Testing a concept and testing a product are fundamental actions during an innovation process to ensure its success.
You put in enthusiasm, effort, and many hours of work. Added to that is the financial investment and cost analysis. You measure variables, analyze the competition, and estimate the potential market. You meet with various departments. It seems like everything is under control, and then the big day arrives: the product, idea, or concept you’ve worked so hard on is launched in the market.
And then what? If your product has passed the test and has success and acceptance in the market, congratulations, the effort has paid off! However, in many cases, companies of all sizes forget a very important factor in this launch process: testing the acceptance of their product or idea with the market to gather what the future consumer or potential customer thinks about that product. This testing can be done through a new product or concept survey, and to make it as faithful as possible to reality, it must be done with tools that allow you to gauge the pulse of a representative sample of society that validates your hypotheses or not. Thanks to this measurement, market demands and other business factors are not neglected, and, of course, the risks associated with investment are minimized.
This is the point where the concept test and product test, two methodologies used in market research, make complete sense. They measure and evaluate, from different aspects, the fit of the concept, product, or service in the market; in other words, it evaluates whether a consumer would be willing to buy or use a certain product. Are you thinking of conducting a market study of this type? In this post, we’ll tell you all the advantages and benefits of two of the tests you can do with our online survey tool, WAT Survey.
The concept test is used to validate a concept with real consumers. This analysis is carried out before any future development with the aim of evaluating the chances of success before the actual investment in creating the product.
This analysis should be directed at the target audience of the future product or service through quantitative and qualitative research techniques that collect opinions of future customers about it: if it meets their needs, their intention to purchase, the existence of alternative products, estimated frequency of use, and more.
Once the concept test gives us the green light and we are convinced that the chances of success are real, it’s time to develop the necessary strategies (marketing, production, etc.) for its creation and launch.
The product test is a market research technique that can be carried out throughout the product’s lifecycle, from the moment before its launch, once the business idea has been validated, to its presence in the market, with the aim of identifying improvement opportunities and incorporating the consumer’s voice at all stages of the process.
Being able to know the opinions, perceptions, and attitudes of potential consumers about our product is a great competitive advantage, as mentioned earlier. However, the advantages of conducting this type of test are not limited to collecting that feedback from real consumers, but it also provides the perfect opportunity to identify improvement opportunities or ideas to make it more appealing to the consumer. It’s also an opportunity to evaluate any aspect related to the product itself, such as its attributes and functionalities, packaging, name, and more. In this sense, in addition to collecting feedback that can make us winners, we involve the user in its creation, listening to their voice and applying their contributions. It’s the perfect opportunity to use the product test to develop a co-creation strategy, a business strategy that focuses on customers and their opinions and helps companies innovate and improve their products based on the specific needs and preferences of consumers.
To test a concept or test a product, both quantitative and qualitative techniques can be used. At We are testers, we have an online community of over 100,000 highly-profiled individuals with whom you can validate concepts with consumers or test your product, taking a representative sample of society or the segment that best matches the characteristics of your target audience.
For this measurement, it can be done from different approaches, both from a quantitative perspective with the launch to a segmented sample of an online market study using our WAT Survey tool, or from a qualitative approach through the hiring of an online community with our WAT Lab tool, which allows you to delve into motivations, understand the reasons behind responses, and analyze consumer or customer feedback.
Update date 22 December, 2023Are you interested in testing a concept or testing a product? Contact us at info@wearetesters.com or through our contact form.
