Product Research and Development      

In today’s marketplace, choices abound in nearly every product category. Challenge lies in creating differentiated products that stand out and connect with consumers. FMSS offers a holistic approach to food and beverage product development. Utilizing a sequential process for category selection and understanding, we partner with CPG & QSR client R&D teams to define, demographically target, and develop successful products. Our Actionable Sensory® process results in specific formulation and/or recipe guidance. FMSS creates data inspired design models, models that are based on an interpretation of sensory research and consumer insights. The FMSS fact-based design approach minimizes risk and provides our clients with marketplace confidence, while shortening development time by 50%! The FMSS team takes pride in innovating and optimizing products that prosper in the marketplace, produce positive ROI, and create brand loyalists.

Descriptive Sensory Analysis

FMSS believes that remarkable product design is multi-sensory, and, that a descriptive sensory approach is critical to innovating successful and compelling consumer products. FMSS descriptive sensory leadership partners with clients’ Marketing, Sensory, R&D, Consumer Insights, Concept and Culinary teams to navigate and define the opportunity whitespace or “fuzzy front-end.” Understanding the competitive landscape and identifying opportunity spaces for strategic product design are pre-cursors to product development. Our expert descriptive assessors rigorously detail product attributes; the attributes are then transitioned to bench-actionable outcomes. After descriptive insight data is collected, the FMSS design and culinary teams create written product development models and model-specific physical prototypes that reflect the marketplace opportunity space.  Prototypes then transition to consumer testing.

Featured Service: Sensory at the Source®

FMSS offers a mobile sensory lab, where we provide our Sensory at the Source® service. This custom approach leverages our trained descriptive accessors, and is utilized nationwide to garner competitive intelligence at locations serving freshly prepared foods and beverages.

Consumer Research

At FMSS, we believe that consumer-centric thinking leads to product profitability and enduring brand success. By co-creating products with the consumer, we identify the product attributes that affect preference decisions.  Behavioral, emotional, and liking responses to product stimuli are taken into account. The approach minimizes the risk associated with consumer rejection. We utilize qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid (qual/quant) approaches to understand consumer preference, inform product refinement, and validate prototypes. FMSS’ holistic approach includes central location testing (CLT) as well as in-home use tests (iHUT). Combined with advanced statistical analysis and experimental designs, our systematic approach is efficient, results in products that connect with consumers, and leads to long-term success.