What is flavour profile and why is it important to launch a successful product in the market?
Jul 23, 2024
Introduction
Developing and launching a successful product in today's FMCG competitive market requires a deep understanding of consumer preferences and tastes. This is especially crucial in the food and beverage industry, where capturing and retaining consumer attention heavily relies on delivering exceptional flavours, as it remains the number one reason why people purchase/repurchase products.
To meet these demands, it is vital for startups and SMEs to focus on developing a well-defined flavour profile for their products.
This blog post will guide you through the critical role of flavour profiles and provide actionable strategies to align your product development with consumer expectations.
By the end of this blog, you will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to create unique, high-quality products that cultivate a loyal customer base and propel your business forward.
What is a flavour profile?
How do we perceive flavours?
Let's start by explaining what flavour is and how we perceive it.
Flavour is a multi-sensory experience that combines taste, smell, memory, emotions, and personal experiences.
Taste, for instance, relies on about fifty distinct taste receptor cells located in the mouth, mainly on the tongue. These receptors help us identify tastes like sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. But taste is just one piece of the puzzle.
Another key element is chemesthesis. This includes sensations like spicy heat, cooling, and tingling that we feel in our mouths. Previously known as the trigeminal response, chemesthesis helps us avoid danger by delivering a pain response to high temperatures or injuries. It also affects how things feel in our mouth; for example, tannins in wine can create a dry, tightening effect.
Then there's olfaction, or our sense of smell, which plays a huge role in how we perceive flavour. There are two types of olfaction, before (orthonasal) and after (retronasal) food and drink enters our mouth.
In both cases, the aroma compounds from food or drink are detected by the olfactory receptors in our nose. These receptors then transmit this information to the brain through the olfactory nerve.
The brain interprets this information by comparing it with familiar experiences to ensure our safety. This is why we often say that we taste mainly with our brain and why it can be challenging to embrace new ingredients or cuisines.
Additionally, our sense of smell has a strong impact on memory and emotions due to the close connection between the olfactory lobe and the limbic system, which controls our mood, memory, behaviour, and emotions. That's why certain foods or drinks can evoke childhood memories or transport us back to a specific moment in time.
Flavour profile
A flavour profile is the expression of all the characteristics that make a flavour unique, and it is mainly driven by aroma compounds. For example, a strawberry's flavour profile might include green, grassy, overripe, and slightly jammy notes with a hint of sourness and medium to strong sweetness.
As we mentioned before, our brain relies on survival instincts to quickly decide if something is safe or not. For instance, consider the smell of roasted coffee beans near a coffee shop versus the smell of something burning.
Therefore, the brain will focus on the main sensory characteristics of food and drink to make quick decisions. You may recognise a smell as simply “coffee” rather than identifying it as “light roast coffee beans from Ethiopia with floral and fruity characteristics”.
However, foods and drinks are very complex and can contain hundreds of intricate aroma compounds. For example, coffee is composed of almost one thousand aroma compounds.
This complexity makes it difficult for an untrained brain to detect and articulate all the specific flavour notes.
Developing the ability to detect and describe specific flavour characteristics requires patience, mindfulness, and training. It also involves staying objective and not being influenced by our survival mechanisms, memories, and emotions.
Traditionally used in cheese and wine, flavour profiles are also used within flavour houses. This type of training helps our brain accurately describe products, removing cultural and personal experience barriers and ensuring that everyone speaks the same language.
At EPICSI, we offer 90-minute flavour profile workshops designed to help newly founded food and beverage startups or established SMEs master specific flavour profiles. These workshops can be conducted internally, eliminating the need for expensive sensory panels or consumer research. This makes them an ideal choice for food and beverage startups and SMEs.
If you're interested in learning more, please take a look at our services here.
Why is it so important?
There are many factors that influence consumer purchase decisions, such as price, convenience, naturality, health benefits, sustainability, brand reputation, and brand loyalty.
However, outside of periods of economic recession, consumer research proved that flavour and taste remain the number one reason people purchase and repurchase a product.
Flavour isn't just about enjoying a food or drink product; it's about creating an experience. This is why consumers focus on buying products that they find satisfying.
No matter how affordable, well-advertised, or easily accessible a product may be, if it fails to deliver on flavour, customers will not repurchase it or recommend it to others.
Flavour is also tied to the perceived value of a product. If the flavours are disappointing, consumers will perceive it as poor value for money and won’t buy it again unless it has significant functional or health benefits.
For example, sports nutrition products like protein isolates and BCAAs were known for their poor taste and bitterness until flavour modulators and markers improved their palatability. Consumers tolerated these products because of the product’s functionality, like improving muscle mass and performance or reducing muscle damage from exercise.
There are a few common issues that consumers may experience:
🔸The flavour profile does not align with the product name (for example, BBQ ribs-flavoured crisps that taste more like a general meat flavour)
🔸The flavours are too weak and cannot be tasted
🔸The combination of flavours is unbalanced (e.g. a drink advertised as raspberry and lemon flavoured, where the raspberry flavour is overpowering the lemon)
🔸The taste is unbalanced, with high levels of sourness or bitterness.
Additionally, flavour is increasingly important, especially with the rise of “treaty culture” and snacking. People are more willing to indulge in products that taste great and bring pleasure. This is particularly true for younger generations like Gen Z.
In conclusion, creating food and beverage products with flavours that stand out is essential for the success of food and beverage startups and SMEs.
How to choose the right flavour profile?
Getting the flavour right from the start of your R&D project and new product development is crucial for all food and beverage brands.
Flavour market research
To get started, you are going to do a flavour research on the flavours that may work well for your product and your target consumers.
Take a peek at what kind of food and drinks they enjoy, their favourite restaurants, takeaways, and street food markets. The better you understand your target consumer’s taste buds, the easier it will be to choose flavours that they'll enjoy.
Culinary culture
The next thing you want to do is to look at the culinary culture, familiarity, and traditions of the country where you're thinking of launching your product. And you might be wondering why.
Well, flavours are more likely to be successful if they can be associated with existing combinations of flavours or products. And that principle works really well with flavour pairing.
Consumer perception and expectation
Don't forget to consider how our brain perceives flavours. It is important to do research on your target consumers' perception and expectations regarding the flavours you are selecting.
If you are developing an apple pie-flavoured biscuit, using an uncooked or toffee apple-type flavouring may cause confusion for consumers. Their brains may not understand these additional notes in their apple pie biscuit, as a traditional apple pie does not have such flavours.
It may seem obvious, but I have observed instances where such flavours were chosen over an authentic one simply because they "tasted better”. This is a common mistake that can be easily made.
One effective way to address this is by giving consumers the chance to taste different market products and understand their memories and expectations associated with these products.
Flavour trends
Check out flavour trends! The goal is not to alienate your consumers but offering them something unique that stands out from the competition.
One great way to do that, is to take a classic flavour and give it a twist. So combine a surprising and exotic flavour with a well-known and loved one.
Flavour pairing
It is important to keep in mind that everyone has a unique palate, where genetics, culture, and environment can make us sensitive to certain basic tastes and aroma compounds.
That is why some flavours are so polarising, such as coconut, marmite, or liquorice.
Therefore, it is impossible to please everyone, and as the saying goes, "If we try to please everyone, we will end up pleasing no one."
So rather than focusing on classic flavours like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, focus on selecting flavours that actually fit your products and your target consumers.
That’s why you need to develop the base and understand your product flavour profile first to be able to select the right flavours from your previous research.
Flavour mapping
As mentioned earlier, unless the brain is trained, it is unable to detect subtle flavour profiles. This means that consumers won't be able to inform you if the strawberry in your product is too jammy and lacks juiciness for example.
It is therefore your responsibility to internally undertake this task and avoid the mistake of relying on flavour suppliers or co-manufacturers and asking them for a few variations of generic flavours.
While they may be experts in their respective fields, they do not have knowledge of your specific ingredients, process, or target consumers when selecting flavours.
You, on the other hand, possess this knowledge and understanding.
That's why tools like flavour mapping allows you to define codes and characteristics of a flavour, identify the best flavour directions for your products, establish benchmark products, and create a comprehensive brief for flavour supplier, contractor, or co-manufacturer.
Communicate effectively with suppliers
Ensure to include in the brief detailed information about your product. This should cover the chosen flavour profiles, findings from flavour research, target consumers, project deadlines, cost considerations, and specific product and flavour requirements.
Conclusion
Flavour is a complex and powerful experience that can evoke memories and emotions. However, if the flavours do not meet consumers' expectations, it can lead to a disconnect and disappointment.
While every stage of the consumer journey is important, the ultimate deciding factor is the flavour profile of the product itself.
For Food and beverage startup and SMEs founders, understanding the significance and intricacy of flavour profiles is crucial in creating successful food and beverage products.
This is an excellent opportunity to explore your target consumers' palates and develop new products with the right flavours that truly resonate with them.
If you need help understanding your target consumer palate and selecting the appropriate flavour profile for your NPD (new product development) or EPD (existing product development), contact us today!
Link to related blogs you may enjoy
🔶 Mastering Your Palate: How to Use a Flavour Lexicon
🔶 A Journey of Flavours: How a London Food Safari Will Broaden Your Culinary Horizons
🔶 Finding Harmony in Chaos: The Art and Science of Flavour Pairing
🔶 How to Use Our Senses to Create Irresistible Products: The Role of Flavour Perception
References
Statista, Purchase criteria for food in the UK as of March 2024, https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997810/purchase-criteria-for-food-in-the-uk
Food Navigator Europe, 2024, Sweet Trends Report 2024: Value more important than price – and organic is back, https://www.foodnavigator.com/News/Promotional-features/Food-and-drink-consumer-trends-survey-2024-in-Europe
SÜDZUCKER, Sweet trends report 2024, Good Value for Money More Important Than Low Price - and Organic Is Back, 2024, https://www.suedzucker.com/insights-assets/sweet-trends-report-2024/
Kantar, Taste: the most important driver of brand equity, and key contributor to resiliency, 2023, https://www.kantar.com/north-america/inspiration/brands/taste-the-most-important-driver-of-brand-equity-and-key-contributor-to-resiliency
Office for National Statistics, Recent drivers of UK consumer price inflation: March 2022, https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/priceseconomicanalysisquarterly/march2022
Office for National Statistics, Recent challenges faced by food and drink businesses and their impact on prices, April 2022, https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/recentchallengesfacedbyfoodanddrinkbusinessesandtheirimpactonprices/2022-04-04
