Concept Testing

Concept testing and why it’s important

Concept testing and why it’s important 600 442 Beth Hepple

Concept or product testing is a really important thing to consider when you are thinking of developing or launching a new product/service. You will be able to determine whether your potential customers are likely to love or hate your new product, which will ultimately help you measure the demand, appeal and uniqueness of your proposition.

Audience perception

You might think you have created the best thing since sliced bread, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your customers agree with you! You can position your new product to an audience with a survey, then measure their responses to gauge whether they have a positive or negative reaction to it. Does your product capture your audience’s attention? Would they trust your brand? These are the kinds of questions you can answer by putting out a quality questionnaire and carefully analysing your participant’s responses. When you use the CitizenMe Exchange, you can use MeData to dig that little bit deeper and get a better understanding of your customers, by looking at the apps they have downloaded, household demographics and more.

Determine your audience

You need to select your audience carefully. It’s unlikely that your product or service will be designed for everyone. When testing the concept however you should define your audience only around the critical attributes to usage. For example, if you have developed a credit card proposition that requires the customer to have a minimum level of income, you’ll need to refine your audience.

If this credit card is mobile app based and you think it would most appeal to millennials, you could test that by including all eligible age ranges.

Important considerations

Even if you immediately gauge that your product is set to be a success, there are still additional things to consider when you are product testing. While the respondents may have indicated that they have bought into your brand, you should use the concept testing stage to determine other factors, such as your positioning in the current market, the kind of packaging or branding that would be considered attractive and if people trust your brand, as well as what is arguably the most important factor in the production of any product or service, the best price.

It’s not all about new products

Product testing doesn’t necessarily have to be centred around a new product, although this is probably best practice. If you have already launched and want to make improvements, you can use a concept testing survey to gauge what your audience want from your product and what improvements can be made to make it more successful. If you have already established your target audience, they would be the perfect people to ask how you can make changes to drive up engagement. You can use concept testing to investigate how new potential customers will react and who else your product most appeals to, in addition to your primary target market.

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