External Preference Mapping

Eventually, it should be stressed that rapid does not necessarily mean instantaneous. Rather, one should consider rapid proflling methods as ways to acquire data more rapidly than with their conventional equivalents. In Chapter 20, Blumenthal and Herbeth report that in order to evaluate sensations while driving, each assessor in their study drove a total of more than 25 h and 600 km, even if they used a quicker approach than conventional proflling. The same goes with other methods TDS is not as rapid, but it is much faster than traditional time-intensity measurements the Ideal Profile Method may also take some time for the panellists, but it is clearly more rapid than a full external preference mapping study. 

Faye, R, Bremaud, D., Teillet, E., Courcoux, R, Giboreau, A. and Nicod, H. (2006). An alternative to external preference mapping based on consumer perceptive mapping. Food Quality... 

CATA qnestions can be for performing internal preference mapping by projecting consumers desalplions into the preference space. Besides, Ares et al. (2010a) and Dooley et al. (2010) nsed CATA qnestions to generate a consumer-based sensory space for external preference mapping. In these situations, consumers should evaluate at least six samples (Lawless and Heymann, 2010). 

Dooley L., Lee, Y.S. and Meullenet, J.F. (2010), The application of check-all-that-apply (CATA) consumer profiling to preference mapping of vanilla ice cream and its comparison to classical external preference mapping, Food Qual Prefer, 21, 394 01. 

Parente, M.E., Manzoni, A.V. and Ares, G. (2011), External preference mapping of commercial antiaging creams based on consumers responses to a check-all-that-apply question, J Sensory Stud, 26, 158-166. 

The IPM is a useful tool for product optimization and product development and can be applied to a large variety of products (food, beverages, cosmetics, etc.). Compared to other optimization tools (such as external preference mapping, or LSA for example), it has the advantage that a large variety of information is gathered directly from the same consumers. This large variety of data allows the user to ... 

It is worth saying that external preference mapping techniques and tasks involving JAR questions are able to deal with multiple ideals, either by estimating different acceptance areas in the product space for a given consumer (PrefMap) or by providing guidance on improvement for each product separately. 

Worch, T. (2013) PrefMFA, a solution taking the best of both internal and external preference mapping techiuques, Food Quality and Pr erence, 30, 181-191. 

When consumer data are also available on the same products, we can build up an External Preference Mapping model to visualize how consumer preferences are linked to the sensory characteristics of the products (Schlich, 1995). This tool is especially powerful in orientating further product development towards consumer appreciation. Figure 15.3 shows an example of Preference Mapping, relating the sensory characteristics of eight European toast breads from different countries to the preference of Spanish consumers for the same toast breads. We can see that consumers globally prefer softer and moister products. The Spanish bread (actually the brand of the market leader) is close to this profile, so it is well in line with the taste expectations of the Spanish consumers. 

Although the focus of this chapter is on descriptive analysis, the consumer study will be presented because the results will emphasize the fact that even rapid descriptive methods can be used to understand consumers perceptions, through External Preference Mapping for instance. 

To pursue our objective to understand the impact of roll and lateral support on the road-holding sensation, we used External Preference Mapping with quadratic model. The individual models of the 151 drivers with the consensus sensory map are quite good the average coefficient is 0.87 (Fig. 20.13). As anticipated with the raw results of the consumer study, the best area in terms of preference is near RC3-S3 but this is not the main point we would like to raise here. 

External Preference Mapping with quadratic model on 151 consumers... 

Beyond the semantic aspects, the use of a free choice method is quite interesting when one knows that assessors cannot perceive the same sensations. In the automotive industry, this situation occnrs when anthropometry plays a role in the perception. How do we ask an 80 kg-man to have the same sensations as a 55 kg-woman in an antomotive seat The example on roll and lateral snpport demonstrates that this can be a huge asset for External Preference Mapping, when there are several clusters of consumers with different perceptions. 

This also has consequences for product conception when such techniques as External Preference Mapping are required. We can find an optimal product, but there are as many sensory explanations as assessors. Consequently, the difficulty of interpretation makes the results less usable. 

Blumenthal, D. (2008). Exploring leads to make external preference mapping more operational in an automotive context. In 9th Sensometrics Conference, 20-23 July 2008, SL Catharines, ON, Canada. 

Hough, G. and Sdnehez, R. (1998) Descriptive analysis and external preference mapping of powdered chocolate milk, Food Quality and Preference, 9, 197-204. 

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