Criteria D

Target audience feedback 

After the enterpirse fair, we went around the school and asked for feedback about our product. 

Link to customer feedback: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t-EM7vIq-nq-Hk23N-S3xU5rKUluQwT1/view?usp=drivesdk<br>

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rM3nxoulvn6rl3nS34fK1jIM2knff4M7/view?usp=drivesdk<br>

What could we do to improve?

The feedback we received was that: the cookie dough was too sweet so we should have made it less sweet, we should have included more flavours, the price was too high, there was not enough flavour and finally once again there should have been a wider selection to cater to more peoples taste palettes. 

What was your favourite thing about it?

The positive feedback which we received was that: they liked the addition of sprinkles, they liked the texture and how the sugar was not too grainy, the sweetness was a good amount and finally that they liked the concept of edible cookie dough. 

Do you wish there was more options of flavours?

Everyone said that they wished there were more options of flavours. People said there should be more toppings or a variety. Some examples we got were cookies and cream, different chocolates drizzled on top (eg: dark, milk, white, salted caramel etc) and finally we could have done custom orders to see exactly what people want

Did you like how it was presented?

Everyone who we interviewed said that they liked how our cookie dough was presented. These said that the sprinkles on top of the cookie dough added nice pops of colour making it look more visually attractive. As well, most people said that they liked the size of our cookie dough as if it were bigger it maybe wouldve not looked as nice and would have been sickening. However, some people said that the price was too high for the size so we should have eithee reduced the price or made the cookie dough balls bigger. 

Overall we got quite varied feedback both positive and negative. It is clear that although some people liked the sweetness, we should have made it less sweet in order for the majority of people to enjoy. We can also see that people wanted a wider variety of flavours so that it was more personalised to them ans what they liked (rather than generic). On a more positive note, we can see that people liked our presentation as no one gave negtaive feedback about. However, it is evident that some people were not happy with the size and or price, meaning we should have thought about it better to ensure everyone felt they were getting a good value for their money. 

How has our product impaced our target audience?

Our product has impacted our target audience by making them aware that you are able to make safe to eat cookie dough and it is a good option for families as it isn't hard to make and it's not messy. Additionally, we have created a product that caters to our target audiences' sweet cravings, but still making sure it is safe and ready to eat on the spot. We know that this is true as one of the grade 6 girls said that they are now inspired to try to make edible cookie dough at home after trying our product. We also got this feedback on the day after we explained to people how you can make it safely and how tastey it can be. 

We asked some of our clients who enjoyed our projects how this affected them. Silvia from grade 9 said that “After trying your cookie dough, I was inspired to go home and try to make it myself. It took a few tries but once I figured it out it was so good”. She also said that her younger brother was intrigued by what she was making. This is a real life example of how our product positively impacted our target audience. As well, when we sold our cookie dough for product testing, many people asked questions about our product and told us that they had never seen something like our product before. Furthermore, now that Chili and I know that making edible cookie dough is possible, we will reccomend this snakc/dessert to other people who are looking for something delicious and easy to make. 

Were we successfull as partners and did we stick to our budget?

- We both feel that we worked very well as partners. We had very good collaboration skills in both the work and when making and selling our product. We consistently shared the research/work load equally to ensure that it was fair. Furthemore, when making and selling our pdoucvt we boht helped with different thingd. For example whilst one of us was heat treating the flour, the other would blend the sugar. This collaboration helped us get things done both efficiently and to a good quality. In terms of communication, we did not manage to effectively communicate with each other about who would purchase which products prior to the making process. This meant that when we were making our cookie dough, due to a lack of communication, neither of us bought butter which was an issue for us. However, overall we think we worked well together and there was not much which we would do differently.

- We stuck to our budget to a certain extent. From the 20 pounds the school loaned us, we only spent 13.44 pounds from that, however, we did spend around 25 pounds from our own money to buy all of the other necessary ingredients. We made over 100 pounds profit and we will give 15% to charity, which amounts to around 15 pounds.  We will be giving this money to a charity which helps kids who live in deprived areas get a good education.

Specfication reflection  

Aesthetics - In regards to our aesthetics, we stated that we would neatly scoop and decorate our cookie dough into the packaging. We managed to do this which made our product look visually appealing. However, in our specification we said that our table would follow the colour palette of our brand. This did not happen as we used a silver sparkly tablecloth. This was not cohesive with our brand. We did this as we thought it added a fun element to our table whilst still looking aesthetically pleasing.

Cost - In our specification we decided that the cost would be £2.50. We stuck to this and sold our product for £2.50. We are happy with this choice because of 2 reason. Firstly, many people did not find this unreasonable. Secondly, by selling the scoops at this price, we were able to make profit.

Environment - We did and didn't stick to our decisions in regards to the environment. We said that we would only use paper packaging to help keep it sustainable. In the end we did do this as we sold our cookie dough in paper cupcake cases. On the other hand, we stated we would use fair trade chocolate which did not happen. We were unable to make this happen as we could not find mass amounts of fair trade chocolate in our budget. Therefore we had to use normal chocolate.

Size - Initially, we were not sure how big the cookie dough was going to be. however, when product testing, we made our cookie dough balls very small and found that people were not as likely to buy from us. Consequently, when writing our specification we decided that our scoops would be 70g. We thought that this was a good size.

Function - We had said that we would sell our product to students after lunch to cater their sweet cravings. However, we never ended up doing this due to a lack of preparation and organisation. We were never able to ever find the time when we could make a whole batch. We regret this decision as we think that it could have been beneficial to us.

Safety - In terms of safety, we stuck to everything which we said in our specification. The calorie count of our cookie dough came out to around 130 kcl which is close to what we predicted it would be. Furthemore, we made sure we did not use any raw eggs or flour as we stated we would not. This is because it was vital to stick to these decisions as we did not people to feel sick after eating our cookie dough.

Production - As stated in our specification, we batch produced our cookie dough. We stuck to this as it was not possible for us to mass manufacture our products due to the time frame given. Furthemore, as it was only us making the cookie dough, It would have been extremely hard for us to mass manufacture without more people and space.

Materials - In our specification we stated that we would use mini chocolate chips, milk instead of eggs, and brown sugar. In our actual product we used all of those ingredients and we are happy with that choice because it made it a good consistency, safe to eat and a good ratio of chocolate to dough.

Target market - We stated that our product would target teenagers and young adults. However, on the day when we were selling we saw that it was a wide range of age groups; and most of our clients were younger kids under the age of 13. We also did not promote our product on social media which is heavily used by teenagers, so this could be a reason that we had a younger audience. 

Quality - In the beginning we said we would make many types of cookie dough and advertise it to see what people thought was most appealing. However, we did not end up making different flavours of cookie dough and just stuck to one. Which means we didn't get an outside opinion of what people thought looked most appealing. However, when we made our product we asked people for their options and how to improve for the next batch. This made sure our product was the very best it could be.

Manufacturing - One thing which we stuck to was: how we said we would need to think about how much we could make the night before. We managed to successfully make the perfect amount in the given time frame. Initially, we said that we would effectively spend our 20 pounds. Although we only used 13 out of the 20 pounds which the school gave us, we ended up spending a lot of our own money on ingredients as they could not be ordered from amazon. We also said we would have to plan how many ingredients we would need. Once again, due to a lack or organisation we needed up forgetting many ingredients last minute.

What would we do differently next time?

If we were to do our product again there would be several changes compared to our current product. Firstly, in terms of ingredients we would definitely make sure to use a lot less sugar to ensure that it was not sickening. We would do this because most of our clients thought that by adding less sugar it would improve the product and allow the other flavours to come through more.

As well, we would have a larger variety of flavours and toppings. For example, in our feedback one of our customers recommended to add an Oreo flavour with chunks of Oreo cookies. This would higher the chance of selling as there would be more variety and if some people didn't like traditional cookie dough they could purchase the other flavours. Furthermore, it would make the product feel more personal to the customer. 

Finally, we got a mix of responses in term of the size of the product. Some people thought that it was too little for the price and some people thought it was the perfect amount. To cater everyone we would make a regular and large size (meaning the price would also vary).

In our opinion there are also a few things we would want to differently. To begin with, we would have loved to keep our initial idea of putting the cookie dough balls in ice cream cones instead of the cupcake holders. However, because it was out of our budget we were not able to stick to that idea, so in the future we would definitely have cone options (as well as cup options). Furthermore, if we were to do it again we would also make sure that all of the cupcake holders were pink to match the aesthetic of our brand. We were not able to do this previously because there were no shops which sold one colours cupcake holders. Lastly, we think that we would get a lot more sales if we did a variety of sizes and prices. For example, if someone asked for one with a cone we would make the scoop of cookie do small or large, and for the cups as well.

Furthemore, based on the red and orange parts of our specification, there are a few things which we would have liked to have done. Firstly, we did not manage to use fair trade chocolate as we specified we would. Next time we would spend longer looking for a good quality cheap fair trade chocolate to help keep our product more environmentally friendly. This would also make our product easier to market as people would be more inclined to buy it. Something else which we wish we had done was to sell our cookie dough after lunch in school one day. Although we specified that we would do this, it never happened. We feel that this would have bought us a lot of customers whilst encouraging people to buy again.