With No Industry Standards for Vaping, How Can Yan Zhongce Define Standard Flavor Benchmarks?

In the summer of 9,Leo, an interior designer in Nanchang, bought a certain brand of disposable e-cigarettes in an ordinary community store. Faced with three brands that had no recognition of, and the store owner's sentence that "these are selling well," he was almost "blind" when making purchasing decisions.

It took a lot of effort and even use his teeth to tear open the hard and uneven outer plastic film. He stuffed something completely different from the cigarette he was used to into his mouth and took a puff according to the strength of his usual smoking. The strong stimulation in his throat caused him to cough, and then there was an obvious "aroma" in his mouth, vaguely like the taste of a certain fruit... For a long time since then, whenever he chatted with others about electronics, Loe would have a clear attitude."E-cigarettes really don't work. The taste is not good, and the product is not good..."

Guo Xiaoyu, co-founder/COO of Tobacco Testing, mentioned that it is not an isolated case for consumers to have such a situation. Consumers 'perception of e-cigarettes is completely different from that of mature categories of products. If a person buys a certain shampoo that is not working well, he will think that the shampoo of this brand is not good, but will not think that there is a problem with the shampoo category; But e-cigarettes are a new category. When a consumer comes into contact with a bad e-cigarette product for the first time, he will think that the entire e-cigarette category is not good.

At present, the e-cigarette category not only lacks standards, but also has no truly "authoritative" brands and products in the minds of mass consumers; e-cigarette taste standards can lower the "choice threshold" for mass consumers when coming into contact with e-cigarettes., it can quickly try high-quality, representative value products, thereby avoiding "misleading" some products that are not good enough due to the lack of industry "standards".

For a new category like e-cigarettes, consumers need intuitive and perceptible "standard samples" of physical products to serve as consumption reference and guidance; consumers do not need "deep learning" to become "experts", but rely on "standard products"."We can recognize high-quality and representative products of the category with the lowest consumption choice threshold; similarly," standard products "can also become a reference benchmark for other brands in the industry to continuously improve and optimize their products.

Who is Yanzhong Testing?

Who is it for the sake of smoking? What kind of organization and platform would come to test e-cigarette taste standard samples? The author saw the following introduction in the agency's information:

Tobacco Mass Testing is the first vertical community for tobacco product mass testing in China. It provides legal tobacco consumers with more comprehensive tobacco product information through the "professional assessment + social crowdsourcing" model. In line with the principle of "improving legal tobacco consumers 'right to know", Tobacco Media Testing provides strategic services to tobacco companies based on the real user data accumulated on the platform.

"We have a very deep professional accumulation in the field of traditional tobacco. The pre-market testing of new products in the consumer dimension and the stability testing of mature products of major cigarette brands that you are familiar with are all done by the cigarette mass testing platform..." When referring to the development and history of cigarette mass testing, Guo Xiaoyu told the author that the cigarette mass testing platform originated from traditional cigarettes and has gradually begun to enter the e-cigarette industry.

In fact, most e-cigarette practitioners 'first understanding of cigarette testing began with a report in March 2019.

"Research on the Development Trend of E-Cigarette from the Perspective of Traditional Tobacco and Countermeasures and Suggestions" is a systematic analysis report on the in-depth interpretation of the e-cigarette industry and the judgment of policy trends. It has caused widespread dissemination in the industry, and many e-cigarette companies use professional reports on cigarette mass testing as industry indicators and guidelines; many e-cigarette practitioners believe that it is the most authoritative, in-depth and systematic e-cigarette industry report as of that time; moreover, this report also has a far-reaching impact on traditional tobacco practitioners.

The tobacco mass testing research team comes from international tobacco giants, Hurun Report and other companies. It has rich experience in consumer insight and tobacco industry research, and has formed a professional tobacco research expert group. The technical team comes from well-known Internet companies, has comprehensive experience in building data platforms in the Internet industry, and is highly sensitive to cutting-edge technological innovation. #p#Pagination Title #e#

What is the difference between the cigarette crowd test and other e-cigarette tests?

E-cigarettes have had private evaluations since the era of big cigarettes, including open-box evaluations, dismantling evaluations, player evaluations, etc. But it represents a niche type of product or an electronic type of product, not a taste perception. The industry standard for e-cigarette evaluation seems to have always been a mystery? Most people can't say clearly what the standard taste of e-cigarettes is. Let's see what's different in smoke testing?

The tester is not a public tester, but a group of millions of consumers; the public tester is only a platform for millions of smokers to provide real and objective feedback on their attitudes.

Tobacco Mass Testing implements a registered membership system and uses real-name certification to ensure the true validity of participants 'identities; clusters platform users in the way of tobacco (including e-cigarettes) evaluation and new product trials; and subdivides the user population according to different dimensional tags. Select the target group for specific assessment activities.

Since its establishment in January 2017, the number of registered users of the Tobacco Mass Testing Platform has reached 1 million.

The age distribution of platform users is mainly born in the 1980s (41.4%), followed by the post-90s (28.3%) and post-70s (24.2%). A small number of post-60s (6.1%), users in first-tier cities account for 12.9%, and most male users participated in public testing accounted for 91.7%.

Guo Xiaoyu, who is also the chief researcher of the tobacco mass testing research team, said,"Consumers are the real masters of tasting. But this does not mean that they will use professional terms to evaluate products. They will use the simplest and vivid voice to express whether it is easy to smoke."

Tobacco mass testing requires interpretation, analysis and insight into the feedback information of consumer groups. A consumer's attitude may not be representative enough, but mass consumers form representative and valuable opinions. What Tobacco Mass Testing does is to combine the real experience of consumer groups with the professionalism of tobacco experts to scientifically, objectively and accurately study and analyze the data."

Connector of tobacco consumers and products

Tobacco Mass Testing conducts in-depth cooperation with major domestic tobacco companies, such as Yunnan China Tobacco and Hunan China Tobacco, in the fields of tobacco product data and consumer research. Continue to conduct consumer public testing of new and mature products for well-known domestic cigarette brands such as Furongwang, Yuxi, Huangjinye, Yunyan, Hongtashan, Baisha, Kuanzhai and other domestic cigarette brands, and provide professional evaluation research.

Tobacco Mass Testing has also developed China's leading tobacco product database-Cigarette Chacha, and the country's first safe cigarette purchase map.

For traditional cigarette brands, Tobacco Mass Testing's innovative new product evaluation model can truly and accurately obtain feedback from target consumers on products. The results have extremely important reference value, thus becoming a "tool" for many well-known tobacco brands to improve their success in new product development.

Strategic solution expert in new tobacco product development

In the new product development process of these tobacco brands, it has become a common practice to "public test" products first. If the feedback from public testing is good, then the product can be submitted for approval and listed after being optimized and improved. If the product has many problems, it will have to be redone.

There are also some products whose public testing results are very low acceptance by target consumers and have many problems, and their research and development is likely to be terminated. There was once a very well-known tobacco brand that planned an important new product. After receiving feedback from the public testing and evaluation, although the tobacco brand executives were very reluctant, they finally gave up.# p#pagination title #e#

The first report on tobacco consumption by netizens

In August 2018, Cigarette Testing launched the "White Paper on Cigarette Internet Consumers in China", which for the first time provided a panoramic display of the consumption behavior of Internet smokers. The "White Paper" uses 500,000 + pieces of Social networks data and 200,000 + smokers 'Internet research and public testing data to effectively conduct data mining analysis and summary of the unique current situation, needs and purposes of cigarette Internet consumers' smoking behavior, so as to intuitively and vividly insight into and present the behavioral patterns, scenarios, driving factors and potential needs behind them.

Professional evaluation platform in the field of e-cigarettes

At the beginning of 2019, driven by the market, media, capital and other parties, the domestic e-cigarette industry broke out rapidly. Cigarette testing is sensitive to the perception that the emergence of e-cigarettes will bring about comprehensive changes in China's tobacco market. Based on a deep insight and understanding of traditional cigarette consumers, markets, and policies, Tobacco Mass Testing organized expert discussions. Two weeks later, the first e-cigarette policy and countermeasure analysis report was prepared for traditional tobacco-"Research on the Development Trend of E-cigarettes from the Perspective of Traditional Tobacco" Research and Countermeasures ", the report analyzes and judges the actions and future trends of the e-cigarette industry, China's tobacco, and tobacco control on e-cigarettes from multiple perspectives such as products, consumers, industries, policies, and countermeasures. This report has aroused great repercussions in the tobacco industry. Tobacco Mass Testing has also been invited to report and communicate with relevant regulatory authorities many times in public and confidential occasions.

Defining e-cigarette taste standard samples based on the "human sensory evaluation system"

There are currently many organizations on the market that conduct e-cigarette evaluations. The evaluation dimensions include taste, appearance, product form, cigarette oil content, etc.

Cigarette Public Testing defines the evaluation standard for e-cigarette taste as the "human sensory evaluation system", which means that people have some self-feelings and emotional love, and the feeling of comfort when people taste the taste of e-cigarettes.

The standard sample of the taste of a certain e-cigarette is based on the "evaluation system of human senses" and is evaluated from the following dimensions:

1. Aroma-nasal feeling (whether it is refreshing and natural);

2. Taste-feeling on the tongue;

3. Smoke (fog)-the feeling in the mouth and throat (the fullness of smoke, the fineness of smoke, and the comfort of the throat);

4. Unique and special taste (sweet feeling after smoking, refreshing breath);

5. Comprehensive (whether you want to cough, etc.).

If we simply make standard samples, smoke testing pays more attention to the taste.

Why make standard taste samples? Guo Xiaoyu said,"At present, e-cigarette products are uneven. Cigarette testing and making standard samples is to reduce the difficulty of consumers 'choice. Choose a representative standard sample that represents relatively high-quality physical samples in various dimensions. Basically, you can draw higher-quality products in the industry. It may not be the most extreme or the most suitable for a certain person, but it is actually a relatively optimized product that best suits the overall feeling of the public."

Standard taste samples of e-cigarettes will promote smokers 'correct understanding of the category. From the perspective of the e-cigarette industry, having a standard sample is equivalent to setting a benchmark. E-cigarette brands know what state they want to achieve and under what state they want to optimize and improve. On the one hand, standard samples promote consumers to have a good understanding of the e-cigarette industry and product categories; on the other hand, they can promote better development of the industry.

Guo Xiaoyu added,"The standard sample is not a standard, but a physical sample. Scientific and fair methods have been used to tell consumers that what product is drawn represents a certain standard."# p #pagination title #e #

Why test mint flavor first?

Mint flavor has always been widely used in traditional tobacco and occupies an important position in e-cigarette flavors. Not only the mint flavor itself, but most other flavors also use the mint flavor as the basis for flavor. Some senior practitioners believe that the mint flavor is similar to the base wine used to mix cocktails during the process of making cocktails.

Tobacco experts believe that judging from the taste of traditional tobacco and other fast-moving consumer products, mint flavor is the mainstream flavor in e-cigarettes. Mint has certain food attributes, and peppermint tobacco oil is the base oil in e-cigarettes. It has good coordination in other flavors.

The first test for the standard e-cigarette taste samples was the mint flavor, which also stems from the important role value of mint flavor in the e-cigarette flavor category system; in addition, there are high expectations for the mint flavor to continue to maintain its mainstream status in the development and evolution of e-cigarette flavor styles.

Comply with consumer experience

Smoke test will be held at 10 a.m. on September 6

Launch public testing activities

Lai Mi VS Yue Ke

Who can define the mint taste of e-cigarettes?