What is Concept(s) Testing/ Evaluation-

Concept testing is a research methodology that involves asking customers questions about a company’s concepts and ideas for a product or service, which allows the company to gauge customer acceptance, price sensitivity, and willingness to buy prior to launching the offering in the market.  Concept testing provides companies with in-depth insights about preferences for specific features and capabilities, as well as direction on pricing and market positioning.

When to use Concept(s) Testing/ Evaluation-

The exploratory phase, phase happens early in the conceptualization of a new product or service and is used to determine early on if the product is viable enough to move forward from an idea to a fully developed concept.

At the detailed concept check phase in phase, a detailed description of a concept, its capabilities, and benefits are tested with customers to assess their preferences and purchasing intentions. This phase is also when a company may test multiple concept options to determine which concept has the best opportunity in the market.

At the maturity or post-launch phase, this phase allows companies to assess market acceptance and the opportunity of an additional feature added to an existing product or service

Why use Concept(s) Testing/ Evaluation

To gauge market potential 🡪 Concept testing determines if a company’s target market values and would be willing to purchase the new solution, and gauges market readiness by understanding the concept’s ability to meet the market’s benefit requirements and expectations.

To refine the idea/concept 🡪 Concept testing enables companies to understand customer preferences and to determine which features should be prioritized and deprioritized.

To understand critical targets or market segments 🡪 Concept testing allows a company to test its idea or concept with different target customer segments to determine which segments see the most value in the solution and have the highest probability of purchasing the product or service after it is launched.

How is Concept(s) Testing/ Evaluation done
Concept testing can be done using different methods depending on the number of concepts to be tested.
Monadic testing 🡪 In monadic testing, the full research sample is split into multiple groups, and each group is introduced to a single concept. Responses from each group are then compared to determine which concept is most likely to be successful in the market.

Sequential monadic testing 🡪 Similar to monadic testing, in sequential monadic testing, the sample size is split into multiple groups. However, in sequential monadic, each respondent is asked to give their opinion on multiple concepts rather than just one.

Comparison testing 🡪 In comparison testing, each respondent is exposed to more than one concept and asked to either rate these concepts or select the concept that they prefer.

Proto-monadic testing 🡪 This test is a combination of sequential monadic testing and comparison testing in that order. The respondent first evaluates both concepts and then is asked to choose one concept that he/she prefers.