It makes me gag. I'm not gonna lie. It's one of these, really. My body really react really strongly to it. And a lot of teas and herbal teas actually use licorice roots to increase a little bit the sweetness.
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But because I know I hate licorice, I always have to look at the back of pack and look at which flavour, and look at the ingredient list. And if they have licorice, because I've tried it so many times, and every time like, oh, no, I can taste it.
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They have licorice in there. No, no, no. I had to drink a lot of water to get rid of the taste and never buy that product ever again. So if consumers, for example, hate banana, I know so many people that hate the flavours of banana. They would like to know what flavours they're going to buy.
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So basically, if you don't listen to your target consumers, your business is. Is dead. This is the end of our episode. As always, I hope this episode was helpful. You can find all of my tips around tasting flavours and product development in my newsletter.
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So don't forget to subscribe and I will see you tomorrow for another episode. Bye.
