Tag Archives: Consumer testing

Brand Promise

Electrolux EKF7000 – The award winning coffee maker that beeps when the coffee is ready

Welcome to the Electolux EKF7000, the award-winning coffee maker! >>.

A coffee maker that beeps when the coffee is ready, how handy is that! Very handy you might think! That is what the product designers at Electrolux must have been thinking as well. They unfortunately forgot two little details:

1) The sound level of the beep cannot be adjusted (the default “beeps” are similar to a fire alarm)

2) There is no way to turn of the notification

The issue is obvious: think about the scenario of people living in an apartment building brewing coffee in the early morning while the rest of the family is still sleeping. As soon as the coffee is ready the whole family will wake up because of the fire alarm sound level beeps. So, you basically have three choices: 1) no more coffee in the morning, 2) wake up the family, 3) sell this machine and purchase a new one from a different brand and never look back to Electrolux again… a consumer might think: they disappointed me once, why would they not do it again !

This underlines that any new household product no matter how well designed should really be tested in normal environments by normal people. I am sure that at least this beep “feature” would have been removed to make the product better and usable.

General

Packaging designers… do not forget to do a real consumer test before going to production

With a little baby our porridge consumption has gone through the roof these days! We are using organic porridge from Elovena (Raisio).
The porridge comes in a box that according to the manufacturer is new and very easy to use (“Uusi helppo”). I sooo wished the packaging designers at Elovena would have done some real consumer testing. I do not mean testing in a lab or focus groups but testing with parents who are using this product in the morning. This is a potential scenario: alarm goes off in the morning, parents step half sleepy out of bed, grab a box of Elovena from the closet. Sip coffee, pour oat flakes in the measuring cup and then #%&¤/#”%” oat flakes all over the kitchen table! This is what has happened to me now a couple of times.

It is easy to explain though: take a look at the package. You need to open the lid which completely destroys the stability of the package (see the fold in the carton where my hand is).

So when pouring the flakes in the measuring cup you need to balance the pack well in your hand otherwise you simply have flakes all over the place. Another huge downside with this kind of package is that it is very slow to fill the measuring cup with the correct amount.

So please Elovena change your “super easy” organic package to your standard package. It is really much easier to use, especially in those early mornings!

You are of course invited to our home to do real consumer testing, just arrive early 🙂