Campden BRI (Chipping Campden Ltd) has been selected as a finalist for the Market Research Society (MRS) Operations ‘Oppie’ Awards in recognition of their online qualitative work with Quorn Foods on understanding the consumer appeal and consumption journey of a Quorn Food’s meat analogue to shape its consumer centric development.
Quorn wanted to gain a better understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards a meat-free product, driven by strong product experiences. The diverse research techniques used in their qualitative study with Campden BRI provided unique comparative insights throughout the consumption journey from unpacking, preparing, cooking, eating and post-cooking clean-up of meat and meat analogue products.
By fully understanding consumers’ engagement, such as inherent expectations, delighters and detractors, the project successfully facilitated understanding of consumer expectations of a meat-free product, the user experience of cooking and eating meat-free products (Quorn and competitor) and meat equivalent, and the associated consumer journey.
Robyn Wilton is a Consumer Insights Project Manager at Campden BRI and led the project with Quorn Foods. Robyn said of the project,
“An ethnographic approach was conducted to attain rich insights into consumers expectations and experiences of consuming a meat and meat-free product. Data was collected using a combination of online tools to capture live responses through video reels and explore consumers’ first impressions, sensory experiences and eating occasions through discussion tasks, collage, mini surveys, concept evaluation and live chat groups. This synergistic approach to the research generated rich insights to aid Quorn in their product development journey, which really benefitted from putting consumers at the centre.”
Overall, the meat product was identified as the gold standard and came closest to delivering the desired ‘great consumption moment’. Campden BRI’s findings provided Quorn with clear priorities and direction for product development.
Angela Kapparis, Consumer & Sensory Science Manager at Quorn Foods said,
“There was a strong collaborative approach from the very start with the Campden BRI team, this provided an opportunity to both fine tune research approach as needed and to dial up/down time with consumers. As a result, Quorn was able to attain rich ‘in the moment’ insights on core design cues for NPD guidance and deeper understanding of consumer expectations to create new hypothesis for future product research.”
Elise Martin-Sablot, Flavour Development Manager at Quorn Foods expanded,
“This qualitive research has strongly supported our efforts to anchor consumers at the heart of our product development. This research provided golden insights focusing on aroma, flavour and texture which provides the foundational building blocks into creating the right base product for our consumers. Having a deeper understanding of consumers behaviours and interactions with products from unpacking, cooking, and eating was invaluable to developing a deeper understanding of the standard of excellence that we require to deliver to be a success with consumers.”
The MRS Oppie Awards will take place on 28th September 2023 at Drake & Morgan in London, where the winners will be announced for ten different awards, including Best Online Qual.
About Campden BRI
With over 3,000 member companies in 80 countries, Campden BRI (www.campdenbri.co.uk) is the trusted, premier, independent technical partner of choice for the food and drink industry, working with all of the top 10 UK retailers, the top 15 global food and drink manufacturers and many of the world’s biggest brands. Leveraging its 250 plus world-renowned technical experts in the UK and Europe, it helps to make food safer, tastier, healthier, affordable, sustainable, convenient and innovative, underpinned by investment in meaningful research and science.
Campden BRI offers an extensive range of services and products including consultancy, analysis and testing, processing and manufacturing troubleshooting and advice, training and legislation, regulatory and labelling advisory services. Members and clients benefit from industry-leading facilities for analysis, product and process development and sensory and consumer studies, which include a specialist brewing and wine division.