The challenge

Our client, a blue-chip confectionary brand, wanted support gaining a deeper implicit understanding of 4 specific terms (Chocolate, Cocoa, Smooth and Creamy) used in the chocolate category by consumers, to inform several business activities, such as product design, positioning and communication.

    • What we did

    Fieldwork was conducted in two stages: 1-to-1 in-depth interviews helped us uncover hidden perceptions, associations, and feelings with the 4 terms, as well as extract themes, whilst the online deep-dive survey that followed focused on validating the findings from the first stage and further exploring implicit perceptions and associations with the terms

    What we found out

    • Market differences play an important role in the interpretation of the terms, especially for Chocolate and Cocoa.
    • Some consumption occasions have stronger associations with Chocolate, whilst others do with Cocoa.
    • Implicit associations are different to the considered associations, especially for Chocolate and Cocoa.
    • Creamy and Smooth have similar consumption occasions.
    • Although Creamy and Smooth are perceived as being very similar, implicit associations pick up subtle but important differences.
    • Emotionally, some terms are linked to higher enjoyment and excitement than others.

    • Testimonial

    "Spark Emotions helped us uncover hard to articulate thoughts, emotions and associations through a range of implicit methods that were combined with explicit methods to provide compelling multifaceted insights. We look forward to working with them again."

    David Fenning - Consumer Sciences