If you’re starting new product development for the first time within your company, there might be one area that is overlooked, concept testing. This process is fundamental in correctly identifying the needs and wants of the specific market you are wanting to bring a new product to. In this article, we will look at what needs to be done in terms of concept testing research. This means looking at what needs to be put in place for concept testing to be a success. The thing to keep in mind about this process is that it’s the first time that an idea for a product is unveiled to the public. Therefore, it helps to bridge the gap between your company’s image of a new product and what the market wants.

Firstly, let’s turn our attention to the way in which you are going to gather the information during concept testing. Usually it is in the form of surveys. This might seem quite straightforward, however there’s quite a strict criteria to make this survey successful. Firstly, you want to remove all levels of bias from your survey. As the whole value of this process comes from honest feedback that mirrors genuine public feeling. This allows your company to see how much ground a new product idea has, before any money has been spent on actual production. If feedback is distorted, due to marketing materials or brand loyalty, then this information loses a lot of its worth. There’s methods in place to help compile an unbiased questionnaire. This is just simple steps, such as to make sure the language is neutral throughout, that questions aren’t weighted toward a particular answer, etc.

When it comes to choosing participants. There are two routes you can take. Firstly, if you have a specific target market in mind, then you want the group you survey to represent this. Be sure to have a few outsiders from your target market, as you want to see the full potential of a potential new product. If the process so far has not selected a target market, or has universal application, then make sure to have a survey group that represents the demographic of whatever sized area you’re targeting (town, country, continent, etc.). It’s important to remember, the more accurate you are during the selection process, the more emphasis your findings are going to have