The Business Question:

Popular food and seasoning producer, Louisiana Fish Fry, wanted to launch a new seasoning for seafood boils and needed to test concepts FAST.

How could they conceptualize and test the product and its attributes in the market to ensure success on their rapid timeline?

The Answer:

AI Led Concept Testing

Studies like these typically take weeks, but that didn’t work with Louisiana Fish Fry’s timeline.

MDRG knew the answer: AI-moderated interviews with Outset.ai.

Outset.ai plus our concept testing platform allowed us to administer and analyze quantitative survey and moderated qualitative interviews with over 100 respondents in a manner of hours, not weeks.

Why MDRG Likes AI Moderating with Outset.ai 

• Adaptive Interviewing
  The AI-Moderator adapts its questioning based on the respondent’s answers, delving deeper into specific topics or adjusting follow-up questions.
• Reduced Social Desirability Bias 
  Participants are more comfortable being honest and have a richer dialogue as they are less concerned with an AI moderator's "opinions" than a human's.
• Cost-Effective Data Collection 
  Moderators can manage simultaneous interviews, reaching a larger number of participants within a shorter timeframe.
• Automated Data Collection and Transcription 
  AI transcribers and organizes interview responses, saving researchers time and effort in data management and analysis.
• Consistent and Personalized Interviews
  AI moderators don't make mistakes: there is no inconsistency in moderator behavior that could influence responses, ensuring a standardized interview that feels personal to the respondent.

What Did We Learn?

Short Answer: A LOT

Our express concept testing and AI-moderated interviews gave us insights on areas
like these—and helped guide the product development and launch process for
Louisiana Fish Fry's seasoning concept.

• Awareness & Usage
  of seafood boil brands
• Appeal
  and reactions around seafood seasoning concept
• Jobs To Be Done
  Concept understanding and insights into the problem it will solve
• Purchase Intent
  Familiarity, appeal, intent of a niche seafood style
• Flavor Profiles
  Most appealing flavors and preferred spice level
• Package Claims
  that matter most for a product like this
• Occasions
  Seafood types consumers would use this for product
• Naming
  and product naming preferences 
• Behavior
  Unique approaches to seafood boils

What the participants had to say... 

Product adds variety  while being easy to use
“It sounds like it’s very easy to use. It’s always nice to have other options when preparing for a seafood boil."

​
"I like to try different things. This product seems like it would add a new dimension to boiled seafood."
​

Gives a restaurant-quality experience without the price ​of dining out
"I absolutely love a seafood boil, but one of the main things is the cost. However, if I could find a product that gives me the same feeling of eating at a restaurant and is easy to use, I would surely buy it for all my seafood boil needs.”
 

Authenticity comes through in packaging statements 
"Authentic LA flavor is important because your name is Louisiana and easy to use is important also because we usually make our own crawfish sauce, and it’s not hard to do, so for me to buy yours, it would have to be flavorful and easy to use. If not, I will just stick with mine.”

Louisiana Fish Fry ​is a trusted brand ​
"I prefer the Louisiana Fish Fry brand boil seasoning. I like the idea of being able to add some flavors to certain guests' food and not others. And I like the idea of tossing other foods in it, like fried potatoes or even steak."​
"I like the flavors, and I trust the brand.”

What Did We Deliver?

Louisiana Fish Fry received a quantitative and qualitative report complete with a full analysis and breakdown of our findings in just 2 weeks at half the cost of a traditional hybrid concept study.

• Consumer-Driven Concept Direction
  A robust set of findings, typical of quantitative research, that includes detailed product naming direction, target flavor profiles, ideal product features, and packaging input with the confidence of data at scale. 
• Rich Qualitative-style Findings 
  The richness and depth of qualitative research ensuring the brand fully understands "the whys" of consumer perspectives in their own words. 
• Expedited, Rapid Results
  Quick-turn, rapid project timing allowing Louisiana Fish Fry to be nimble and responsive with internal and external customers. 
• Cost Savings 
  A substantial set of findings and specific product direction at a scale that would simply not be feasible at that budget with traditional hybrid research. 

With the use of this research Louisiana Fish Fry

successfully launched a new product on time.