The Ideal Pair Method, an Alternative to the Ideal Profile Method Based on Pairwise Comparisons: Application to a Panel of Children

Abstract

AbstractStudying consumers’ ideals is an efficient way to improve or develop products. The Ideal Profile Method is a method able to answer that issue by providing a sensory definition of both the ideal and the real products. This definition is based on the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis method that can represent a problem, as it may not be practicable with all kinds of panel. How to proceed if the use of the Ideal Profile Method is inappropriate? We propose a new methodology: the Ideal Pair Method, the notion of pair being used as the second item of two, in relation to the first one. This methodology can be considered as an alternative to the Ideal Profile Method based on pairwise comparisons. We will present the protocol and the statistical analysis of the data. The methodology will be demonstrated through an experiment realized with a panel of children.Practical ApplicationsThe Ideal Pair Method (IPaM) leads to the description of the ideal product of the panel and is applicable to situations where the conventional method (i.e., the Ideal Profile Method) is not suitable as it is not adapted to the nature of the panel. Thus, IPaM can be very useful if we want to reveal the ideal product of children (example in this article), seniors, etc. The methodology can be applied to any kind of products: food, cosmetics, fragrances (example in this article), etc.