Soda Brand Improves New Product With IHUTs

A popular soda brand wanted to collect consumer feedback and make adjustments to a new product before its full launch. 

The main objectives of the soda brand included:

• Assessing the level of difficulty of finding the product in-store 
• Examining shelf-reactions to the product in-store. 
• Gauging reactions to name, packaging, and taste. 
• Determining if the product lived up to expectations following the tasting. 
• Evaluating purchase intent following the tasting. 

Drive Research used the following process to execute this in-store and in-home test. 

Step #1. Launch a Pre-Screener to Source a Pool of Qualified Contacts

As the first step of recruitment, we programmed a recruitment screener survey to determine the qualifications of interested consumers. 

After our pre-screener is designed, programmed, and tested we launched targeted social media ads to reach consumers. 

Step #2. Schedule Qualified Consumers

As an extra step of validation, our team places re-screening calls to pre-qualified contacts to confirm core qualification criteria. 

Once the qualification criteria were confirmed, participants received a confirmation email with detailed instructions for the study. We also required a “yes” response to verify participants received the instructions and agreed to participate. 

Step #3. Participants Complete the Drink Testing

First, participants were asked to travel to a preselected store in their area and answer questions regarding shelf displays. Following their feedback on displays, we asked participants to purchase a specific product. 

Once in the comfort of their home participants tasted the product and completed another short survey about their tasting experience. 

Finally, 6-weeks later, participants completed a final questionnaire gauging their purchase intent. 

Step #4. Follow-up Phone Calls, Emails, and Text Messages

We stay in constant contact with our participants to ensure their success in the study. 

To make sure they stayed on track, we checked in with our participants throughout the study with customized calls, texts, and emails. 

With there being a 6-week period in between parts 1 and 2 of this study, we planned for drop-offs. 

Our research firm over-recruited slightly to achieve a goal of 95 completes on the 6-week follow-up survey. 

By recruiting 104 participants for this study we ended with the final results: 

• 102 participants completed the in-store survey and at-home taste test.
• 95 participants completed the final 6-week follow-up survey.

We were able to meet our client's goal of 95 completes for the 6-week follow-up survey.