CONSUMER TESTING A GUIDE TO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 177 controlled by the technologist. In foods there are other characteristics such as nutritive values which are an important part of quality. In cos- metics, such factors as cleanliness, healthfulness and deodorant principles constitute a vital part of quality. The point is, that quality in these terms is of utmost importance to the technical man. He alone can build into the product those characteristics which the consumer will see and use and appreciate well enough to buy that product again and again. It is obvious that some product characteristics can be measured objec- tively and rather precisely. These are concerned with the more absolute performance characteristics such as germ killing power, color, dirt removal, viscosity, etc. These characteristics cannot be properly evaluated by the consumer. Other properties like fragrance and taste are not only difficult to measure accurately but their effect on the consumer can be judged in only one way--by going to the consumer. Whenever a product changes, or a new product is being developed, it is necessary to deal not with standards but with the question "Does the consumer recognize that this product is better?" The consumer may perceive "bettemess" by her own observa- tions, or because she finds that the claims made for it are believable, but perceive she must, or the product will not succeed. Now it should be stressed that the technologist or chemist is a "product" man as distinct from the merchandising man, advertising man, promotion man or salesman. As a technologist, he works through the product and is concerned with the consumer reaction to that product. The merchandising man is concerned, in addition, with the positioning of the product the story that can be built up to catch the consumer's interest and to motivate her to want to buy this product. A merchandising man works directly with the consumer and knows that he must have consumer information to function intelligently. Therefore, he runs consumer tests which include personal depth interviews, blind product tests of single samples or comparisons, and marketing and selling tests. Typically he also tests the message and the effectiveness of his appeal in conjunction with product characteristics. Often he learns things about the product which are very helpful to the technical researcher, but this is not his main purpose. It is well acknowledged that good salesmanship will sell almost any product at least once, while repeat business must be built on the satisfaction of the consumer with actual characteristics or quality of the product itself. These are the same characteristics which we in Re- search and Development have as our responsibility to build into our prod- ucts. As "product" men we do not sell directly to the consumer, but we do deal directly with those product attributes which will be sold to the con- sumer. It follows then, that we must have a measure of product quality

178 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS as described before--unencumbered by the excitement and the promise of an advertising story. Let us assume that we have demonstrated the point that a consumer evaluation of product characteristics is extremely useful to the technical man charged with product development or improvement. There are several types of testing available which will serve admirably to guide lab- oratory work on a short term basis. Which of these to use will depend on the particular situation. Testing methods differ in speed, cost and type of information yielded. An assignment to develop a new product will serve as an example. Other situations such as product improvement or cost reduction assignments are similar and it is easy to apply the same principles. Generally the following four steps can be recognized in technical projects to develop a new product. 1. Product Definition 3. Process Development 2. Laboratory Development 4. Commercial Development It should be apparent to anyone who has ever participated in a program to develop a new product that there are many decisions about quality re- quired of the technical man in each of the above phases. It will be worth- while to look at each of these steps individually and consider the type of testing which will prove most useful to the technologist. PRODUCT DEFINITION This is usually the starting place of actual laboratory work. It has already been decided that a new product is desired with certain general characteristics, to fill a recognized need, to be sold in a particular area of use and to meet certain cost limitations. However, it is usually impossible, without actually beginning to work on the bench, to really define all the product characteristics such as viscosity, the exact color, perfume, storage life, etc. The technologist begins work to make his first rough combina- tions of ingredients and techniques to come up with a first approximation of a product to meet the general concept. Only when he does this, can he begin to evaluate the magnitude of his problems. He begins to find out if his costs are likely to be in line, if storage stability is likely to be adequate, or whether new information will be needed to achieve it. Here, too, he is faced with a large number of choices of raw materials, flavor or perfume ingredients, sources of supply, methods of processing and a host of other details. It is in this area that consumer testing begins to be helpful. Some screen- ing of the choices available can be accomplished on the basis of small laboratory panels, or by exercise of the technologist's own judgment. Certainly alternatives which make no significant difference in the end prod- uct characteristics can be decided upon or eliminated on the basis of cost,