A food product can perform extremely well in a taste test and still struggle in the market.
Why?
Because consumers do not buy taste alone.
They see the package before experiencing the product. They compare the price before deciding whether to try it. They interpret colours, labels, claims, pack sizes and brand names. They compare the product with alternatives they already know. And even when they like what they experience, they still need to find the product where they normally shop.
For FMCG companies, this creates an important distinction:
Product liking is not the same as market acceptance.
Through TSMR’s experience conducting consumer research, product assessments, packaging evaluation and market verification in Tanzania, we have seen the importance of looking beyond individual product attributes and examining what we call the Total Product Experience.
It asks a broader question:
What happens between the moment a consumer first encounters a product and the moment they decide to buy it again?
The Consumer Experiences the Product Before Using It
Product experience begins before the package is opened.
Imagine a consumer standing in front of several competing products.
Before tasting, touching or using anything, that consumer is already processing information:
- What is this product?
- Do I recognise the brand?
- Does it look good quality?
- What does the packaging tell me?
- How much does it cost?
- Is this the right size for me?
- Have I used something similar before?
This means packaging, branding and price begin shaping expectations before the functional product experience occurs.
A premium-looking package may create expectations of superior quality.
An unfamiliar design may create curiosity—or uncertainty.
A larger package may signal value to one household but appear financially inaccessible to another.
Understanding those reactions is part of understanding the product itself.
Infographic 1: The Total Product Experience — TSMR framework.
Packaging Is Part of the Product
Packaging is sometimes treated as the container that carries the actual product.
From a consumer perspective, however, the distinction is rarely that simple.
The pack communicates.
- Colour can influence expectations.
- Images can communicate usage or quality.
- Typography can affect readability.
- Product information can create confidence—or confusion.
- Pack size can communicate affordability, convenience or value.
- Country-of-origin information and manufacturing cues can influence perceptions.
And a redesign that appears minor internally may be interpreted very differently by consumers.
This is why packaging research should go beyond:
“Which design do you prefer: A or B?”
A more useful investigation asks:
- What does Design A make you think about the product?
- What do you notice first?
- What information do you struggle to understand?
- Which product appears more trustworthy?
- Which appears more expensive?
- Which would you expect to perform better?
- Which would you actually pick from the shelf?
These questions move packaging research from design preference to commercial understanding.
A High Score Does Not Always Explain Why
Product testing often produces numbers.
Consumers may be asked to score:
- Taste: 8/10
- Texture: 7/10
- Appearance: 9/10
- Packaging: 8/10
Those numbers are useful.
But they are not the insight.
The insight lies in understanding why consumers gave those scores.
Two consumers can both rate a product 7/10 for completely different reasons.
One might find the taste excellent but the texture disappointing.
Another might like the product overall but consider it too unfamiliar compared with the brand normally purchased.
This is why combining quantitative scoring with qualitative probing can produce a much richer understanding.
Infographic 2: From Score to Insight.
Consumers Evaluate Products Relative to Something
Very few products are experienced in isolation.
Consumers already have reference points.
They know what pasta normally tastes like.
They know how thick they expect a sauce to be.
They know what toothpaste normally feels like.
They know approximately how much cooking oil, detergent or personal-care products usually cost.
A new product therefore enters an existing mental competitive set.
The question is not simply:
“Do you like this?”
It is also:
“Is this better, worse or sufficiently different from what you already buy?”
That makes comparative testing particularly valuable.
Researchers can investigate differences in:
appearance, aroma, taste, texture, functionality, packaging, perceived quality, value and purchase intention.
The objective is not necessarily to win every attribute.
The objective is to identify which attributes actually drive consumer choice.
Familiarity Can Be Both an Advantage and a Barrier
Consumers often develop strong expectations about how a familiar product category should look, taste, smell or perform.
That presents a challenge for innovation.
A new product may objectively perform well but still feel different.
Different can mean better.
But different can also mean wrong.
The difference between those reactions can determine whether innovation succeeds.
This is particularly important when international manufacturers introduce products developed for other markets.
A formulation successful elsewhere may encounter different:
taste preferences, cooking practices, household routines, climate conditions, price expectations, cultural associations and competitive products in Tanzania.
Local consumer testing therefore should not simply validate whether a product works.
It should determine whether the product fits the market in which it will be used.
Price Changes the Product Experience
Consider two questions:
“Do you like this product?”
and
“Would you buy this product for TZS 5,000?”
They may produce very different answers.
This is one of the most important distinctions in product research.
Consumers can genuinely like a product without being willing to purchase it.
Purchase decisions require consumers to translate product experience into perceived value.
Infographic 3: Liking Is Not Buying.
Pack Size Can Change the Meaning of Price
Price research should also consider how consumers actually manage household spending.
A larger pack can offer better value per gram, litre or unit while still requiring more money at the point of purchase.
A smaller pack may technically cost more per unit but remain more accessible because the consumer can afford the transaction today.
This is particularly important in FMCG categories where consumers purchase frequently and household cash flow varies.
Manufacturers therefore need to understand both:
Value for money
and
Money required to purchase.
They are related, but they are not identical.
What Consumers Say and What Happens on the Shelf Can Differ
Product testing usually occurs in a controlled environment.
The market does not.
In a test, consumers may concentrate on a product without competing distractions.
In a shop, the same product competes against:
familiar brands, promotions, different pack sizes, price differences, retailer recommendations, shelf positioning and whatever happens to be available that day.
That creates another important distinction:
Test performance ≠ Market performance
This is why product research becomes considerably more powerful when combined with retail and market verification.
A company can learn that consumers strongly prefer a particular product concept.
But if that product is difficult to find, incorrectly positioned, priced outside consumer expectations or inconsistently distributed, consumer preference alone cannot produce sales.
Infographic 4: From Test Room to Market Reality.
Product Testing Should Answer Business Questions
The purpose of research should not be to produce a collection of scores.
It should reduce uncertainty around a decision.
Before conducting a product test, businesses should therefore be clear about the decision the research needs to support.
For example:
- Should we launch this product?
- Which formulation should we take forward?
- Which packaging communicates the strongest proposition?
- Which attributes need improvement?
- What price range appears acceptable?
- Which consumer segment responds most strongly?
- Does the product need localisation?
- How does it compare with the current market leader?
- What could prevent trial?
- What could encourage repeat purchase?
The methodology should then be designed around those decisions.
The Role of Observation Is Growing
Traditional questionnaires remain important, but product research increasingly benefits from observing what consumers actually do.
Someone may say that packaging is easy to understand.
Observation may reveal that they spend considerable time searching for preparation instructions.
A participant may say two products are similar.
Watching how they interact with them may reveal clear behavioural differences.
A consumer may claim that brand is unimportant.
Their final selection may tell another story.
This is why modern product research increasingly combines:
structured measurement + qualitative discussion + observation + behavioural evidence.
Technology and AI can accelerate coding, pattern identification, concept development and analysis.
But they do not eliminate the need to understand the human being using the product.
For markets such as Tanzania, context remains particularly important.
Local Testing Matters for Global Brands
Africa’s consumer markets offer substantial opportunities, but they should not be treated as extensions of other markets.
Even within Tanzania, preferences and purchasing conditions can vary according to:
income, age, household structure, geography, retail environment, lifestyle and product familiarity.
A product developed in Europe, Asia or another African country may therefore require local validation before significant investment in market entry.
That does not necessarily mean changing the product.
Sometimes research confirms that the existing proposition works.
But businesses should ideally discover that before, rather than after, committing heavily to production, packaging, distribution and marketing.
Local research therefore acts as a form of commercial risk reduction.
From Product Testing to Product Intelligence
At TSMR, we believe product research should ultimately connect four perspectives:
Infographic 5: The TSMR Product Intelligence Model.
Beyond Taste
A successful FMCG product needs more than a good formulation.
It needs to make sense to the consumer.
It needs to communicate effectively through its packaging.
It needs to deliver an experience consistent with—or compellingly better than—consumer expectations.
It needs to be available at an acceptable price.
And ultimately, it needs to give consumers a reason to choose it again.
This is why the most useful product research asks more than:
“Did consumers like it?”
It asks:
- What did they experience?
- Why did they respond that way?
- How does the product compare with what they already know?
- Does the price make sense?
- Will they choose it when alternatives are available?
- And what needs to happen for trial to become repeat purchase?
Because in today’s FMCG market, taste may win the test—but the total product experience wins the consumer.
