3.2.2. South Korean Snacks

The PCA plot representing texture descriptive results is shown in Figure 4, with three main snack clusters being noted. The largest groups of snacks had moderate intensities mainly described by the cohesiveness of mass, uniformity of the surface, mealy, chalky mouthfeel, moistness, and adhesive. The second group of snacks was profiled by cohesiveness, doughy, evenness of color, puffiness, and dissolvability. The third group of snacks with strong intensities of texture attributes was marked by PC1. The snacks with strong

intensities are represented on the edges of the PCA plot, whereas the snacks with low intensities of textures attributes are located near the center of the PCA plot (Figure 4). The first (PC1) and second principal (PC2) components explained 40.42% of the total variability. The texture attributes contributing to PC1 were dissolvability, cohesiveness, roughness of mass, initial crispness, fracturability, sustained crispness, and roughness of surface. The texture attributes for PC2 were roughness of surface, dissolvability, firmness, fracturability, and initial crispness.

**Figure 4.** PCA plot representing the descriptive texture profiling results of SK snacks. The numbers (including dots) highlighted with blue color represent the snack type as listed in Table 2, and the text (including dots) in red color denotes texture attributes. Three US snacks—Stacy's pita original, Lay's classic potato chips, and Tostitos original corn chips (highlighted in yellow color)—were used to compare texture dimensions with SK snacks.

Large white spaces between and within snack groups are present. For example, the white space around Stacy's pita original chips shows the unavailability of a similar product in the SK snack market. Similarly, white space around the Peacock Florentin Coconut French dessert, prawn snack, and Heyroo noodle snack shows where new texture concepts could be developed to fill these spaces. The developers can use the tested products as references to quantify texture descriptors.

#### **4. Discussion**

This research work adopted a market assessment and product category appraisal approach for new product ideation [90]. This research work applied sensory tools to deliver a pool of new texture concepts. The developer can narrow down the list of new concepts after evaluating consumer response and technical feasibility. The discussion below explains how a step-by-step process can be used to funnel new ideas.

Step 1: Pre-development Homework (Preliminary Market Assessment, Which Markets and Why?)

Detailed preliminary homework was conducted to explore the JP snack market [10], and similar work was done for the SK market, except that an in-country sensory professional was used to help the process move more quickly. The critical sections covered in the pre-development homework includes an assessment of the JP snack market potential, desired snacks market portfolio, the size, feasibility, and area of interest. The other pertinent segments were market selection, location, information acquisition, innovation trends, funds, skilled teams (manpower), product procurement strategy, product shipment, timelines, climate, travel, lodging, boarding, storage, and shipment, etc. Pre-development work is considered important in NPD [3,10,13,18]. During the early stages of NPD, researchers aim to search for novel ideas (for example, texture, ingredient, shape, size, packaging, convenience, and flavor) [1,93,94]. Many researchers reasoned that earlier stage work such as market exploration is most beneficial for the NPD process [1,11,95].

#### Step 2: Market-Driven Product Assessment

A deep understating of the nature of the market, competitive index, and consumer trends are essential for new product ideation and success [96]. Failure to understand market orientation, assessment, and leaving consumers out of the development process could lead to disasters for innovators. The notion of deep market research to discover white space is supported in several studies [12,18,78]. Researchers undertook a detailed market assessment of the markets which included the participation of local consumers from both countries. A multi-stage market assessment process includes different teams exploring different zones of the market, product procurement strategy, consumer interviews, daily sensory evaluation by sensory scientists, information collection, and shipping enough quantities from the market for further investigation [10].

Once snacks were procured, sensory tools such as a 2-dimensional PM were applied to sort the products into groups. The snacks were segmented for texture and flavor modalities. Sixty-five percent of JP snacks had hard textures (ranging from extremely hard to moderately hard). Results indicate that a big block of snacks across the flavor dimension accounted for 49% of the snacks market space. PM results are a close representation of the JP snacks market space.

The PM tool helped to portray each country's existing snack market texture and flavor outlooks. PM enables the researcher to perform a product segmentation and explore the white spaces in the market. New ideas can fill the white spaces by testing with consumers through models, mock-ups, product concepts, and actual prototypes [18,19,97]. Once the new product concepts are extracted, they should be tested to explore insights on consumer relevance [24]. The initial inputs from the consumers on the needs, likings, and preferences can help to screen and envisage these concepts. A thorough market assessment is a key step in NPD [1,96]. Developers also can use any other sensory dimensions to sort products based on their interests. For example, scientists who work on product renovation or novel ingredients can also use PM as a tool to identify an ingredient's market space.

In the SK snacks, PM results showed that 75% of snacks are hard textured, varying from slightly hard to moderately hard. Fifty-nine percent of SK snacks are sweet flavored or had a sweet aftertaste. Among the sweet-flavored snacks, 47% were hard textured and only eight snacks were soft textured. PM results obtained from pooled products show that SK consumers eat more sweet-flavored snacks than savory.

The overwhelming presence of hard bite texture snacks in the JP and SK market also reflects the product characteristics that currently drive consumer interest. This also advances the need to explore detailed texture attributes that form a product profile. Once foundational characteristics such as the hard bite texture are framed, then the developer seek to measure these texture attributes via descriptive analysis. By identifying what texture attributes form product characteristics (for example crispness, fracturability, firmness in case of snacks) the developers can cement inputs for the subsequent technical prototype developmental stage [2,8,9,26,98].

Large white spaces were discovered on the soft texture axis for both countries. In addition, considerable white space is available across the savory–sweet flavor dimension with a soft texture profile in the JP market (Figure 1). This may be related to the lack of creative product development and marketing in that space, lack of consumer interest in those textures or flavors, or a lack of technology to satisfactorily produce such products. We believe that based on the products encountered, the white space likely results from a lack of product development in that space and the lack of technology to produce products suitable for that space. A number of freshly prepared "street snacks" with a softer, sweeter profile were available in JP, but those products would be difficult or impossible to reproduce today because of distribution and shelf-life issues. For example, a seemingly popular snack of prepared seafood and egg that was both sweet and soft in texture could not be mass-produced and sold because of shelf-life issues based on both sensory changes over time and food safety issues. The expansion of this area through both technology innovation and creative product design and development could bring new textures and flavors into the existing white spaces. Because 65% of the JP snacks evaluated were savory, the potential opportunity to create sweet or sweet and savory snacks is great.

Step 3: Opportunity Definition (Distinct, Early Features, Requirements, and Product Specifications)

Another essential part of NPD is defining the project scope, target market, as well as product features, attributes, and specifications [18,99]. The PCA plots generated from the sensory profiling of snacks can be used as guidelines to frame the sensory profile of new concepts and the direction of potential new product definitions and specifications. Descriptive profiling provided essential elements of the existing snacks such as appearance (color), shape, flavor, and texture attributes (physical components). These key attributes and components can be manipulated in iterative or "structured ways" to come up with new product configurations [54,94]. For example, the attributes of the PC1 and PC2 contributed the most to explaining the total variability from a list of key texture and appearance attributes. The strengths of these texture attributes are measurable and manipulatable to predict and develop new product candidates. Since texture has been identified as an important function of snack foods from which derive consumer desired benefits [64,100], and serves as the base of many snack food development projects, knowing those existing attributes is key information, both to provide reference points for "me-too" products and for companies interested in finding new opportunities. The descriptive analysis helped to quantify product attributes and translate them into measurable product characteristics [55].

The white spaces between snack groups identified by their texture attributes represent the gaps where new prototypes can be placed. The existing snacks' (near to white space) key sensory specifications could be used as a starting point for prototype development. Developers can tweak the key sensory texture intensities by using consumer feedback. Sensory profiles of prototype products can be plotted on the same PCA plot to verify texture positioning. For example, there is a scarcity of snacks that are fibrous, cohesive, mealy, moist, and have a waxy mouthfeel for the JP market (Figure 3). Similarly, wide product space is available for snacks with other key sensory attributes such as firmness, chew count, and gritty.

For the SK snacks, large white spaces were found between and within each snack group (Figure 2). For example, the white space around Stacy's pita original chips shows the unavailability of a similar product in the SK snack market. The developers can use the tested products as reference products to quantify texture specifications. Throughout the NPD process, the prototypes should be compared with the target product for the key attributes and other desirable sensory characteristics identified in descriptive profiling. The inclusion of either target or main competitive products makes it easier for developers to evaluate whether the newly developed prototypes adhere to the desired product concept [101].

Descriptive analysis is valuable for the replacement of essential components. A product developer can either replace essential components (for example, ingredient, flavors, or base material) of the product with something novel or close to the immediate background of the product that can accomplish the same necessary function. For example, the replacement of oil with plant sterols in mayonnaise. The plant sterols not only fulfill the

functional requirement of providing structure and flavor carrying ability but also added health benefits by reducing serum cholesterol [24,102]. Once the desired product is fully developed, multiple consumer studies must be carried out to evaluate hedonics towards the newly developed product(s) and comparison must be made with current or competitive products. The foremost benefit of performing the descriptive analysis throughout the NPD is a detailed understanding of products. In addition, descriptive analysis is usually more cost-effective than consumer studies.

A product developer can also make several copies of an existing snack component and alter them in creative ways. For example, the development of purple corn tortilla chips on the line of regular yellow corn tortilla chips. Another creative way would be increasing the plant protein component of existing products for delivering more protein within existing product texture space. A smart developer can include several ideas (for example, environmentally sustainable ingredients, novel ingredients, plant proteins, less processing, and natural) to create niche product spaces but maintain similar texture profiles.

Step 4: Opportunity for Fine-Tuning (Iterative, Prototype Development, Test, Feedback, and Revise Iterations)

In rapidly changing consumer needs, it is not always possible to identify consumer needs and obtain correct product definitions. Developers should use iterative steps to build prototypes to fulfill identified white spaces. Sometimes, consumer requirements change in the time that passes between the beginning and end of development. Thus, the original product definition no longer satisfies consumer requirements.

Often consumers are not clear or fail to articulate what they need in the product until they see the product [103,104]. Thus, it is difficult to obtain an accurate product definition in the early stages of product development if the developer solely depends on explicit consumer inputs for idea generation. Because of limited exposure, consumer inputs are believed to restrict new ideas [26]. Instead, the product definition should be driven by presenting successive versions of the prototypes to consumers for feedback and verification. Iterative development is a dynamic process to capture accurate product definition by presenting a series of deliberative iterative prototypes to consumers. Therefore, the iterative development of prototypes is fluid, captures changing information, and floats the final products close to consumer requirements [18,26].

Information such as what consumers like or dislike and the value consumers see in prototypes should be gathered. The developer can revise, reset or plan the next (future) iteration about the benefits required, propositions, and product design based on gathered feedback.

#### Step 5: Opportunity Feasibility (Marketing, R&D, Engineering, Production)

Only those prototypes that address the needs of the consumer will be most likely to succeed and should be offered to product and other technology specialists to develop into a tangible product. Similarly, marketing must be involved to determine how products and market needs can be paired and promoted to produce successful launch and sales data.
