Intro Market Insight

To create food products that generate the maximum value and differentiation for our clients, MANE uses a 360° approach. In doing so, our international experts categorise their work into 4 strategic intelligence platforms:

Consumer insight

We put our consumers at the heart of everything we do. Understanding their preferences and uncovering their unmet needs is essential to developing successful food and beverage products.

How do consumers’ tastes evolve? What flavour profiles do they prefer? How do these preferences vary from one country to the next? How do we capture the most relevant flavour trends to extend the product range of our clients? How do we enhance their recipes and flavours to support their brand positioning or seize growth opportunities?

Using qualitative and quantitative research, product testing, innovative methodologies and proprietary tools, MANE integrates sensory and consumer insight to support our customers in their conception and development of innovative, successful products. We analyse and capture the taste preferences and innovation drivers across all food and beverage applications around the world. In doing so, MANE garners valuable insight that can be placed at the service of our partners, in order to provide personalised guidance in the development of consumer-winning products.

The MANE flavour division conducts an average of:

  • 400 consumer interviews each day
  • 100 000+ interviews per year

How do we re-invent a strawberry flavour?

MANE explored consumer perception and the appeal of strawberry in 9 countries across 4 continents (4,200+ respondents). Our findings show that strawberry conveys powerful emotional and sensorial representations, which can vary from one country to the next. The survey also investigated the most enticing flavour combinations to renew this very popular flavour.

Understanding consumers’ preferences and uncovering their unmet needs stand as the key to success in food & drink product development.

SENSORY INSIGHT

Flavour preferences are determined by numerous cultural factors and individual experiences. Due to different food cultures, Americans, Spaniards and Chinese do not all appreciate the same flavours. Understanding flavour preferences is essential to efficiently respond to consumer needs. MANE carefully integrates sensory tools and expertise to ensure we create the right product adapted to each market when creating flavours.

MANE owns a global proprietary descriptor tool, containing more than 300 formulas dedicated to 40 sweet tonalities and 20 savoury ones, including vanilla, citrus, mint, chicken and beef. This rare tool, shared by all our sensory affiliates, enables us to decipher the flavour profiles corresponding to each market. Through the daily evaluation conducted by our expert panellists in 10 internal sensory labs around the world, MANE’s sensory insights guide local flavour creators in their work, ensuring we offer winning flavours to our customers on every continent.

How does vanilla ice cream taste in Europe?

MANE has been studying the vanilla profile of the EMEA’s ice cream market leaders since 2000, as well as consumers’ preferences. This comprehensive sensory study has demonstrated an evolution in vanilla preferences over the past years, as well as distinct variations amongst brands’ representation of vanilla, ranging from light and milky ice creams, to intense, woody vanilla creations. Through partnerships between MANE’s sensory scientists team and research institutes and universities, we have developed the most efficient methodologies to support our clients. Faced with challenges regarding the perception of mouthfeel or the complexity of sugar / sweeteners, we can provide best-in-class solutions for various food and drink categories. As we believe that knowledge is power only if shared, MANE’s customers have access to our sensory insight, which enables them to design winning products aligned with market flavour preferences.

Sensory Insight

Each year, MANE’s expert panels evaluate thousands of food products sourced from over 50 countries.

CHEFS’ INSPIRATION

Culinary Chefs are visionaries of taste. As artists, they push the limits of the gustative experience to new boundaries. By working in close collaboration with these culinary composers, MANE’s creativity is consistently nourished.The development of a culinary creation begins prior to the Chef’s work in kitchen. It begins in the flavour lab, with the selection of raw materials that create the tastes and smells that provide the final products with the perfect balance.

MANE has established partnerships with several renowned Culinary Chefs worldwide that are recognised as trendsetters in fine dining. These innovative Executive and Pastry Chefs are celebrated for their ability to invent new methods of cooking, thereby influencing the culinary landscape. By collaborating with these individuals, MANE is able to transpose their unique ideas to the creation of tastes and smells for the food industry.

Focus on the César Ritz partnership

In 2016, MANE and the César Ritz colleges of Switzerland established a unique partnership to provide an enriching environment for chefs, students, flavourists and chemists. Through this initiative, they have the chance to exchange and, together, imagine the taste of the future.

In addition to exchanging with external Chefs and Pâtissiers, MANE employs several Culinary Chefs with fine dining backgrounds. These in-house Chefs organise seminars for customers, assist in product development and maintain direct contact with Chefs outside of the company. Their role is to ensure that flavours developed will fulfil consumers’ fine dining expectations. They are also responsible for monitoring evolving international culinary trends, as well as exploring unchartered territories to inspire our flavourists, marketers and application experts.

Chefs Inspiration

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