Best New Product of 2002 - El Monterey Tornados
Trade Article - Stagnito's New Products Magazine - November / December, 2002
If Merwyn Technology is to be believed, things are looking
up in the new product development arena. Sure, it could be because there were
tons more submissions for Best New Products of 2002 for Merwyn to feed on,
but as a magazine dedicated to upping the quality and success of new product
development, Stagnito's New Products Magazine is going to take Merwyn's comments
as a positive sign for the industry.
In our second look at the best our industry has to offer, SNPM again combined
the prowess of Merwyn simulated test marketing technology from Eureka! Ranch,
Cincinnati, with the senses and emotions of SNPM's editorial staff, including
Joan Holleran, Lori Dahm and Nick Roskelly.
Merwyn evaluated package copy, one-page concepts describing the product and
additional materials that would be obvious to any consumer in the grocery
store aisle. Submissions included background information pertaining to market
share, projected marketplace uniqueness and pricing information. In addition,
Merwyn was fed digital images of the products that were included in the evaluation
process.
After Merwyn had its say, an expert team of trained Eureka! Ranch analysts
answered an in-depth sereies of questions pertaining to the presence of absence
of success archetypes in each individual product's offering. The analyst's
responses were then compared to Merwyn Technology's database of more than
10,000 new products and services, thus benchmarking them against current marketplace
offerings.
The humans actually prepared and consumed the product, providing their response
to price/quality, packaging appearance, convenience, taste and innovation.
We've provided overall scores from both Merwyn and the humans because, not
surprisingly, we weren't all on the same page.
Lori: Perhaps because we used a conventional oven to prepare these,
rather than the method that would be used in foodservice, the outer shell
was more “ doughy “ and less like the crunchy other shell than
I was expecting.
Nick: They were surprisingly soft. Despite that, they’d
be 7-Eleven atmosphere, and it’s a nice alternative to the greasy hot
dog you’d find on the roller. I expected greased soft dough.
Joan: The apple-cinnamon variety was something unique. Might
be nice for a football game, but hard to pin the target market.
Lori: I didn’t particularly like them and found kids
didn’t particularly like them. Couldn’t figure out the right audience.
Nick: I can see someone without a lot of cash in their pocket
looking for something hot and filling. This would work for that. The shredded
beef was good, it had a little spice in it. The quality of the meat was good.
The Southwest Chicken variety included sauce and vegetables and that was a little
much, the sauce exploded out of the ends and it didn’t have a great appearance.
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