While papermakers use technical terms, the customers employ sense-based properties to describe paper grades, UPM says.
To close the gap, UPM established a research project to measure and develop qualitative testing methods for figuring out properties like visual appearance, sound, feel and odour of the paper grades.
Senior researcher Matti Ristolainen says the study confirms that age, gender, nationality and occupation affect consumer preferences as well as the synergy effect between sense-based properties.
New tools will therefore help publishers to select the right paper that best suits their target audience, he adds.
According to the study, some 60 per cent of the consumer panellists agreed that the visual appearance had the highest impact on the overall pleasantness of the weekly magazine or newspaper. The second and third most important sense-based properties were browsing and posture.
The results were gathered by arranging several consumer panels during last two years, including one consumer panel at the IPEX 2006. The findings were compared with the professional panel results. The research project was completed in January 2007.
