Food and beverage products being experience products, we said that consumers rely on quality clues. One of the most important quality clues that consumers use are reviews of critics and experts. Who are critics and experts? In the food and beverage industry there are some actors or subjects who are widely recognized as experts. They are associated to have some reputation and some expertise by the whole system of producers and consumers. associated to have some reputation and some expertise by the whole system of producers and consumers. When consumers read a review they try to find some quality clue, some information that they correlate to the quality of a product. Think of the reviews of restaurants. Think of the reviews of wine. Think of the reviews of many products in the food and beverage industry. The point is what is the role that experts and critics play? The most important role is they help consumers make sense of the quality of a product; they are sense-makers. Let me read you a review taken from the famous Michelin Guide regarding a restaurant in New York. The restaurant is called Per Se and the first thing you can read is a definition of their contemporary cuisine. If you go through the review, it says there is no more dramatic departure from the soulless Time Warner Center more than entering through the iconic blue doors to Per Se. An upscale sense of calm, the kind that only money can buy instantly soaks the atmosphere. The words posh and exclusive come to mind with admiring the spacious stables, corner banquettes, and stunning views. The crowd is impossibly elegant, and could probably take it down a notch. Service is professional and intuitively understands the needs and personality of each table. Chef Thomas Keller continues to raise the bar with meals that express artistry and seasonality right down to the moment. A classic since day to day, the oysters and pearls still swim in that vat of luxurious caviar. Then it goes on and there are a few other pieces of information at the end. Those without reservations can stop at the opulent salon where much of the menu is available to order à la carte. What is the role played by a review, expert, or critic? As we've seen, first of all, there is the presence of the restaurant in the guide. In the Michelin Guide, there are many restaurants, but not all the restaurants that a consumer can choose from among the different ones that he or she can find in New York. The first role is pre-selection. The guide has a bunch of experts writing on restaurants they have selected that they consider high quality and so are recommended to consumers. These help consumers in a certain number of ways. The second is categorization, In the beginning of the review, it said, “Cuisine: Contemporary.” What is contemporary cuisine? It means something which is relevant to consumers. Categorization is another very important role played by the review. Let's think for a little bit about the different categories that you can use in different products. For example, if you go to a pub you expect to drink a lot of different and delicious beers. What if you go to a gastropub? In the U.K., in the last few years, there has been this movement of gastropubs which are pubs with much more emphasis on eating out. The “gastro” basically means you can find more delicious food in that pub. This definition and label of gastropub has been created by experts and critics. It helps consumers in categorizing what kind of product they are going to purchase and consume. The third one is interpretation. The third role played by review is interpretation, in the review that I’ve just read, the description of the atmosphere, menu, and people you can meet if you go to that restaurant help consumers try to figure out and anticipate what kind of restaurant they can buy and appreciate. Basically there are these three main roles played by a review: Pre-selection, categorization, and interpretation. What is the difference and how can the three of them provide consumers with value? If we go back to the definition of value proposition, the definition, we said that the value proposition is a ratio between the benefits consumers can get and sacrifices they have to make. In which ways are the pre-selection, categorization, and interpretation that reviews of experts and critics provide consumers helpful to the consumers? Think in terms of sacrifices, if I read the review, first of all, I have a category. I know, in that case, that the cuisine is contemporary. For example, if I don't like contemporary cuisine, I wont choose that restaurant. It helps me in terms of information costs. I don't have to spend time to try to figure out what are other pieces of information which are in the review. The second one is the list of details which are provided in the review. According to these details, again, I can reduce the sacrifices connected to information gathering, information comparison of alternatives. All these sacrifices, in terms of cognitive effort and in terms of time spent to figure out the relevant information are reduced. The sacrifices are reduced as well. What about interpretation? Interpretation, again, helps consumers in anticipating the experience they will have. By providing details for the menu, service, and/or atmosphere, I can anticipate some of the benefits I can get. Again, the value proposition from the consumer's point of view is increased. For a company, it is important to know a number of things. First of all, who are the experts and critics that consumers rely on? What are the reputations of those experts and critics? What is the knowledge that the consumers have of them? This is important because, if I know as a company and/or manager who the experts and consumers are that consumers know and rely on, I can provide these experts and critics with information, and this information then can be told to consumers. Obviously experts and critics are free to tell the information they consider relevant but I can, as a company, influence them by providing them with information. The second important thing is that the company should know what the content of this information is. Are those reviews providing consumers with a positive assessment or negative assessment? What is the focus of these reviews? Are experts increasing focus on details that I believe are important for my value proposition, or are they focusing on details which I believe are not the most important thing of my value proposition? Are they focusing on what I think are my strengths, or maybe are they focusing on the weaknesses of my value proposition? This is very important for a company to know because if I know this I can understand why consumers have an idea of my offer which is positive or negative, which is strong or weak, or basically, what are the expectations they have of my value position because they have been influenced by the views of those experts and critics.