Concept testing: what is it and why is it important for businesses

Today’s market is very demanding. Every day, companies are introducing new products, launching updated versions, and offering discounts to attract customers. Market surveys indicate that successful new products are responsible for more than 25% of the total revenue and profit.

To mark sustainable growth, it is important for the companies to make sure that they are offering the right choices to the customers and check whether they have incorporated all the necessary features that the customers are searching for.

The preferences and tastes of customers are changing extremely fast. Therefore, companies need to know about theses preferences to stay in the market. And from this need comes the idea of concept testing. This article will give you an insight into concept testing, its uses in businesses, and its benefits. Stay with us.

What is a concept testing survey?

In simple words, the process of checking the concepts or ideas, when we are planning to launch a product or thinking to upgrade an existing one, is known as Concept Testing. This is a research method where you ask a group of people about the initial market response, the pros and cons, and the general market acceptance of your concept. These participants are actually a subset of your large target audience.

After gathering a set of ideas about any specific product development, webpage designs, a logo, or plans to make the product more feature-rich, the team puts those in front of a set of participants in the form of questionnaires, online surveys, or face-to-face interviews. The main objective is to gain knowledge about market insights, user acceptance, feasibility of the product, believability, most and least-liked attributes. Basically, whether the product can be successful on the market.

How does UNGUESS' concept testing stand out? 

Thanks to our specific method UNGUESS is able to offer a concept testing service that is fast, money-saving, and accurate. We can in fact provide a model that includes: fast access to reference personas, correct segmentation due to our community of real humans with many segmentation attributes, including prospects and digital behaviour, our proven research design which quickly identifies the best-suited methodology, and research implementation that leads to a faster process.

Click here to know more about the advantages of Crowdtesting. 

Concept testing: use cases for businesses

Now we have an idea about the definition of concept testing. But there must be one question hovering over your mind. Which are the areas where the concept testing method can be used? There are numerous functions where businesses can implement this method and get a deeper insight. Here are some examples.

New product development

Companies make products for their end-users. Therefore, knowing the end-users' choices during the planning or the concept finalization phase of the product helps make it better. Use this technique to evaluate every nitty-gritty of the concept to make a product that solves the client’s problems better.

Webpage design

Creating a new webpage or redesigning an old one to make it more attractive, user-friendly, and efficient is a tricky job. It is the first touchpoint for the clients and the initial customer experience can make or break a deal before it initiates.

Applying a correct concept testing survey method, you can directly interact with your clients and experts. Ask for their feedback and possible areas of improvements like the design, the content, user-friendliness, or the CX of the website, way before you have it ready to launch.

Logo design

The brand is the front face of any company. And therefore, nobody can afford to design a logo that doesn't reflect the brand image of the business. If we know the reaction of the target audience well ahead of the finalization of the logo, it can help get a significant advantage over competitors.

Offers and pricing

Sometimes companies plan to launch offers or discounts or program a price hike of their products or services. But before that, they need to think about concept testing. Knowing the reaction of the market will help businesses make wise decisions and often avoid loss.

Ad and landing page testing

Advertising is one of the most effective ways to reach the maximum target audience. But if the potential consumers do not like it, all the efforts, time, and money are wasted. Therefore, companies need to understand the winning combination for their campaign. Use concept testing, get the data of your client’s preferences, and make the most of it.

The benefit of concept testing

Using a concept testing survey in different areas can bring amazing benefits in all forms. Let’s check some of them.

Provides actionable insights to make the right decisions: Embracing the trial and error method is costly. Therefore, getting actionable market insights through concept testing, before starting execution, helps make the right decisions and channels the efforts in an effective direction.

Helps to gain support at an early stage: A proper data-driven analysis that gives confidence to the senior management is the right way to get support at an early stage and can speed up the process.

Cost-saving and flexible solution: A robust planning can take time, but it builds a solid base for product development. As per industry experts, preparation is the greatest hurdle of a product launch. Launching a faulty product not only kills a lot of time and energy but drains a lot of money out of your pocket.

Gathering market sentiments and client preferences is one of the important pillars of planning. It saves a lot of time and helps to launch your product timely, thus saving huge costs.

Help to optimize the product or service: Concept testing survey points out the key features that consumers are looking for. It may happen that we are planning a feature-loaded product that has no use to the users.

Validates the product quality well ahead: The quality of a product is what customers are paying for. It makes sense to develop a product that has the right features and enhances the customer experience taking into consideration what consumers themselves point out as the qualities they want during the concept testing.

Helps to optimize resource investment: Utilizing the resources on an untested idea may cost a lot. Not only in the form of time or money, but it also has an intangible effect that can bring down the morale of the team.

Takeaway message

Using concept testing in the initial stage of your product development or improvement process increases the overall value by making it more customer-centric. Not only that, it brings a lot of tangible and intangible benefits. A product that has great market acceptance and offers the right things to the customers can definitely rule the market.