James E. Garrison Sensory Lab - Panels
Consumer Panels
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Consumer Acceptability/comparison tests: Determining the feasibility of whether a product or service will be acceptable to the consumer is performed through consumer acceptability tests. Cluster analysis comprises a set of statistical techniques that aim to group “objects” into homogenous subsets. The objects can be people or products. For example, cluster analysis can be used to segment people (consumers) into subsets based on their liking ratings for a set of products. Such consumer segmentation is an essential step in preference mapping, where the goal is to understand drivers of consumer liking, and cluster analysis is used to summarize differences among consumers in their likes and dislikes.
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Preference tests: These tests supply information about people's likes and dislikes of a product. They are not intended to evaluate specific characteristics, such as crunchiness or smoothness. They are subjective tests and include pair comparison, hedonic, and scoring.
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Ranking tests: If more than two samples are evaluated, a preference ranking test may be completed. Usually three to five samples are the most that can be efficiently ranked by a consumer. This test asks the consumer to order the samples based on preference, with a ranking of "1" meaning most preferred.
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Clust analysis: A statistical technique that aim to group "objects" into homogeneous subsets. For example, clust analysis can be used to segment people (consumers) into subset based on the liking ratings for a set of products. Such consumer segmentation is an essential step in preference mapping, where the goal is to understand drivers of consumer liking, and cluster analysis is used to summarize differences among consumers in their likes and dislikes.