Product Research & Development
Optimise Your Product Experience
Great products don’t just happen. They’re shaped by insight. From first impression to final use, we measure how your product is seen, felt and experienced. Whether you’re innovating, reformulating or refining, our neuroscience-backed insights reveal what works and what doesn’t, so you can create products that connect, not just perform.
Our Process
We test both new and existing products to assess how well they align with consumer preferences, from concept and design to sensory experience and competitive positioning. Whether you’re launching a new flavour, refining packaging or innovating a formulation, we help you create multi-sensory products that reflect your brand and meet consumer expectations.
Our product R&D studies are tailored to your innovation pipeline and can include qualitative, behavioural and biometric methods. You can test attributes such as taste, texture, scent, packaging and usability using tools like facial coding, GSR and eye-tracking, paired with structured tasks and interviews. We also offer benchmarking against category competitors.
We capture moment-by-moment emotional and physiological responses to key product interactions, including unboxing, tasting, touching or smelling, using GSR and facial coding. For packaging and visual design, eye-tracking reveals what captures attention and how consumers visually explore the product.
We provide insights into the emotional and sensory experience of your product – how it feels, tastes, smells and looks – and whether those perceptions support your intended brand positioning. We also identify points of friction, unmet expectations, and key emotional moments that shape preference and purchase intent.
From consumer preference maps to sensory-emotional overlays, you’ll receive data-driven recommendations for improving product features, packaging or branding. We help you refine your product to maximise satisfaction, emotional impact and market performance, keeping you one step ahead of competitors.
Case Studies
Product Development for BlankBOTTLE
Neural Sense™ collaborated with BlankBOTTLE, a South African craft wine brand, to create the world’s first Neurowine, blending neuromarketing science with winemaking. Using neuroscience technologies, including an Electroencephalography (EEG) headset, the project assessed winemaker Pieter Walser’s subconscious emotional and cognitive responses to 21 wines from vineyards across South Africa.
By analysing his brain waves and subjective feedback, the study identified the top grape varietals that resonated with his unconscious preferences, overcoming his preconceptions about wine blends. This innovative approach resulted in a unique Neurowine crafted based on Pieter’s subconscious tasting experience.
Packaging Testing for Albany
Tiger Brands partnered with Neural Sense to study the Albany brand’s effectiveness in South Africa’s evolving and fragmented breads category, where new variants, inconsistent designs, and cluttered shelves complicate shopping. Consumers face challenges due to unclear product cues like color, texture, and iconography, which fail to communicate health benefits or intrinsics effectively. The study aimed to enhance pack design to improve shelf standout (salience) and intuitive navigation at 30 feet, 3 feet, and 3 inches from the shopper.
Insights revealed that bread packaging overwhelms consumers with visual noise, leading to heuristic, less-focused decisions, especially under time constraints. The findings informed new pack designs to simplify the shopping experience and strengthen Albany’s presence in this under-researched, high-frequency staple category.
