Everyone loves chocolate! Reinventing competitive benchmarking to win the moment

Room 3 | 10:30 am - 11:00 am | Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Competitive benchmarking is essential to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing brands. However, classical approaches are slow to implement, costly and often provide insufficient insights to understand how best to improve a brand’s market position. Experience an alternate approach by taking the Chocolate Challenge! Come listen to a panel of corporate researchers discuss how this approach promises to overcome these competitive benchmarking shortcomings.

Panelists include:

• Cindy Dumlao, principal scientist, global sensory of MARS Snacking.
• Nikki Wollak, senior manager, insights and innovation of Imbibe.
• Jeffrey Wu, principal scientist, global sensory of MARS Snacking.
• Marcia Young, senior advisor, consumer intelligence of FlavorWiki.

Although everyone loves chocolate, the Chocolate Challenge is not about chocolate! It’s about reinventing competitive benchmarking for consumer brands to improve or maintain their position in the marketplace. The panel and all attendees to this session will be given the opportunity to take the Chocolate Challenge. This includes trying out how a participant will experience an innovative approach to competitive benchmarking by evaluating three brands of chocolate.

This survey technique overcomes a number of shortcomings with classical benchmarking. It has participants assess products in-context, rather than in CLT facilities. It applies a patented technique called the Paired Attribute Question to easily generate a sensory attribute profile of each product. It also applies a patented technique called the Implicit/Explicit Test to assess attribute/benefit implicit associations and a respective set of unique behavioral metrics useful in understanding relative brand impact.

The result of this approach is more useful content to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to brands with diagnostics to help product leaders make product and marketing decisions to maintain or improve a brand’s position.

The session will be three parts:

1. A summary of the approach and results to date from participants taking the Chocolate Challenge.
2. A panel of corporate researchers discussing their thoughts about benchmarking shortcomings and the relative merits of this new approach in addressing those shortcomings.
3. An offer for session attendees to take the Chocolate Challenge themselves.

Key Takeaways:

1. Learn what corporate researchers believe are some of the greatest shortcomings in applying classical approaches to competitive benchmarking.
2. Experience a new survey technique that incorporates two newly patented techniques that address some of these shortcomings through the Chocolate Challenge.
3. Learn what corporate researchers think about the relative merits in applying this new approach to competitive benchmarking.

Case Study Consumers Presentation by Supplier