Mapping products in sensory space

Perhaps you wish to understand how a new product is perceived in relation to your existing ones, would like to obtain a benchmark against other available products in the same category, or are curious as to which sensory aspects most strongly influence differentiation within a group.

In these cases, it is often difficult to identify the most important properties or attributes that drive perceptual differences ahead of time. By acquiring a perceptual map of a family of products, it is not only possible to see which products are most closely associated with one another, but to make inferences as to the best descriptors for these differences, and there is theoretically no limit to the number of ’dimensions’ that can emerge.

These descriptors can be anything - visual aspects, flavors, textures, softness, perceived value, weight, roughness - but with a combination of experience and laboratory characterisation it is often possible to assign meaning to the perceptual dimensions.