1.
Controlling the environment in which
your product is evaluated thanks to an
immersive multi-sensory room
Case study on alcohol-free beers

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Repères and AgroParisTech have teamed up to work on taste test environments.
Alcohol-free beers have been tested in 2 environments: discotheque and beach
thanks to an innovative immersive multi-sensory room designed by Repères!

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Environment impacts heavily on how a product is evaluated.
Getting as close as possible to real-life consumption conditions means improving
the quality of the product experience. But it’s difficult to test some products in
conditions close to reality!
Repères’ innovation: the immersive multi-sensory room*!
You choose the environment: what is seen, smelt, heard, felt…
And then we study the product / environment interactions.
Our partner, AgroParisTech, has also been involved in this type of research for a long
time.
Background
* creator: Jérôme Gachet

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Questions to answer and objective
In order to answer these questions, the study aims to:
Measure and compare the performances of 4 flavoured alcohol-free
beers in terms of overall opinion, emotional activation (R3M) and
image, in 3 separate test situations:
Classic neutral environment
Discotheque environment
Beach environment
What are the effects of creating an environment via an immersive multi-
sensory room on the product performances of alcohol-free beer?
Does immersion produce clearer-cut results?

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Methodology
A branded organoleptic test in 3 environments: neutral, discotheque and beach
3 independent test cells: each respondent to evaluate the products in just one environment
4 alcohol-free beers tested in sequential monadic order (different order based on a rotation plan)
Self-completion questionnaire on a tablet (2 min per product) - 3 questions: overall opinion / emotional
activation (3 words Repères - R3M) / image
Cell 1
Neutral environment
Cell 2
Discotheque environment
Cell 3
Beach environment
Per environment: 80 beer consumers aged 18-65,
non hostile to alcohol-free beer

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Detailed presentation of the 3 test environments
•Respondents isolated in sensory booths
• 8 respondents per session
•Sessions from 10am to 6pm
•2 min piece of music per product
•Smell: pina colada
•Light projectors and smoke for nightclub
effect
•4 respondents per session
•Sessions from 9.30am to 7pm
•2 min piece of music per product
•Sound of waves and seagulls
•Smells: sun tan cream and sea air
•Sensations of heat, wind and spray
•4 respondents per session
•Sessions from 9.30am to 7pm
Classic room
Immersive room
Discotheque
Beach

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Beach
environment
Learnings and fields of application (1/3)
A test environment tailored to the specificities of the product in
terms of the time or place it is most likely to be consumed reveals
true product performance enabling us to draw conclusions
based as close as possible on consumer reality.
While the results for most of the alcohol-free beers proved fairly similar from one environment
to another, immersion revealed some real differences in evaluation of one of the
products, which was clearly more positively evaluated in the beach environment.
Neutral
environment
Discotheque
environment
7.3 7.6 ++6.9Overall opinion /10
Emotional activation
score R3M 25 19
33 ++
“fruity”
“indulgent”
“pleasant”
“thirst-quenching”
Greater sensoriality in
terms of emotional
content
“Pleasure” item 49% 56% ++41%
Product C

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Learnings and fields of application (2/3)
To have a coherent product strategy, a brand that, for example,
wants to be the n°1 reference for ‘partying’ needs to test its
products in a tailored environment.
27% 41%
“For partying” item
For the 4 alcohol-free beers, the link between the product and partying is stronger in the
discotheque environment than in the neutral environment. But the best product for
partying in nightclubs is not the one that comes out top in the neutral environment.
Product A
Product B
Product C
Product D
19% 39%
36% 42%
33% 54%
Neutral
environment
Discotheque
environment

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Learnings and fields of application (3/3)
Immersion gives rise to much more relevant and actionable
results when it comes to products not consumed at just any
time of the day (e.g.: cheese, alcoholic drinks…).
As expected for alcohol-free beers, in the neutral environment overall opinion is lower in the
morning than in the afternoon. One very interesting observation: immersion erases the
morning vs. afternoon effect, thus eliminating this bias. A similar trend is observed on
the “indulgent” item.
Cumul des 4 produits
Jugement global /10 6,6 -- 7,6 ++
Item "Gourmand" 33% -- 55% ++
7,37,27,26,8
39%38% 46% 40%
Matin Après-midi Matin Après-midiMatin Après-midi
Beach
environment
Neutral
environment
Discotheque
environment
Morning Afternoon Morning Afternoon Morning Afternoon
Total of the 4 products
Overall opinion / 10 6.6 -- 7.6 ++ 6.8 7.2 7.2 7.3
“Indulgent” item 33% -- 55% ++ 38% 39% 46% 40%

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Extremely encouraging feedback from our partner,
convinced of the benefits of our immersive room!
“It’s a really convincing technique, which
opens up some extremely interesting
possibilities for product tests in food but
also non food.
In my opinion, it has the potential to really
blow new life into consumer research!”
Julien Delarue, lecturer & researcher, AgroParisTech

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The Repères immersive multi-sensory room:
an innovation widening the possibilities
in terms of test environment!

12.
20 rue Bouvier • 75011 Paris
Tél. : 33 (0)1 44 29 60 00 • Fax : 33 (0)1 44 29 60 01
E-mail : reperes@reperes.net • www.reperes.net
SAS au capital de 50 000 euros - RCS Paris B 319 308 409
Membre de Syntec Études Marketing et Opinion
contacts
Etudes de marché, sociales et d’opinion & Access panel pour les études de
marché, études sociales et d’opinion.
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respect de la déontologie et des bonnes pratiques professionnelles
(méthodologie, recueil, contrôle et analyse de l’information, restitution des
résultats) sont contrôlés régulièrement par AFNOR Certification - 11 rue
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Catherine Schutz
Partner
01 44 29 60 04
c.schutz@reperes.net
Anne-Charlotte Brasset
Group manager
01 70 37 60 67
a.brasset@reperes.net