What is market testing in new product development?
Concept testing is a crucial stage when developing new products. Before you launch a new product in the market, it’s important to gain a solid overall idea of how your customers will respond and how the product will perform. Show
This helps you avoid costly errors and nasty surprises, better understand your market, and make a more confident and successful product launch. In this article, we’ll show you how concept testing works and how to do it. Let’s start with a more in-depth definition. What is concept development?A concept is the precursor to every great product. It’s a detailed outline of what you’re going to produce, who it’s for, the problems it will solve, how it will work, how much it will cost, and much more. To make sure your concept is ready to go to market, it’s essential to test it properly with real customers. This process is called concept testing, and in the rest of the article, we’re going to talk about why this is so important and how to do it methodically. The benefits of concept testingConcept testing is the process of testing your concept before launch, so you can confidently put it into the market with a fairly good understanding of how your customers feel and how they will respond. There are several different methods spanning both qualitative and quantitative approaches (which we’ll dive into shortly) but they all involve presenting concepts to consumers and then getting their feedback about different attributes. (Check out our detailed guide to concept testing for more information.) There are multiple reasons to do concept testing, such as:
The importance of concept testingThe above benefits are important for many reasons. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider concept testing in new product development:
It allows you to identify a reasonable price point. It’s common to ask users during testing how much they would expect to pay for a product. This helps inform your decision for how much your product will sell for. Get regular insightsKeep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter. How to test concepts: the qualitative and quantitative methodologiesConcepts can be tested quantitatively or qualitatively. Qualitative methods for concept testing include focus groups, online communities or in-depth interviews that allow you to uncover rich qualitative feedback from current or prospective customers relating to your planned product. Ethnography or self-ethnography are other alternatives, particularly if the concept you’re testing is worked up and in prototype form that consumers can interact with at home. The main quantitative method used for testing concepts is an online quantitative survey, an approach that allows you to test at scale. Different approaches for testing conceptsThere are four main approaches for concept testing a new product, and each one has its own pros and cons. It’s best to consider your specific situation and product and then pick one which works best. Monadic testingThis is where the audience is divided into groups, and each group is given one concept in isolation and asked to evaluate it via a series of questions. For example, they might be asked to rate the design, evaluate the price or feedback on the packaging. The pros of monadic testing are:
On the other hand, the main drawback to monadic testing is that it requires a larger sample size to get enough reliable data. This means it can be costly to gather all the necessary participants, and challenging to find enough people to assess niche concepts. Sequential monadicIn sequential monadic testing, multiple concepts are evaluated one after the other. Each participant sees two or more concepts, presented in a random order, and answers questions about each one in turn. The main benefit is that fewer people are needed, so this results in:
The main downside is that it takes longer to carry out each individual test since participants are evaluating multiple concepts instead of just one. ComparativeIn comparative testing, concepts are shown next to each other, and participants evaluate all of them at the same time. It’s an effective way to find out how one concept compares directly against another in the eyes of your customers. The main advantage of comparative testing is that it’s good for measuring small differences and drilling down into the specific advantages and drawbacks of each product. The main downside is that its comparative nature means that it’s not very effective when both products are flawed. Comparative testing is often used as a follow-up for monadic testing to gain deeper insights into a specific product. Proto monadicThis is a blend of monadic and comparative testing. Customers evaluate a product via monadic testing and then are shown the same product in comparison with another. It’s done to confirm the initial monadic results to gain a more sturdy overall conclusion about a product’s strengths and weaknesses. What to measureOnce you have settled on a method of testing, it’s time to consider what you want to measure. There’s a long list of possible factors to analyze with concept testing, and these might vary based on your chosen method. Here are some common examples of things to measure:
(Check out this article for examples of how to test new product concepts.) Testing your concepts is crucial if you want to release the best possible products to your target market, market them effectively, delight your customers, and see your revenue soar. How can we help?It’s important to do concept testing properly so your new products have the best chance of success when they eventually hit the market. To find out how Kadence can help you deliver this, request a proposal or get in touch with the Kadence team here. What is market testing of the product?The test market provides measures of consumers' responses to those elements that have been pretested—the product, the price, and the communication plan. It also measures the trade's acceptance of the product, the strategy, and the communication plan.
What is the importance of market testing in product development?Test marketing is an important component of the product development process that helps us collect and understand customer feedback. It helps ensure there are people who want the product and gives us critical information that enables fine tuning product performance and launch plans prior to a full-scale launch.
What is an example of market testing?The samples are often distributed for free to analyze the willingness of consumers to accept the product. One major example is a free trial of new lipsticks, perfumes offered to the existing customers, and feedback. This test is conducted to ascertain the preference of the customer and their product selection.
How is market testing done?There are several forms of test marketing: working with a small group of customers who provide direct product feedback; conducting a regional product launch prior to a full launch; using a targeted direct marketing program to evaluate advertising strategies; or.
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