Research has shown that the consumer wants a different color combination to the traditional pepper traffic light, Red-Yellow-Green. A test was held among consumers in the Rotterdam market hall in the 'Vers van de Teler' unit. The consumer was able to create their own 'traffic light' when buying peppers. Peppers are usually supplied in a pack of three in the so called 'traffic light' colors red, yellow and green. This packaging is often cheaper than three loose peppers. The goal of the research was to find out what color combinations go best with the consumers' needs.
Striking results
Only 6% of purchasing consumers chose the traditional traffic light colors, red, yellow, green. 21% swapped green for orange. Not surprising, as the taste of orange falls much more in line with red and yellow, sweet. Green has a more bitter flavor. The combinations of three red (22%) and three orange (12%) did well. Three green scored 5%.
Conclusions
The research was conducted small scale and the results can only be used as a guideline. The combination of the traffic light as red, orange, yellow is more in line with the customer's needs. What is striking is that the consumer has never indicated this. This is a so called hidden irritation. Something that is viewed as a fact by the consumer, but isn't desirable. Three loose peppers are often a lot more expensive than a traffic light packaging. The consumer has three peppers instead of two for a few cents extra. With the orange pepper in the traffic light the price will be slightly higher, but the consumer will get what they prefer. Even better would be to let the consumer decide for themselves, this saves shelf space and less packaging material is used.
Is there still a market for the green pepper? Yes, of course! Green has a clear target audience with its specific flavor and certainly won't disappear from the shelves. P8 is therefore appealing to have the green pepper positioned differently by offering it separately.