Why Run a Concept Test?

Because over 30,000 new products are introduced every year, and 95% of them fail (HBR) - That's why concept testing is essential.

Running a concept test survey could be one of the smartest business decisions you ever make. With more than 28,000 new products failing each year, a straightforward yet powerful concept test survey can provide the initial insights you need to either pursue your idea or abandon it entirely.

Whether you seek validation for a new product's market viability or consumer opinions on a new feature for an established business, concept testing is crucial to your long-term success.

If your idea involves a new product, logo, advertisement, or something else, getting quick consumer feedback can prevent disappointment at best and financial ruin at worst.

In today's digital world, you can gather consumer opinions about your idea in minutes rather than days, and it doesn't have to deplete your marketing budget. More on this later.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• ·What Is Concept Testing (and what it’s not)?
• ·Why Is Concept Testing Important?
• ·Types Of Concept Testing
• ·Benefits Of Concept Testing
• ·How Concept Testing Fits Into Market Research
• ·Types Of Concept Testing Questions
• ·Cost Of Concept Testing

What Is Concept Testing (and what it’s not)?

Simply put, concept testing is opinion gathering. You ask your target audience questions about your new product, logo, price, product feature, or any other idea to gauge interest. Delve deeper, and you’ll find that concept testing is early-stage market research. It's about gathering market insights to inform you whether you should invest more money into your idea.

Concept testing IS NOT asking family, friends, coworkers, or neighbors what they think about your new koozie beer bong Eiffel Tower hat. It's also not waiting until after your idea is in product development to discover if you have a good idea or not (unfortunately, this happens).

Why Is Concept Testing Important?

Concept testing is vital because it lets you learn from real consumers and potential customers whether you should bring your idea to market. It prevents you from wasting time, money, and resources on something that should never have been developed. Conversely, a concept test can reveal that you might have a million-dollar idea.

Ultimately, consumer opinions at scale can indicate whether your idea is likely to be among the 28,500 products that fail each year or if there is a market fit and it has a chance to be one of the successful 5%.

Types Of Concept Testing

• ·Product Concept Testing: When you want to test the idea of a product or service, including its features, you’ll want to create a product concept survey.
• ·Logo Testing:If you want to see if your rebranding logo resonates or if your new business logo connects with your audience, create a logo concept survey.
• ·Packaging Concept Testing:To see how people react to a new packaging concept or to present multiple packaging concepts to find the best choice, conduct a packaging concept survey.
• ·Ad Testing: To find out which ad concept will grab your audience's attention and move them to action before dedicating your marketing budget, create an ad concept survey.
• ·Messaging Testing: If you think you’ve got the perfect marketing or sales message, create a messaging concept survey to ensure it resonates with your target audience.
• ·More Concept Tests:There are many other types of surveys you could run to get consumer insights (like website/landing page testing or pricing/promotional testing), but these are some of the most common ones.

Benefits Of Concept Testing

Many have experienced, or know someone who has, that idea about a new product destined to be the next big thing. Or a logo redesign that will make everyone’s eyes pop. The gut feeling that it just can’t miss – it’s a no-brainer – EVERYONE will want it!

However, whether for your peace of mind or your business partner’s, a quick concept test can provide all the data you need to validate or debunk your idea. The benefits of concept testing can’t be overstated. It can prevent you from wasting your life savings on a bad idea or show signs that it might be worth seeking capital to fund your amazing idea.

Bottom line, concept testing provides the data needed to make informed decisions about whether your idea is a ‘Go’ or ‘No Go’ idea.

How Concept Testing Fits With Market Research

Before testing the viability of your concept, you need to have a concept first. This starts with having an idea. Then you want to run it through an idea screening test to vet and evaluate it using criteria like relevance, constraints, budgets, value, risks, feasibility, and more. Only after screening your idea do you move on to concept testing.

As shown in the image below, concept testing comes before the heavy lifting of market strategy, product development, market testing, and market entry.

Concept Testing Questions To Ask In Your Survey

You’ve likely heard the phrase, garbage in - garbage out. This concept applies to creating a concept testing survey. It’s important to think through what exactly you want to get out of your survey. Document your goal before creating your questions so you have a clear, focused approach to creating your survey.

You want to ask questions that will inform you about:

• ·Uniqueness: Example: Have you ever seen or purchased a product like this in the past?
• ·Appeal: Example: Have you ever seen or purchased a product like this in the past?
• ·Most and least-liked attributes
• ·Likelihood to buy
• ·Expected price

NOTE: It’s crucial not to ask questions that lead respondents to an answer you’re hoping for. For example, ‘These boots are a bit expensive but you’d buy them if money wasn’t an issue, right?’ While exaggerated, you get the point. The goal is to determine if your idea is worth financial investment or if everyone is telling you to drop it and run.

Use The Likert Scale Judiciously

The Likert scale is perhaps the most popular type of survey question, and for good reason. Compared to ‘Yes/No’ questions, the Likert scale gives a much better indication of what your target audience thinks.

The Likert survey question uses a 5 to 7-point scale that ranges from one extreme to the other. For example, a Likert survey question about a product idea might look like this:

Likert Question Example for Concept Testing Surveys

You can see how a ‘Yes/No’ question can lead you to believe you either have a great idea or a terrible idea. But a Likert question can indicate that most people ‘Somewhat Like It,’ suggesting you might be onto something, but more research is needed.

Is Concept Testing Expensive?

Depending on the scope and scale of the concept test, costs can range from $2,000 to $3,000, up to $10,000 to $30,000 using a market research agency and traditional methods. Concept testing isn’t cheap, but it’s minimal compared to the cost of full product development and market entry.

If you, like many with a new idea and gut feeling, seek an easy way to quickly gather important feedback from your target audience without spending excessively, you’re in the right place. With RelevanceResearch, you can launch your survey within minutes for only $0.10 per question response, with no subscription fee.

Running a concept test sooner than later is crucial to discovering whether your idea is worth pursuing. From ad testing to product packaging, to new features and logos, concept testing is a no-brainer in the market research process. Gathering consumer opinions about your idea shouldn’t be a big, time-consuming ordeal that requires extensive meetings and a large budget.