Multisensory perception processes and consumer behavior

The desire for prosperity and constant access to food is presenting today’s society with new challenges. Fast food consumption and frequent visits to restaurants stand in opposition to many people’s efforts to maintain a diet that is as healthy and balanced as possible. However, these efforts are also associated with feelings that a sacrifice has to be made – that there is less enjoyment in eating and a constant need to monitor intake.

The work undertaken by our Applied Multisensory Systems research group focuses on precisely this point of conflict and the idea that healthy nutrition should be a source of enjoyment rather than a chore. We take a holistic approach to optimizing food, with the aim of creating healthier sources of nutrition that have the same taste experience. We also incorporate luxury items, beverages and animal feed into our research.

Our services in the area of multisensory food optimization:

• Product optimization and new developments using a skillful combination of different sensory impressions (such as odor, shape and color)
• Balancing salt, sugar or fat reductions in food with targeted use of odors (from herbs, for example)
• Inhibiting off-flavors through targeted stimulation of the trigeminal nerve (creating a sharp or cooling taste impression)
• Sensory optimization of ingredients – for example, when using alternative protein sources in animal feed to create a meat-like texture and pleasant odor

Many of today’s consumers want personal and home care products to create a calming, refreshing, relaxing or concentration-boosting effect in order to trigger an enhanced sense of well-being. Shower gel, for example, can create a reinvigorating feeling in a morning shower and new laundry detergent can maintain long-lasting freshness in textiles. For companies, this means designing new and existing products in a way that allows them to have a demonstrably positive impact and create a pleasant feeling in consumers. We help companies optimize and develop products by designing customized tests, and we identify the right flavors and fragrances for our customers’ products.

Our flavors and fragrances services:

• Characterizing and optimizing odor-active ingredients
• Masking unpleasant odors with pleasant scents
• Verifying how various odors work in cosmetics, body care products and home care products using tests that have been designed specifically for the product in question
• Measuring psychophysiological responses to multisensory stimuli and predicting behavior; e.g., predicting olfactory perception of products and assessing psychophysiological effects of aroma components
• Combining psychological and physiological tests such as emotion questionnaires, stress hormones in saliva, EEG and biometric measurements of heart rate, breathing or skin conductance
• Providing evidence for the effects of products in order to substantiate marketing claims

Creating a sense of well-being for people in indoor locations – including restaurants, offices, cars or planes – involves a range of sensory perceptions working together. Alongside visual and auditory effects, thermal parameters and odors in the environment have a key role to play, as the right room temperature will create an atmosphere in which customers are more likely to make purchases, and pleasant odors will make them feel more comfortable. As experts in multisensory experiences, we therefore consider the full range of sensory influences that have an impact on consumers, and we develop holistic strategies to enhance well-being for people in indoor locations and means of transport.

Our well-being services:

• Developing and optimizing functional fragrances (such as calming or reinvigorating fragrances) for indoor locations
• Optimizing odor applications and making specific recommendations on where to position odor dispensing systems (in order to mask the smell of a new car, for example)
• Observing interactions between olfactory sensations and other sensory influences
• Optimizing climate control in indoor locations and identifying other thermal parameters and their impact on well-being
• Determining the impact of psychological parameters on human perception (e.g., a sense of control)

The primary function of packaging is to protect products – but from a sensory neuroscience perspective, it can serve many other purposes too. Packaging speaks to every human sense, causing it to have a direct impact on consumer behavior. Ideally, packaging should immediately communicate some of the key characteristics of the product inside it: a crinkling bag of chips suggests something fresh and crisp, while biolabels and Nutri-Score labels, for example, provide important information about what is inside the packaging. For this reason, our Applied Multisensory Systems research group looks at every sensory parameter that packaging communicates, and helps companies to develop multisensory packaging that provides consumers with the very best product experience.

Our multisensory packaging services:

• Holistic sensory development of packaging
• Developing packaging using a skillful combination of haptic, visual and auditory influences
• Masking off-odors using pleasant scents
• Measuring psychophysiological responses to multisensory stimuli and predicting behavior
• Developing and testing packaging through our Packaging business unit
• Assessing the impact of marketing claim design on consumers (color, font and choice of words, for example)