Understanding 4 Consumer Personas for R&D that Meets Business Goals

If the goal in New Product Development (NPD) is "trying to please everyone," it might be too broad and highly unrealistic. In the real world, consumers have vastly different needs, behaviors, and taste expectations.

To prevent research and recipe development from losing direction, creating Consumer Personas—or profiling target consumers into 4 main groups—will help R&D and Marketing teams select Sensory Evaluation tools much more sharply and accurately.

Persona 1: Current User 

These are the people who sustain your business. They add your product to their basket without a second thought. This group can be further divided into 3 levels:

1. Regular User: Consumes normally, about 1-2 times a week.

2. Heavy User: Consumes regularly, cannot live without it, and buys frequently.

3. Brand Lover: Die-hard fans, consume the most often, and are completely loyal to your brand, refusing to open up to others.

• Sensory Action Plan: This group possesses highly accurate "taste memories." If the company aims to reduce raw material costs or change production processes, this group must be used for a Difference Test to ensure they do not detect any changes that compromise quality.

Persona 2: Lapsed User (The Brand Switchers) 

These are consumers who "used to" consume our brand regularly but have currently stopped buying or switched to a competitor (Brand Switching).

• Sensory Action Plan: To win this group back, you must identify the "Deal-Breaker." Sometimes, the flaw isn't in the original recipe but in actual consumption behaviors that differ from the lab setting. A clear example is the failure of New Coke: although it won by a landslide in sipping tests, when consumers bought it and drank the full-volume amount, the excessive sweetness became cloying and didn't suit everyday consumption. Bringing Lapsed Users back for Descriptive Analysis to uncover these blind spots is the key to recovering the situation.

Persona 3: Prospecting User (The New Consumers) 

New consumer segments the brand wants to reach or new target markets we want to expand into (e.g., vegans, younger generations, or export markets).

• Sensory Action Plan: This group has no prior attachment or brand memory with us. Testing must focus on creating a strong first impression using a Preference Test to evaluate their liking and satisfaction scores. This determines if our new innovation is appealing enough to attract them.

Persona 4: Competitive User (The Rival's Fans) 

Consumers who regularly use products in this category but are loyal fans of "competitor brands."

• Sensory Action Plan: If the business goal is to capture Market Share, we must invite this group as sensory panelists for Competitor Benchmarking. By comparing our product head-to-head with the market leader, we can uncover their ideal "taste specs" and identify any gaps in our brand that need immediate fixing.

Conclusion: Choosing the Right Persona Leads to Testing Success 

Understanding all 4 Consumer Personas will help the R&D team develop products exactly on target by properly matching the sensory panelists with the product's objective. WeSense is dedicated to designing Sensory Evaluation processes to ensure that every tasting test leads to tangible results and generates real sales.