What about testers?

[Absinthe]

Believe it or not he may be a great tester. He may pick things apart because he is trying to make a joke, but the things he says in jest many may think and never say.

Remember, if you read the ingredients, country time lemonade has artificial lemon flavoring, and lemon pledge has real lemons in it.

 

[soapqueen]

The only tester who you really know likes the soap bigtime, is the one who asks to buy another bar.
As soapers, we are so into it, we can forget that most people just wash with the stuff, and unless it is vastly different to the average syn det bar, wont notice any difference. I gave out free samples to about 25 people I work with. I only got one woman come back for more. But I don't take it to heart.
If the soap is made properly, i.e. looks o.k. and is not lye heavy, and gives a reasonable lather (apart from the minority of Castille lovers out there), then to my mind the thing that sets my soaps apart from syn det bars is natural ingredients, which certainly do seem to help some people with skin problems. So I have resigned myself to the fact that my market is confined to people who really want natural ingredients, or people with skin problems.
That's my opinion, anyway.

 

[bombus]

In general, family, friends and coworkers will have a tendency to simply give polite answers with as much sincerity as they do to the greeting of "Hi, how are you" or "Do you like my new haircut."

I found this with friends. For my part, I am so anxious to know how they like something, that I have to bite my tongue to keep from asking. Then, they are usually non-committal, afraid of hurting my feelings, I guess. I don't want them to feel like I'm always "talking soap".

I have an associate who is a classically trained french pastry chef (no longer working in that field). He will try out recipes and when he hands stuff out, the response he gets back is constructively worthless. We have discussed many culinary topics (I have worked in that field in a past life... well in my youth not in the woo-woo sort of way) and I have taken the time to discuss texture and mouth-feel and subtle nuances of flavor. These are the type of feedback he has needed, but very few actually can or do give it, they simply appreciate the free yummy.

I have recruited workers from two assisted living facilities in my town. I like using a group of workers where I can make one delivery every two weeks, instead of driving around to 18 or 20 different homes. I include a self-addressed, stamped survey on the previous product. I have asked them to fill those questionnaires and drop them in the mail before they try the new product. I have about 4 that are very fast in their response. The rest dribble in, sometimes weeks later.

I may have found a solution, though. This week, I just didn't deliver a sample to the ones that have not returned the most recent survey. When they see their co-workers receive their "goodies", maybe they will be motivated to go home & fill it out. Or, not and I can drop them from my list of testers.

I think you will find similar situation with soaps. Many people will like or dislike a color or fragrance, or curse that they can't work up a lather or that it falls apart too soon, but can't really put their finger on why they like or dislike it.

Yes. I have tried to get around some of this by keeping everything unscented. I cannot keep them uncolored, though, as they have to be able to differentiate between samples. But I try to keep them very plain. Actually, my best testers are familiar with hand made soap and seem to be very thoughtful in their responses. What I need to do is weed out the quasi-participants, and keep adding others to have a cadre of high quality respondents.

My son, who is in marketing, says that my response numbers are right in there, about 25% high quality information.

In general, it has been frustratingly slow- and not cheap- Guess I'll have to chalk it up to R&D