| Concept Testing
New Product Concept Standards
The key to successful new product evaluation lies in systems and standards. A well-designed new product concept testing system, overseen by experienced and knowledgeable researchers, can vastly improve a company’s ability to develop successful new products and services.
Having tested thousands of new product concepts over the past 45 years, we have developed some ideas about what works best.
Concept Quality
You need to start with good new product concepts to end up with winning concepts that might make it to market. Focus groups and depth interviews are extremely valuable techniques to aid the development of good new product concepts. Ideation sessions among category users can help diversify and amplify the number and quality of new product ideas.
Concept Standards
Concept standards are essential. Standards help achieve consistency from concept to concept. Standards make the results from testing Concept A comparable to the results of testing Concept B. Concept standards can vary from company to company, but should at least address the following issues:
- Print or video?
- Priced or unpriced?
- Branded or unbranded?
- Style, tone, complexity, and length of copy
- Font types and sizes
- Type and size of illustration(s)
- Content of illustration (include retail package or not?)
- Degree of finish (rough or magazine-ready?)
- And so on.
Without consistent concept standards, comparisons to historical concept tests or across current tests are largely meaningless. Also, the differences in concept standards (where standards exist at all) across companies mean that research firms’ normative databases are largely meaningless. Those firms’ norms are loaded with historical test results—all based on and biased by inconsistencies in concept style and execution across all the concept tests in their databases.
A recommended best practice is to appoint a small committee so that the same two or three people review, edit, and approve all new product concepts. This tends to ensure consistency and adherence to your concept standards.
Download a pdf of our example concept standard. For more guidelines and best practices, please read Concept Testing (And The “Uniqueness” Paradox) by Jerry W. Thomas.
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