The Ideal Pair Method, an Alternative to the Ideal Profile Method Based on Pairwise Comparisons: Application to a Panel of Children

Abstract

Studying consumers’ ideals is an efficient way to improve or develop products. The Ideal Profile Method is a method able to answer that issue by providing a sensory definition of both the ideal and the real products. This definition is based on the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis method that can represent a problem, as it may not be practicable with all kinds of panel. How to proceed if the use of the Ideal Profile Method is inappropriate? We propose a new methodology: the Ideal Pair Method, the notion of pair being used as the second item of two, in relation to the first one. This methodology can be considered as an alternative to the Ideal Profile Method based on pairwise comparisons. We will present the protocol and the statistical analysis of the data. The methodology will be demonstrated through an experiment realized with a panel of children. Practical Applications The Ideal Pair Method (IPaM) leads to the description of the ideal product of the panel and is applicable to situations where the conventional method (i.e., the Ideal Profile Method) is not suitable as it is not adapted to the nature of the panel. Thus, IPaM can be very useful if we want to reveal the ideal product of children (example in this article), seniors, etc. The methodology can be applied to any kind of products: food, cosmetics, fragrances (example in this article), etc.

Application of the check‐all‐that‐apply method (CATA) to get insights on children's drivers of liking of fiber‐enriched apple purees

“…Future perspectives of study should be addressed toward a deeper investigation of the suitability of the CATA method in consumer testing with children. One hypothesis could be trying to compare the output with other potentially child‐friendly methods, such as projective mapping or Napping® (Varela & Salvador, ) and/or the Ideal Pair Method (Brard & Lê, ). It is also advisable to consider a wider children age range to investigate age‐related differences in the understanding of the task.…”

Using sensory sciences help products succeed

“…There are already several methods that can accomplish fast turnaround time with minimal expense to the organization. Methodologies such as flash profiling, free sorting, projective mapping, ideal profiling, HITS profiling, customized roundtables, and others are being explored to provide fast guidance in making decisions based on data using a minimum amount of resources (Delarue and Sieffermann, 2004; Pagès, 2005; Talavera-Bianchi et al , 2010; Worch et al , 2014; Brard and Lê, 2016). Rapid methods do not replace traditional research because they do not provide the depth of information provided by more traditional methods, but they do provide a valid broad picture alternative to no or poor information in a fast-paced environment.…”

Understanding the Global Sensory Landscape for Facial Cleansing/Makeup Remover Wipes

“…Different descriptive methods have been developed since the 1950s, which include the flavor profile [5], the texture profile [6], qantitative descriptive analysis [7], free choice profiling [8], Spectrum Descriptive Analysis TM [9], as well as some hybrid descriptive analysis methods, etc. Recently, alternative and rapid descriptive analysis methods have been introduced, such as flash profile [10], free sorting and projective mapping [11,12], ideal profiling [13,14], and high identity traits (HITS) profiling [15]. These types of rapid methods require less time for panel training and lexicon development resulting in faster delivery of study results to address relevant business needs.…”