Sensory Evaluation (IHUT)

We believe that great products are built on more than just how they look — they need to taste, smell, and feel right, too. Whether you’re validating a new formula or benchmarking against competitors, Highlight makes it easy to understand how your product truly lands with real people.

With a purpose-built platform and in-context sensory best practices, Highlight helps teams walk away with a clear optimization roadmap grounded in real consumer feedback — not guesswork.

Key Questions Addressed

•     Does my product hit the mark in terms of key sensory and product characteristics?
•     How should I improve the sensory aspects of my product to ensure consumer satisfaction?
•     Which prototype drives the greatest sensory performance?

Common Outcomes

•     Sensory performance against key metrics via scorecard summary + comparative analysis of performance if multiple products included
•     Penalty Analysis to pinpoint barriers to product performance and identify critical areas for improvement before launch
•     Open-ended feedback on sensory performance
•     Recommendations on areas of optimization & refinement

Methodology Guide

 Quick Hits

•     Quantitative
•     N=75+ per product recommended
•     Monadic or Sequential Monadic
•     ~3-4 weeks turnaround (ship to results)

Typical audience: category purchasers and/or product concept acceptors 

For more information on designing your audience and sample size, see here.

Standard Inputs (Highlight Blueprint)

•         Overall Liking (Hedonic Scale)
•         JAR (Just About Right) scales for key sensory attributes (e.g., flavor intensity, texture, aroma)
•         Comment on Likes
•         Comment on Dislikes
•         Comment on Suggestions to Improve
•         Purchase Intent

+ Can add from any of our available / recommended questions and/or write your own

Stimuli: physical product samples (blinded or branded)

Standard Outputs

•         Scorecard of metrics included in your survey + statistical significance testing
•         Penalty Analysis report identifying barriers to product performance
•         Summary of key themes from open-ended questions
•         Data visualization for all survey questions
•         Crosstabs with customizable banners + statistical significance testing

Reach out to your Customer Enablement rep if you have any questions about leveraging Highlight for this use case!