When I was in 6th grade my teacher's son, who was a medic for the army, came to visit our class to talk about his experience overseas. I don't remember a lot of what he talked about except one thing. MREs- Meals Ready to Eat. The science behind them I found so cool when first being introduced to them. One food he brought was beef strew, and if he broke a certain area of the packet and mixed water with is the beef stew would come to life. I seriously thought that it was black magic.
He handed around samples of the beef stew for us to try and the entire class thought that they were pretty good. I remember it looking and tasting just as any beef stew that I had. However, when we were all done he made this comment," MREs get gross, fast." Well then.
To this day I have wanted to taste again a MRE and see what changes can be made in order to make it better. However for now I'll stick with my inconsistent meal plan of frozen food, ramen, and fruit. Every once in a while I find myself downing a case of Pringles with ease. I'll change my approach by taking one out at a time, to a small stack and then tell myself "okay, that's enough, Julia". It just kills me that a Pringle canister fits perfectly into a cup holder in a vehicle. Because that stack of Pringles went through a long growling process of what appeals to a consumers. The thickness, taste, shape were all considered.
I found the science behind our addiction to junk food really fascinating. The amount of time and dedication towards a simple food product such as spaghetti sauce was very interesting. Example being, it took months of research to learn what kinds of sauces were the most popular. Three categories were devised: Plain, spicy, and extra chunky. Discovering that Prego did not offer an extra chuck option took them by surprise. They revamped there formula and put them on the shelves. The thought process, simple data collecting, and implementation of Howard Moskowitz revolutionized the food industry thought process. oH
I will never forget the day I walked into a super market and saw Lays' southern biscuits and gravy flavored potato chips on the shelf. A product from the "Lays do us a flavor" contest. What kind of process did this flavor go through to become a thing? I am by no means dissing on someone's idea. The person who created this flavor, Hailey Green, won 1 million dollars for her flavor. However, I cannot see how empathy was applied to this process.
While in deep thought it reoccured to me that's the point of consumer behavior. My ideas, thoughts, and motives are all based on the same notions . Everyones ideas, thoughts, and motives can come from the same question. It is how someone applies there ideas, thoughts, and motives which differentiate us. Yeah, I kinda see biscuits and gravy chips as gross, unattractive, and pointless, but someone doesn't. Which is perfectly ok. Everyone's needs should be address.
P.S.- So I'm confident that I have a photo of a chipmunk in Yellowstone National Park snacking on a chip, but I can't find it. So Yahoo Answer user Pebbles will have to do. Till next time.
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