We all need to feel involved
Don't you just hate it when someone shouts out the crossword answer just as you were about to work it out for yourself? However easy it might seem, you want to do it yourself. If they could just give you a clue rather than blurt out the answer. And that's how many of us feel when faced with the ready-made answer that is today's prepared meal.
Call it puritan work ethic throwback or catholic guilt trip, either way it would be nice to be involved. Early instant cake mixes from the US failed because UK housewives felt they were cheating by just adding water. So manufacturers played along and re-engineered the mix so that it needed the addition of an egg--a raw egg that needed cracking and mixing. Well my my! That's cooking isn't it? So 1950s mums felt validated and the mixes sold like, well.....Hot cakes.
In this altogether more self-confident age we are quite happy to slap a frozen pizza in the microwave one night and then entertain a friend another night with Gordon Ramsay's baked sea bass and lemon couscous. So one of the challenges of the product development team is: at what point to step back and get the customer involved in his or her own dining experience? It sounds trite, but I don't want the same uniform slam- -pause-- ping experience every night.
It would be a mistake to try and segment the market too rigidly. The harassed trainee solicitor working late and getting home to an empty flat may welcome a rapid caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlet that's ready in ten minutes and drowned with generous slugs of shiraz and Alan Sugar on TV. But come the week-end he may want to impress his soulmate....well ok.... his mum with a pièce de résistance crafted from the finest ingredients, lovingly lavished with a Marsala jus or even Bisto gravy. The point is; we need a say in our own meal but we also need creative, expert help to point us in the right direction. Anyone for burgers and McCain's?
Call it puritan work ethic throwback or catholic guilt trip, either way it would be nice to be involved. Early instant cake mixes from the US failed because UK housewives felt they were cheating by just adding water. So manufacturers played along and re-engineered the mix so that it needed the addition of an egg--a raw egg that needed cracking and mixing. Well my my! That's cooking isn't it? So 1950s mums felt validated and the mixes sold like, well.....Hot cakes.
In this altogether more self-confident age we are quite happy to slap a frozen pizza in the microwave one night and then entertain a friend another night with Gordon Ramsay's baked sea bass and lemon couscous. So one of the challenges of the product development team is: at what point to step back and get the customer involved in his or her own dining experience? It sounds trite, but I don't want the same uniform slam- -pause-- ping experience every night.
It would be a mistake to try and segment the market too rigidly. The harassed trainee solicitor working late and getting home to an empty flat may welcome a rapid caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlet that's ready in ten minutes and drowned with generous slugs of shiraz and Alan Sugar on TV. But come the week-end he may want to impress his soulmate....well ok.... his mum with a pièce de résistance crafted from the finest ingredients, lovingly lavished with a Marsala jus or even Bisto gravy. The point is; we need a say in our own meal but we also need creative, expert help to point us in the right direction. Anyone for burgers and McCain's?
By Craig on 13 February 2011 07:28
By Francis on 13 February 2011 07:28
By Priya on 13 February 2011 07:28