Product benchmarking is a valuable strategy that involves comparing your products with those of your competitors or market leaders to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. It offers a range of benefits, including:
- Insights into how your product compares against competitors, highlighting areas to improve.
- Inspiring innovation and new product development by analysing best practices in the marketplace.
- Help align your product with market expectations, enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Providing a way to effectively differentiate and position your product in the marketplace by creating a unique style.
- Helping to identify weaknesses in your product offering, reducing potential risks and maximising market impact.
Chemical and sensory analysis play a pivotal role in identifying the unique characteristics that a spirit possesses. Advanced analytical methods can be used to create a chemical fingerprint of the product, including elements such as volatile compounds, fatty acids and oak derived compounds from maturation. These all contribute to the aroma, flavour and mouthfeel of the spirit. By establishing a chemical fingerprint, producers can benchmark their products against competitors, identifying unique selling points or areas for improvement.
Sensory analysis remains an essential tool for evaluating the overall quality of a spirit. Trained panels or expert tasters assess the spirit’s aroma, taste, texture and appearance and this information helps to ensure that products meet the desired profile for the consumer. By combining chemical and sensory data, producers can pinpoint the compounds responsible for specific flavours or aromas and adjust the production process accordingly.
Affinity Labs have previously used this approach to define the different styles of market-leading whisky products. Although whisky is a complex spirit, with an array of aroma and flavour compounds, many of the defining characteristics of whiskies derive from the type of grain used, the use of peat and the barrel maturation process, including the use of finishing barrels. This leads to a wide range of whisky styles internationally, with many countries producing whiskies that have unique aroma and flavour characteristics, including Scotland, Ireland, USA, Japan, Canada and Australia.
By applying chemical and sensory profiling techniques, it has been possible to identify the typical characteristics of different global whisky styles due to compositional differences in esters, higher alcohols, fatty acids, terpenes, aldehydes, low-molecular weight sulfur compounds and oak-derived compounds. The Australian whiskies tended to show greater oak-related aroma and flavour profiles (dried spice, caramel and vanilla notes), while the Japanese whiskies generally had higher concentrations of esters and showed elevated floral characters. American whiskies showed strong woody characters, with more intense grain and cereal notes, while Scottish whiskies highlighted the impact that the type of finishing barrel can have, with pronounced fruity, spicy and smoky notes adding to the complexity of the spirit. Product benchmarking is a process that fosters a culture of continuous improvement and helps producers adapt to changing market conditions. It can be an invaluable tool for staying competitive and achieving long-term success in spirits production. Chemical and sensory analysis are indispensable tools for defining and communicating a product’s unique origins and reflecting its production processes. By benchmarking spirit style and comparing against market leading brands, distillers can ensure that their spirit stands out, offering consumers a taste of something truly exceptional.
Clustering of commercial whisky samples using chemical and sensory analysis
