Concept testing is an endeavor used in identifying early on potentially
successful products. It focuses on taking into account people’s reaction to a basic
idea of the product, helping in making decisions such as pass/fail or go/no go.
Concept testing is taken place before a product is marketed. Hence, while promising
a high probability of consumer acceptance, the attempt minimizes the research and
development costs as well as the marketing costs. Concept testing
addresses several purposes. It helps finalize the optimum market that the product
should be introduced in. While selecting among alternative concepts, it confirms
that the selected concept is most favorable. Concept testing also
lays the foundation upon which benchmarking can be carried out in the future. The
effort helps in introducing new ideas into the concept. It forecasts the demand
and analyzes whether the product is actually ready to be launched. Nonetheless,
it is important to realize that the process of concept testing should be considered
as a mechanism to refine, develop and nurture new ideas, thus increasing their chance
to penetrate the market successfully.
Concept testing results can be used to:
- Estimate price sensitivity and purchase likelihood
- Identify features and benefits that drive purchase likelihood
- Identify target consumer segments
- Assess how target consumers want to design and purchase the product
