Standards Development

Scope

The scope of this proposal is to propose standard methods for partitioning a cohort of consumers into subgroups, called consumer segments, based on specified criteria. The criteria fall into two major categories;

1) a priori criteria, such as age, gender, geography, etc. and

2) preference/liking-based criteria, such as subgroups of consumers with similar patterns of liking scores across a set of test products. 

Purpose

The standard will provide guidance to assist researchers in determining, for example, if all consumers can be satisfied by a single product or if multiple products will be required to address the varied preferences of consumers. Basing product development decisions on the average ratings of the total respondent base in a consumer test incurs the risk that the total respondent base is composed of subgroups of consumers with different preferences for the test products, such that the average ratings of the total respondent base do not represent the true levels of liking of any of the subgroups. As a result, researchers may be misled into developing products that will not satisfy any of the target consumers. Identifying and characterizing consumer segments provides researchers with a more accurate understanding of the preferences of the consumer group to which they are targeting their product. Consumer product companies spend significant amounts of money on consumer product tests. The information from the tests is used to make critical decisions about the direction of the companies’ product development efforts. Identifying and characterizing consumer segments is critical to ensuring that product development efforts are targeted correctly. Identifying and characterizing consumer segments ensures that consumer product test results are interpreted correctly.