// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Howard Moskowitz say to the ketchup? You're a saucy match.
Howard R. Moskowitz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1945 (age 80–81) United States |
| Alma mater | Queens College, City University of New York (B.A., Mathematics & Psychology) Harvard University (Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, 1969) |
| Known for | Mind Genomics, consumer preference segmentation, product optimization, sensory psychophysics |
| Awards | Scientific Director’s Gold Medal (U.S. Army Natick Laboratories) David R. Peryam Award (ASTM) Research Innovation Award (ARF) Market Research Council Hall of Fame Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (2004) William Procter Prize (Sigma Xi) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology, Psychophysics, Market research, Sensory science |
| Institutions | U.S. Army Natick Laboratories; Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. |
| S. S. Stevens | |
| Website | Board Profile |
Howard R. Moskowitz (born 1944 or 1945[1]) is an American market researcher and psychophysicist. He is known for the detailed study he made of the types of spaghetti sauce and horizontal segmentation. By providing a large number of options for consumers, Moskowitz pioneered the idea of intermarket variability as applied to the food industry.[2]
Early life and education
[edit]Moskowitz earned undergraduate degrees in mathematics and psychology from Queens College, City University of New York, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.[3]
He went on to complete a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University in 1969, where he studied under S. S. Stevens, the influential psychologist known for developing modern psychophysics and the theory of measurement scales.[4] His doctoral research focused on psychophysics and sensory perception.
Products
[edit]After graduating from Harvard, Moskowitz was hired by the United States Army to improve their Meals, Ready-to-Eat, where he applied the concept of sensory-specific satiety, the tendency for consumers to tire of strongly flavored foods, to ensure that the meals were formulated in a way that encouraged soldiers to eat sufficient calories.[5]
Since at least the 1980s,[5] Moskowitz has been consulted by Campbell Soup, General Foods, Kraft and PepsiCo for his expertise in food optimization. According to Moskowitz he has optimized soups, pizzas, salad dressings, and pickles in his work for various firms. His research on Prego spaghetti sauce, which revealed a significant customer preference for an "extra-chunky" formulation, is notable as was his optimization of the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in spaghetti sauce at the "bliss point" which maximized consumer satisfaction.[6]
Moskowitz developed Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper when he was hired in 2004 by Cadbury Schweppes, which was hoping to expand the market for Dr Pepper by developing a product line extension using an alternative formulation with vanilla or cherry flavors.[5][7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Gladwell, Malcolm (4 May 2012). "What Does Spaghetti Sauce Have To Do With Happiness?". NPR. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ↑ Gladwell, Malcolm (2009). What The Dog Saw. Little, Brown and Company. p. 432. ISBN 978-0-316-07584-8.
- ↑ "Dr. Howard Moskowitz Bio" (PDF). University of Kragujevac. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
- ↑ "Howard R. Moskowitz – OECD Summit Speaker". OECD Global Science Summit. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
- 1 2 3 Moss, Michael (2013-02-20). "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
- ↑ "How The Food Industry Helps Engineer Our Cravings". NPR. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
And it's Howard who coined the expression "bliss point" to capture that perfect amount of sweetness that would send us over the moon, their products flying off the shelf.
- ↑ Vanhemert, Kyle. "How Junk Food Is Engineered To Be Hopelessly Addicting".
External links
[edit]- TED Talk: Malcolm Gladwell – "Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce" (February 2004) – discusses Moskowitz’s work on horizontal segmentation.
- Malcolm Gladwell, "The Ketchup Conundrum" (The New Yorker, September 2004).
- Unified Human Foundation – Board Profile.
- Sigma Xi – William Procter Prize Recipient.