The face of food: Studying food presentation
Food is a cultural and emotive category
Decadent foods are heavily emotional. Assessing experiences for such foods by quantitative measures is only half the story. Also, ready to eat foods are complex given the nature of DIY preparation and the possible comparison to pure cooking or ordering experiences and outcomes. For this study, the challenge was to assess experience when cooking pancakes and waffles through pre-packed formulations. It became important therefore, to assess video responses to understand authentic outcomes and not staged or curated experiences.
Video Diary Approach
A self attested video approach, allows users to express themselves through their own personal lens. The images, audio and video uploads are reflective of the way they see themselves, as caregivers, providers or simply talented cooks. Through the uploads, the system was able to present consumers' everyday experiences when cooking decadent foods through a premix, observing their usage habits, motivations, preferences, and interactions with the product from purchase to preparation and consumption. Dashboards presented these as video snippets, AI summaries and deep dive explorations within themes.
Forward Path
The insights helped translate everyday consumer behaviour into actionable opportunities across product development, packaging, usage experience, and brand communication.