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Multinational companies develop multiple versions of the same product to cater to different preferences of various markets. However, it is still desirable to produce a single version as this would entail substantial savings in terms of production and logistics.
This study demonstrates how response surface experiments were utilized to compare three very geographically different test markets in terms of their preference for a certain beverage product.
It was hypothesized that there are four main ingredients that affect consumer liking: two of them pertain to acidity, and the other two pertain to sweetness. A response surface experiment was designed using the said four ingredients, resulting to 15 experimental treatments. The treatments were evaluated on overall liking by target consumers randomly selected from three test markets.
Data were analyzed using response surface regression of overall liking versus the four ingredients. The similarities and differences of the components of a full second-order model across the three test markets were noted, and this information was used to decide if single or multiple versions of the product need to be developed.
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