modeling consumers’ perception of a range of products; examples in-
clude Gustafson (1993), Bech et al. (1997a) and Bech et al. (1997b).
The most important task is to analyze the information in the House
of Quality. Strategic possibilities exist where consumers have wants that
are not satisfied by the products provided so far, or where the consumers
perceive the actual products as being of higher quality. Where the qual-
ity is perceived as being lower, the direction for improvement can be
identified by comparisons with the technical measurements.
Finally, it is possible to show the connections between the measure-
ments in the “roof.” Various PC programs have been developed to sup-
port the use of QFD in product development, e.g., QFD Designer, QFD
Capture and recently QFD 2000. Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet is also
widely used, especially for larger projects.
Consumer Needs
From a material point of view, the standard of living of consumers in
the Western world is high enough to meet most basic needs. This also
applies to food. More or less everybody can at any time buy and eat
enough food to satisfy the most basic of needs—hunger. However, food
also has another role than the mere satisfaction of hunger, namely, to
contribute to the quality of life, to happiness and pleasure. These two
situations can be characterized as needs and wants, respectively. The di-
viding line between needs and wants is fluid, however. As wants are sat-
isfied, the boundary moves, so that what was once seen as wants become
regarded as an absolute necessity. Foods meet social needs (e.g., meals
with friends) and contribute to a person’s identity (e.g., ecological food),
too. The phrase “you are what you eat” sums this up nicely. Food can
thus help satisfy needs at all levels, e.g., related to Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs.
Kano et al. (1982) (see Mazur, 1987) distinguish between three dif-
ferent kinds of product attributes according to how they contribute to
satisfaction. Some product attributes contribute to the must-be (basic)
quality perceived by the customer, others contribute to a proportional
increased satisfaction, while a third type of quality attributes (exiting/
attractive) helps exceed the customer’s expectations. It is necessary that
the must-be quality attributes are included before the desired positive
effects of “exiting” quality attributes can be achieved. Oliver (1997) di-
rectly links needs fulfillment with satisfaction and uses three categories
of needs, which, if fulfilled, result in different degrees of satisfaction.
Consumer Needs 207