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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 Flavor 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 flavor blueprint. If you want to create food or drink product that actually tastes amazing, get the repeat purchases and see your sales go up.
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You need a flavor strategy. I'm Manon Galizi, food scientist and flavor 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 flavor direction or fix the flavors that are not working. Welcome to another episode of my 30 days podcast challenge.
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Have you ever been in a food or drink tasting where you literally just wanted to bang your head against the wall? Maybe it's just me being a little bit drama queen as always, but it happens to me so many times.
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So today we are going to see how to avoid tasting pitfall and get the most accurate data in your food or drink product development. Let's talk about the problem first. Either you are in a tasting and there is no one to share what they are tasting.
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It's like cricket silence. People will be too scared of actually saying what they think in front of their colleagues or maybe their manager or the founder or the CEO is in the room and they are very scared of being judged.
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So they prefer single, nothing. Then they are what I called the big mouth. Sorry for my French. They are the ones who will impose their opinions on others.
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They will either try to change people's mind, they will dismiss other is that if you're not with me, you are against me mentality. You're wrong and I am right. This is what the product actually tastes like.
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And this is again what also can create people being too scared or judged of what actually they taste like when they know someone is going to overpower the other. And if you say something, they're basically going to say you're wrong.
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And I've been in tasting like that a dozen and a dozen of time and none of this tasting I've ever brought real knowledge, good decision making for food and drink product development. Never. Because when people say nothing, you don't get enough data.
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And when only one person talk, the data is obviously completely biased because they have influenced the other or they are the only one that actually said anything. Now let's talk about the solution and what you can actually implement in your food and drink business.
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It is so important for food and drink business owners and founders to create a tasting culture that is built on respect and appreciations for everyone's input. We all have different palettes and that's actually a good thing.
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It gives you a glimpse on how different people may experience your food or drink product. But for this kind of culture to happen, not only it takes time, but it also has to come from the top.
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The founder, the manager, the owners, the CEO have to give the right example in front of their team, encourage people to talk, bring down the big mouth, turning them off nicely, but make them understand that this is not about who is right, who is wrong.
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It's not a contest, this is just about I express what's going on in my mouth. That's all it is. Everyone has a different palate, everyone comes from a different background and culture and upbringing. So we will never have unanimity, we will never have 10 people in a room tasting exactly the same thing.
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And again, this is not the purpose. You just have to take the majority and make them understand their own sensitivities. So some people will say very strong words of it's very bitter, it's very sweet.
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So the one who's halting the tasting has to bring down all of these big words, these big tasting words and reminds people that we all have different sensitivities. The purpose is for each other to understand the palate of each other, understand your own palate, understand your co workers palette.
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And if someone has a very strong sensitivity about one element, so sometimes it's bitterness, for me it's licorice. Just remind people and remind people that at the end of the day this is the target consumer who is going to decide which flavor, which sample they want to go after, which one they prefer.
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This is always the easiest. If you have one or two samples and you're not sure which product to launch, then send these two products to your current consumer, ask them which one they prefer and why, Then you have a little bit more data and a little bit more confidence on the final product to launch.
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So the more data you have, the better. But remember, it has to come from the top. As the founder, the owner of the food and drink business, you have to show the good example and you have to promote respect between each other.
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If someone says it really tastes like a confectionery strawberry and someone says no, actually I think it tastes like a very fresh strawberry. There is no conflict here. It's just like okay, for you it tastes a bit more confectionary. For me it just tastes a little bit more fresh.
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There is nothing right, nothing wrong about these two comments. We just taste different. Look more the bigger picture. Look at the majority and ask for your actual target consumer what they think of your product.
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This is the end of the episode. As always, I hope this episode was helpful. You can find all of my tips around tasting flavors and Tips project development in my newsletter. So don't forget to subscribe and I will see you tomorrow for another episode. Bye.
