Vineland Research
Of all the back-breaking occupations in the world, farming of any kind is at the top of the list for most challenging.
It isn’t just because of the physical nature of the work itself, dealing with the weather, facing pests or the multitude of other things growers and farmers think about on a daily basis. Actually, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out what consumers want. This applies just as much to someone growing apples or strawberries as it does to someone growing wine grapes. Will consumers embrace and purchase the product invested in and planted in the field?
Answering questions like this before going too far down the road, is what Amy Bowen and her team strive to do at the Consumer Insights division of Vineland Research and Innovation Centre.
“We work with people across Canada, in the US and outside of North America,” she says. “It’s about understanding the market, the profile of their product, how does it compare to top-selling varieties in the market and how do they position it with other varieties in the market. We provide an unbiased view.”
This could include products like new types of wine, spirits or other alcohol, it may be about a new variety of fresh fruit or it could be an assessment of a planned fresh product extension. It may also be looking at the consumer-facing marketing or branding. Consumer Insights looks at sensory factors, messaging and “consumer liking drivers,” meaning whether consumers like it or not and why.
“Anything that falls under horticulture or agriculture,” She explains of potential product research. “You don’t just put a pear out on the market, you put a branded pear with a new variety and name. Or looking at how this product works in different formats. Selling as a puree or something like an ingredient for something like smoothies or a cereal topping.”
Gaining that unbiased view Bowen mentions was important to Paul Bosc Jr., president and CEO of Niagara-on-the-Lake-based Château des Charmes and his winemaker, Amelie Boury, as they considered white wines. They wanted to know what consumers were looking for in whites and fortunately, because of Bosc’s affiliation with Vineland (he was a director for a number of years) he saw the benefits of Bowen’s work and decided to research consumer perceptions around top-selling white wines.
“Seeing is believing, as they say,” he says. “I had witnessed a number of presentations that Amy Bowen… had made to our board and I was very impressed each and every time. I had also visited the lab on several occasions.”
Amy Bowen
Bowen explains that the Consumer Insights section of Vineland works on both large projects and those that are small, short-term or have a finite, specific need.
“They would pay for the project and they can use the results as they would see fit,” she says.
However with COVID-19, Bowen has had to adjust how the division operates.
“We’ve had to become much more flexible in how we collect sensory and consumer information,” she says. “My team has been primarily working from home since March and we had to suspend all in-person activities from mid-March until August. This meant keeping in touch with our trained sensory panel through a weekly newsletter, web-conference calls and then virtual training sessions with curbside pickup.”
In-person consumer studies are on hold indefinitely at this time.
“Everything takes longer since we have to maintain physical distancing and limit the number of people in a room,” she says. “Our sensory lab would usually accommodate ten to 12 people at a time and now that has been reduced. This prolongs timelines and can increase costs.”
Despite the challenges, Bowen says there are new opportunities to consider from a consumer-testing standpoint. “Areas include how the pandemic impacts consumer behaviours and values to the shopping experience, such as local, sustainable, shelf life and the shopping experience with more focus on online shopping.”
While the long-term impacts from COVID remain unknown, she feels that time will reveal more opportunities as businesses evolve.
Fortunately for Bosc, the Château des Charmes project was completed before COVID.
“We were quite pleased with the findings and we grew with confidence as a result,” he says. “We were convinced more than ever that we were on the right track and needed to keep going.”
Because the panel that Bowen used for the project was much larger than the winery’s own team, it provided statistically significant results that gave Bosc and Boury the confidence to proceed with the white wine project. Their process took about a year, but Bosc explains, he wasn’t in a rush for the results from Bowen’s team. Flexibility like this is beneficial especially during the pandemic and some of the team’s work has continued in the new operational format.
“An ongoing project with one of the wine associations is around how to describe the different wine styles that are being produced in Ontario,” Bowen says. “Understanding what consumers are looking for in terms of taste profiles and liking of different wine styles.”
Inside the sensory lab
It’s as simple as knowing the key question that needs to be answered with the research.
“You figure out what the main question is that you want to answer and we work with you to develop an approach to answer that,” she says. “We customize each project to the person we work with. We’ve done projects in as short as a month, though usually about six weeks to four months. That’s pretty quick to be getting some answers.”
The process is quite simple. A company, like Bosc’s would come up with a key question and Bowen’s team would come up with options on how to address it. Once the approach is determined, a quote would be prepared and reviewed.
“We do a service agreement together, complete the work and provide you with a report at the end of basically what we’ve found and how you could use that information,” Bowen says.
Perhaps the most important reason to consider consumer research is that commercial production is expensive and fast-paced. Decisions must be based on the potential market in order to avoid costly mistakes. Especially in a COVID-facing world, businesses need all the advantages they can get and knowing what consumers like, relate to and will purchase can be the difference between success and failure.