Product Development Methods for Non-Verbalizing Consumers
AssigneeBig Heart Pet Brands
InventorsJill VILLAREAL, Philip A. GABLE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure relates to methods for assessing the emotional response of non-verbalizing consumers to products and product alternatives. The disclosure further relates to methods for assessing the emotional responses of humans to viewing interactions between non-verbalizing consumers and products or product alternatives. These assessments, separately or together, can guide the design and content of products and materials used to inform potential human purchasers about products intended for non-verbalizing consumers particularly when the viewing-humans stand in a custodial or ownership relationship to the non-verbalizing consumers.
Claims20
A method of assessing purchaser preference for embodiments of a product intended for consumption by non-verbalizing consumers, the method comprising
- separately assessing spontaneous emotional responses exhibited by each of a plurality of human observers as each observer observes provision of at least a first embodiment of a product and a second embodiment of a product to one or more animals of the same species as the non-verbalizing consumers, and
- comparing i) the responses of the observers of provision of the first embodiment to the animals and ii) the responses of the observers of provision of the second embodiment to the animals in order to determine a preference of the observers as a surrogate for the preference of purchasers.
A method of developing a product for non-verbalizing consumers, the method comprising
- producing first and second embodiments of the product,
- providing the first and second embodiments to individual consumers,
- recording spontaneous physiological responses in each of a plurality of human observers as each observer observes provision of the first and second embodiments of the products to the consumers,
- comparing i) the responses of the observers of provision of the first embodiment to the consumers and ii) the responses of the observers of provision of the second embodiment to the consumers in order to determine which embodiment induces the more positive responses in the observers as a surrogate for the preference of the consumers, and
- incorporating into the product the embodiment preferred by the observers.
A method of designing a product for non-verbalizing consumers, the method comprising
- separately assessing spontaneous emotional responses exhibited by each of a plurality of human observers as each observer observes provision of at least a first embodiment of the product and a second embodiment of the product to at least one animal of the same species as the non-verbalizing consumers, and
- comparing i) the responses of the observers to provision of the first embodiment and ii) the responses of the observers to provision of the second embodiment to the consumers in order to determine a preference of the observers, and
- incorporating into the design of the product the embodiment preferred by the observers.
A method of assessing perceived preference of non-verbalizing consumers for features of a product, the method comprising
- separately assessing spontaneous emotional responses exhibited by each of a plurality of human observers as each observer observes provision of at least a first embodiment of the product that incorporates a first feature and a second embodiment of the product that incorporates a second feature to at least one animal of the same species as the non-verbalizing consumers, and
- comparing i) the responses of the observers to provision of the first embodiment and ii) the responses of the observers to provision of the second embodiment to the consumers in order to determine a preference of the observers as a surrogate for the preference of the consumers for the first and second features.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.