Conducting market research on an international scale is an increasingly common requirement. Global markets are more critical than ever, offering growth to businesses facing domestic stagnation or saturation. But international market research can be a challenge to get right. This article explores the top 5 challenges in international marketing research and our top tips for overcoming these.

What are the top challenges in international marketing research?

#1 International markets are incredibly diverse.

Some brands fail to appreciate the diversity within a region or country. You can only get an accurate picture of what people value and whether your products and services might succeed by rooting out the nuances of different geographical areas, cultures, and consumers.

#2 There can be a temptation to go too broad.

Linked to this, sometimes, when companies set out on international marketing research projects, they make the mistake of going too broad and trying to understand a region as a whole. Another error we see is firms commissioning research to target one market and then using this as a jumping-off point into others with “similar” attributes. This inevitably leads to costly mistakes as brands map their assumptions about one market onto another.

To avoid this, be clear on the emphasis of your research. Where are you looking to focus and why? Looking too broadly across a region of different markets, or exploring how an entire product range might perform, can cloud the picture.

# 3 Finding the right research partner.

The next big question is whether you have the research capabilities to conduct meaningful projects internationally. Most brands and their research partners can run domestic research projects with ease. But if you’re in the US or UK, say, going as far afield as Japan, India, or Germany requires different sensibilities and capabilities. The more international you get, the harder you must look for that kind of experience and expertise.

#4 Bringing together local and global expertise.

Misalignment is one of the biggest challenges in international market research. To overcome this, there must be a collaborative effort and a shared understanding of the mission, methodology, and insights. A research team at HQ might work with a local marketing team to understand how to position a product for success in an emerging market. But if the teams are siloed and don’t have a consistent understanding of the brief, their approach to researching the market and their findings might not help deliver on the challenge.

#5 Ensuring the project is realistic from the outset.

This is where all the other challenges in international market research come together: which markets, what purpose, the capabilities available, and the effectiveness of the output – all within a budget that makes sense. There will always be limits to what’s practical – and the last thing any client needs is to spend large sums testing international markets to no effect.

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Meeting the challenges in international marketing research – tips and tricks from our experience in the field.

Get the brief and the scope right.

The more you can nail down exactly what you need to know and about which markets, the better your international market research will be. The key here is to dismiss the idea that lessons from one market can be overlaid onto other markets. Your approach might not even work in the same region, much less globally. So ensuring the brief isn’t burdened with too many assumptions, and is very clear on objectives, is key.

For research into one new international market, the brief can be clear-cut. You’ve picked a new place to trade, and you probably have some specific questions. Will the branding work? Do we need to alter the packaging? Are there particular features we need to tweak? But as soon as you broaden the scope – to, say, three new markets covering a region – the nuances become more critical in the research brief.

One solution is to ask questions at every stage. Why these three markets? What are they like? What do we need to know about purchaser sentiment there? How will a research project change what we decide to do in each market? Companies that are open with their agencies on operational and marketing strategies – rather than prescribing research about the areas they know matter in their existing markets – will see more effective results.

Understand the cultural nuances you’ll face

Everyone knows instinctively that cultural differences are both a factor in conducting meaningful research internationally – and a major reason for doing that research in the first place. ‘Market immersion’ is a key concept, and that’s all about getting to grips with the cultural context. But local nuances within new markets can catch people out. 

In South Africa, for example, there are multiple cultural groups. Having local knowledge of how to tease those out is vital to breaking in South Africa.

That means one of our jobs as global research partners is challenging clients at the briefing stage to ensure these considerations are baked into the research approach and the analysis and interpretation of the results. The good news is that when you have research experts living and working in these markets as we do, cultural nuances are easier to plan around. We use this inside knowledge about people’s lives to help understand opinions, habits, and behaviors.

Don’t think language is just about translation.

Companies are often wise to the importance of understanding ‘culture’ and, as a result, adopt a cautious approach. But one mistake people make in international market research is to assume that ‘language’ is more straightforward – or that it’s just a question of running a survey or its results through Google Translate. But that’s never a good idea. It requires a much more nuanced approach. 

Language isn’t just what we say but how we say it. And local variations within international markets – think Swiss German or Quebecois French, but the list is endless – further complicate the issue. 

You’ll need the nuance: go regional.

Understanding local culture and language are essential in its own right. They’re also the gateway to getting out of the big cities and understanding the whole market. Tokyo is a true megacity – but it doesn’t reflect all of Japan. Paris is iconic – but its citizens have very different values to those in Marseilles, let alone rural France.

Here’s where you need to understand geography and supply chains. If you’re moving into a new international market in a limited way – or if the distribution is going to be impractical outside conurbations, say – then researching inside big city bubbles might work just fine. But for national penetration and in markets where businesses or consumers are more evenly distributed, understanding attitudes and behaviors across the country is a must.

For brands with an existing presence, existing assets on the ground are a hugely valuable resource for understanding these nuances. That could be local-office marketers or salespeople. Distributors and major customers can also offer insights. We love to work with chief marketing officers (CMOs) who have a helicopter view of a region and are clear about strategic objectives. But triangulating between them, their local marketing teams, and our local research teams in the field tends to generate better results.

Decide on the most effective methodology.

Another significant benefit of having local teams in place like ours is that they have expertise in the best methodologies to use in different markets. This is sometimes a subset of culture, but in other markets, it’s driven by the levels of technology adoption, geography, or working practices. Some examples:

  • In Indonesia, face-to-face research is considered the norm; telephone in-depth interviews tend to deliver a poor hit rate.
  • In Japan, groups respond better to moderators of the same gender, and people are more likely to undertake qual work at the weekends.
  • It’s not acceptable for researchers to interview women in the home one-on-one in Saudi Arabia. And across the Middle East – and many other regions – mixed-sex focus groups tend to be a no-no.

You can read about others in our guide to conducting online market research in Asia.

This is also why more open briefing processes can be valuable in international research. It’s too easy to apply a blanket methodology across a whole region and end up struggling to execute the research. Better to frame the key questions the organization needs to answer and tailor the research study to each key market.

Calibrate your responses.

Cultural and language shape the way you ask questions, and they’re huge factors in interpreting any research results, too. A keyword search on a crude translation of responses could mean missing crucial insights – or, worse, coming to incorrect conclusions.

And don’t think this only applies to qualitative, descriptive research where local idiom, slang, or cultural references might catch you out. International quantitative research also has to be calibrated by analysts with an appreciation for local nuance.

Respondents in some markets are more likely to agree with statements than others. For instance, you’re more likely to see people agree with statements in India than in Japan. Even the way you phrase questions – not just translate them, but the nuance in the question itself – will affect the consistency in scores you can achieve between different cultures.

That’s particularly important for big global brands with a very set idea about how they do their brand equity or NPS studies. The alternative is to develop a more organic approach so that the questions allow you to reflect local nuance. It might be as simple as using a four-point rather than a five-point scale in markets where respondents are most likely to sit on the fence.

Use market research as a tactical, not just strategic, lever.

It can be tempting to seek broad answers from international market research: “Will this product work in this market?” Or: “How should we tweak the service offering to meet this country’s needs?” These will help brands decide on strategic issues. But the more nuanced the approach, the more likely it is that the research will feed into local tactics for a brand, making its international investments work even harder.

That’s a common theme in research: properly granular insights ought to help with several decisions. It’s not just a ‘go/no-go’ binary, but research should inform everything from pricing to choice of distribution channel, support for local sales operations, to targeted advertising.

A new era for international research

We’ve moved on from an earlier era when global brands assumed continent-scale uniformity. Even if a business sees an opportunity in ‘Latin America,’ has an ‘Asian strategy’ or issues financial reports for ‘EMEA,’ serious decision-makers know they need to go, at the very least, to the country level for insights that will help their plans succeed. And they understand that it can be counter-productive to seek out ‘apples to apples’ comparisons between markets when a little nuance can go a long way.

More recently, one factor that’s complicated the picture is the global Covid-19 pandemic. Because so much commercial activity is managed remotely, there’s a temptation to run multi-market studies with a uniform online methodology. If everyone in the world is attending focus groups via the same videoconferencing app, what’s the difference?

The risk here is that the vast advantages of technological solutions are watered down in the hunt for low-cost, ‘big picture’ regional results. Online research can be conducted quickly and flexibly. And clients can immerse themselves in research projects more easily, gaining their own insights into consumer reactions on the other side of the world.

But research that is tailored, for example, to local respondents’ cultural norms will yield much better results. You can quickly adapt a methodology to a market when you have local research expertise and a clear idea of the brand’s mission. For instance, recognizing that in India, you’ll need to avoid any methodologies that rely on lengthy video inputs, and instead, combining text, image-based and short video tasks will get you the insights you need.

The most successful companies understand that an international project is more complex than handing a research agency a questionnaire and generating uniform results across every territory.

You know your product or service better than anyone. We know the right questions and methodologies to get you where you need to go. Our local teams understand the cultural norms, and good translations – culturally and linguistically – can bring it all together. Find out about the regions where we can conduct international market research or get in touch to speak to us about an international project

Have you heard the story about Steve Jobs dismissing consumer market research as a tool to shape new products? The driving force behind the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone famously said in a 1985 Playboy interview, “We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research.”

It is, of course, one of the most widely debunked stories in business. Apple does conduct consumer market research – and is, arguably, in its pre-eminent position precisely because it innovates using insights generated by analysing in incredible detail its consumers’ behaviours and the market appetite for its products. (There’s video of a young Jobs extolling the virtues of market research for these purposes – it’s 90 seconds well spent.)

The fact is, most new products are very similar to things people have seen before. For every genre-busting innovation there are tens of thousands of new iterations of existing ideas, tweaks to brands and updates to proven sellers. In most cases, some kind of market research will have shaped the new iteration and how it was conceptualised; helped stand up the business case for it; framed the marketing; and guided its introduction to consumers. So how does market research help businesses design and launch successful new products?

Using market research for product development at each stage of the innovation funnel

There are lots of different ways to describe the innovation process, broadly broken down into three phases: ideas, concepts and creation. It’s not a science with a standard formula, however, but there are some common steps.  For example, some experts recommend breaking the process into 5Cs:

  • Capture intelligence about market gaps and organisational potential.
  • Connect opportunities to capabilities.
  • Convert ideas and available resources into concepts for products.
  • Confirm these products are viable in the market.
  • Conclude by executing a market entry plan for them.

Another way of thinking about it is a series of questions that need to be asked at each stage of the product development process. Market research can help answer them all.

1: What’s the opportunity?

Desk research, analysis of existing customer data and some qualitative investigation can help frame likely areas for innovation. In many cases, an organisation will face an internal problem – overcapacity, falling margins, consumer appetites shifting away from existing products – that also frame the need for new products. The output here is an extrapolation of big trends to identify emerging needs, changing behaviours and whitespace for innovation.

2: What ideas might thrive there?

In some organisations, internal R&D will have a ready supply of potential innovations that might be applied to the opportunity. More likely, R&D and marketing teams will benefit from a brief developed from the ‘opportunity’ phase to direct R&D in more concrete areas. This process might include brainstorming inside the organisation or more formal ideation sessions with an external research agency. At this point surveys can be harnessed to give more shape to the ideation process. In the search for an iterative new product (rather than a genuine technological innovation) there might be 30 broad ideas that can be tested in quantitative surveys to thin down the field.

3: What concepts deliver on those ideas?

In the next stage, focus groups and market analysis can clarify which concepts ought to progress further by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each idea. This is also where the innovation and R&D efforts of the business are properly moulded around consumer and market insights – and some iteration takes place to align the two. Note that research here isn’t just among consumers in the core market. Channel partners, consumers and suppliers in adjacent industries are all valuable sources of insight and inspiration. For example, when Kadence worked with an airline to develop new first and business class seats, we looked to bedding experts, audiophiles and high-end restaurant maîtres d’hôtel to shape the concepts.

4: How might those concepts perform in the market?

By this point, an organisation should have narrowed its ideas down to a small number of solid concepts. At this stage, a large-scale quantitative survey can be used to identify the concept with most potential to take forward, as well as the size of the potential customer base.

5: What’s the investment case for launch?

The insights gained from market and concept testing will allow numbers to be attached to the product at this point. What might revenues be? What’s the cost to produce the product or service? With research around pricing, what’s the margin likely to be? Does this justify retooling a factory or investment in marketing? This is the “go/no go” point for a new product.

6: What should the final product look like?

Using the research on market potential and consumer attitudes to the new idea, a business can shape decisions on final feature set, ancillary products or services (again, both quant and qual market research will illustrate the need or potential for these), packaging, marketing and pricing.

7: How do we get it out to market?

Research can also highlight optimum product launch strategies, including distribution, adverting and partnerships to make the most of both existing markets and potential follow-ons – whether that’s mass-market adoption for a product designed initially for a niche or early adopters; new demographic segments; or launch into different international markets.

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The known unknowns for new products

There are broadly two types of business keen to answer these questions. First there’s the radical innovators, the people who come up with brand new ideas and product concepts and want to understand whether they stand a chance in the market. This group are interested in ‘unknown unknowns’, the broader trends in consumer behaviour that might hint at acceptance of a brand new idea. We’ll come on to these Steve Jobs types later.

The second, much larger, group understands the innovation funnel in more detail and seeks data to optimise a pipeline of new products. They are interested in ‘known unknowns’ and using the answers to justify, shape and execute a launch.

For this group, the challenge is modelling the potential performance of a new product against a number of variables already visible in the market. These organisations often have a sophisticated process in place to test new ideas and are keen to benchmark any new product in order to validate investment. They will have an algorithm for product development. The more variables they can pin down using market research, the higher the confidence in making those investments.

‘Benchmarking’ in this case might be looking at the performance of products within the target market; or evaluating consumer attitudes to particular features or benefits. This makes it a largely quantitative methodology.

This kind of quantitative approach is often applied with good reason. Standardised questionnaires and clear, consistent methodologies can help ensure that the market research process is more reliable and easier to interpret. And for many larger organisations with a wide portfolio of potential innovations, a fixed investment budget and the need for reliable returns, this rigour can be highly valuable.

But beyond simply looking at the “go / no go” result, it’s important to dig into the reasons why products didn’t pass this hurdle. This can provide valuable insights to inform future development.

Competitor analysis can also reveal opportunities for developing successful product iterations. Research might include:

  • Rivals’ marketing strategies – what’s their targeting and messaging; what are they missing?
  • Customer satisfaction with competitor products– where are there discontents that might be satisfied by your product?
  • Other gaps in the market – such as different price points or localised versions for international consumers.
  • Other competitor strengths and weaknesses – consider brand halo effects or financial status.
  • Early-adopter behaviours – in similar markets or using new technologies that might be adapted to your own target markets.

A word of warning – New Coke and the importance of taking the right approach to market research for new product development

But it’s not always done right. There’s no shortage of case studies of new product launches that didn’t go well. And often that’s not because an organisation didn’t do any market research. It’s because they didn’t use it deftly enough.

New Coke is a great example. Coca Cola is an innovative business and wields one of the greatest brands in history. In the 1980s, management decided to rebuild its dominant position with a new formula. Clearly this was a huge decision, and as a market research powerhouse, it took no risks. It spent $4m on development and conducted over 200,000 taste tests across the US to research how consumers would score the new flavour against rival Pepsi. And based on those tests, New Coke was going to be a hit.

But management made a series of errors. In a classic case of confirmation bias, they tended to put more weight behind positive views expressed in focus groups, ignoring those who warned a change would turn them off the brand. They discounted emotional feedback on their brand. And they over-focused on differentiation with Pepsi, which had long marketed itself as the sweeter product.

One big mistake was conducting sip tests instead of researching how consumers would feel drinking a whole can of the sweeter formulation. But narrowing down their research focus – ignoring the context for consumption – they ended up launching a product that turned consumers off the brand altogether.

The error, then, was not failure to conduct market research. It was failure to treat research objectively and apply appropriate methodologies. Management sought justification for their decision – not confidence that it was the right one.

The impact of market research on new product development – giving you the confidence to guide a product launch

The key word here is ‘confidence’. Even iterating an existing product entails risks. Using market research for product development helps reveal and manage that risk – and allows decision-makers to test rigorously against hypotheses for new products, rather than head off down potentially blind alleys.

Note that qualitative research plays a crucial role in helping product developers fine-tune their approach and create innovations more suited to particular audiences. And as the New Coke example shows, qual research can capture the emotional components of product change much better than quantitative analysis might. Every new product launch is a balance between gains and losses for the consumer and understanding that balance is vital.

When it comes to qualitative research, organisations shouldn’t just ask themselves whether to conduct it, but how to conduct it. Whilst central location testing for instance, allows you to ensure the product is experienced in a consistent way during the testing process  pandemic lockdowns have obviously accelerated this shift towards at-home testing. New technologies are helping. Augmented reality (AR), for example, is an ideal way to help consumers visualise new products even at the concept stage. Using their mobile phones, they can ‘see’ products in their own home or a work setting, providing valuable depth to qualitative studies at even earlier stages. This is something we’ve piloted with Asahi to test their London Pride packaging and are seeing a number of benefits, such as respondents using AR organically noticing and commenting on small visual details that aren’t picked up by other respondents assessing a 2D concept.

Using market research to guide blue-sky thinking

So we can test against quantitative benchmarks to validate new product development. And we have qualitative studies to test emotional reaction to new products and shape their evolution in ways that will make them more successful. There’s also a third way of using market research for product development: coming up with new ideas in the first place.

This is often called ‘ideation’ and it’s an area where market research has played a key role since the birth of the industry – regardless of what Steve Jobs said. He was right that consumers are typically quite poor at predicting what might define or satisfy meet their own future needs. But understanding how R&D and human appetites come together is core to the market research offering.

Take a dairy business, as an example, that’s facing a slow decline in consumption. One solution would be to increase the appeal of organic products. How might they craft a brief to their own product development team?

Working with Kadence, the company use a structured approach to frame where this innovation might gain some traction in the market. Using proven research techniques, they also explored possible options for further innovation. These can be tweaked and repositioned using further research.

This approach can be further optimised if like us, the research agency has an in-house creative team that can quickly visualise concepts based on consumer feedback. We worked with a global beverage brands wanting to relaunch its range to make this happen. Based on focus groups, we were able to redesign the packaging in a matter of hours in a way that capitalised on insights from the research.  

One other process to consider: the ideation sprint. Rather than gradually piecing together some R&D, market analysis and internal feedback before gradually building out a new product for consumer testing, this involves getting all the stakeholders into a project group together to develop new ideas within a short timeframe.

Kadence has conducted these sprints with food manufacturers – where that combination of chefs, technicians, marketing experts, salespeople and researchers working in concentrated bursts over a couple of days can see a menu of ideas created,  tested with consumers and refined incredibly quickly. And because these sprints are cross-departmental, buy-in for the new product internally is much greater.

Concluding thoughts

Product development is risky even when you’re not launching a category-busting innovation or changing the world. New flavours, revived branding, tweaked feature-sets or version updates can upset existing product performance or result in costly investment in ideas that might not fly.

Far from stifling product development, market research can deliver reassurance and confidence at every stage, helping inform the choice of new products to pursue, their key attributes, how they might be marketed and what contribution they make to a business operationally and financially.

This is an area where Kadence has extensive expertise. Find out more about our product development research services or get in touch with us to discuss a brief.

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We’ve been working with Bloomberg since the start of pandemic to understand how the priorities, actions and attitudes of business decision makers across APAC are evolving. Take a look at the infographic for the key insights from our latest wave including:

  • 67% of businesses are confident that their companies can continue to operate if another wave of the pandemic strikes
  • Brands are looking towards e-commerce and social commerce to power future growth. 87% business leaders plan to use digital platforms as their sales channels in the next 1 to 3 years, with 74% looking towards social commerce. 1 in 4 expect to decrease their use of physical stores
  • Expectations of brands are rising. 66% are looking for brands that use their resources to give back to society, up from 56% in wave 2 (June 2020)
  • The pandemic has placed greater attention on health and wellness with 55% of businesses now engaging an external partner to provide health and wellbeing services
Understanding the views of business decision makers - Infographic
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Looking ahead to the trends that will shape the coming year is a critical exercise for any business. But in 2021, this is perhaps more significant than ever. Consumer behaviour has been transformed as a result of Covid-19, as many shifts in behaviour have accelerated.

To understand the key trends to watch in Asia, we spoke to trend watching experts across our 8 offices in the region. Watch the video to hear their thoughts, or download the full report.

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Consumer Trends in Asia: 2021

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Looking ahead to the trends that will shape the coming year is a critical exercise for any business. But in 2021, this is perhaps more significant than ever. Consumer behaviour has been transformed as a result of Covid-19, as many shifts in behaviour have accelerated. This blog post summarises 5 key trends from our latest report Consumer Trends in Asia: 2021

  1. Vocal for local – Consumers are looking to support brands closer to home
  2. Looking for action – Consumers want to see brands having a positive impact on the community
  3. Racing towards a digital future – Online shopping is booming, ushering in new innovation
  4. Seeking value – Consumers are prioritizing value and saving more
  5. Health is wealth – We’re seeing a marked change in diets as consumers focus on health

Read the summary below or download the full report to learn more about consumer trends in Asia in 2021 and what your business can do to capitalise on them. It’s packed full of insight and analysis from local experts across our 8 Asian offices – China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan – and contains inspiring examples of brands successfully tapping into these trends.  

1. Vocal for local – Consumers are looking to support brands closer to home

The economic turmoil of Covid-19 has made consumers more conscious than ever of the impact of their purchase power. In light of this, we expect one of the big consumer trends in Asia in 2021 to be supporting local brands.

In some markets this is manifesting itself in a wave of support for national, rather than global brands. India and China are two markets where this is happening. In India, Prime Minister Modi’s strategy to aid economic recovery in the country is to focus on local manufacturing and supply chains and to encourage Indian consumers to support Indian brands. In response local brands have leveraged this messaging in their marketing campaigns, further promoting the concept. In China, we also see consumers looking to purchase from homegrown brands rather than global companies. This trend was already underway, due to international trade tensions and the growing popularity of Chinese brands, but it has been accelerated further by Covid-19.

In other Asian markets, we’re seeing the emergence of hyper-localisation. Now spending more time at home and recognising the companies that helped them during the height of the pandemic, we are seeing consumers looking to support businesses in their local neighbourhoods through challenging economic times.  This is very much a continuation of the behaviours of the behaviours we saw at the onset of the pandemic. In Japan, for instance, the 応援消費  (consume to support) movement went viral, and whilst in Indonesia, consumers were encouraged to #belidariteman (buy from a friend). This sentiment is likely to be important in 2021 and beyond, particularly in the food and drink industry as our research Understanding the impact of Covid-19: Food industry trends for 2020 and beyond indicates. When asked which of the behaviours they’d adopted in the pandemic that they’d continue in future, 42% of Asian consumers told us they plan to continue supporting local food and drink brands, the second highest of any behaviour.

2. Looking for action – Consumers want to see brands having a positive impact on the community

When we think ahead to 2021, we mustn’t underestimate the impact of the pandemic. Covid-19 has caused many people to reconsider what is important to them and this has extended to their relationship with brands. Our Brands Exposed research, exploring how Covid-19 has changed expectations of marketing and brands, found that 63% of Asian consumers think that brands need to re-evaluate their role in society in a post-Covid world.

There’s also an expectation that brands need to do more to support the communities they serve, a trend that is more prevalent in Asia than it is in the West. 63% of Asian consumers believe that organisations have a responsibility to contribute financially to their communities, compared to 43% in the US and 51% in the UK. They’re also appetite to see brands going further, leading meaningful initiatives in their communities – 58% of Asian consumers believe this to be importance, compared to just 41% in the US and 46% in the UK.

So what does this mean for brands looking to make their mark in Asia? One thing’s for sure – brands need to be prioritising actions over words, providing evidence of the steps they are taking to make a difference and the impact that this is having. And this isn’t just confined to the B2C space. Our recent work with Bloomberg understanding the attitudes of business decision makers across 6 markets in Asia and Australia found that 56% are looking for brands that are protecting the underprivileged and vulnerable and a further 56% want to see brands using their resources to give back to society.

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Consumer Trends in Asia: 2021

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3. Racing towards a digital future- online shopping is booming, ushering in new innovation

Seismic regional and global events have often act as a catalyst for behavioural change and innovation – and Covid-19 is no exception.

In response to regulations, businesses and consumers have adopted online solutions at a rapid rate. In some markets like India this has been accompanied by governmental action to provide digital connectivity in remote rural areas and to low income groups, enabling the delivery of basic services during this time. As such, some demographic groups have experienced the benefits of online shopping for the first time.

Others, already accustomed to shopping online, are doing this more and spending in new categories such as grocery and personal care according to a survey of digital consumers in 6 Asian markets from Bain and Facebook. The research suggests that this represents a permanent shift in behaviours. 83% of those surveyed said they are likely to continue increased spending online after the pandemic. These behaviours aren’t just confined to younger people. There are significant numbers (35%) of older people – aged 55 and over – that share this sentiment.

In response to the rapid growth of online shopping we’re seeing innovation in this space. From shopstreaming in China to a new breed of influencers in Japan, you can read more in the full report.

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4. Seeking value – Consumers are prioritizing value and saving more

The Bain and Facebook study also provides interesting insights into consumers’ attitudes towards personal finance in this period. 57% of the consumers surveyed are prioritising value for money in their purchases. They are also saving more. The study found that 60% are planning to put more money aside in future and that Asian consumers are two times more likely to start saving more after the crisis than their American counterparts. We see this reflected in our own data, as consumers cut back on non-essentials in Thailand.

Against this backdrop, companies across all sectors will have to work harder to get consumers to part with their cash, clearly articulating the benefits and value of their products, and focusing on building customer loyalty to avoid switching.

5. Health is wealth – We’re seeing a marked change in diets as consumers focus on health

Health has been a big focus in 2020 and we expect this to continue, with it being one of the big consumers trends in Asia to watch for 2021. Our research with Bloomberg reflects this, with 67% of business decision makers across Asia and Australia telling us that taking care of their personal and family’s health is more important than ever.

This is playing out in a number of ways, first and foremost in diets. Our report, Understanding the impact of Covid-19: Food industry trends for 2020 and beyond, found that 59% of  Asian consumers believe that what they eat and drink has changed from the better, with only 6% stating their diet has changed for the worse. This represents a marked difference to Western markets – where just 24% of Americans and 34% of Brits believe what they’re eating has improved. In line with this renewed focus on health, the majority of consumers are also cooking more for themselves and consuming more fruit and vegetables than before the onset of the pandemic. This indicates a opportunity for food and beverage brands to develop healthier versions of their products and support consumers in cooking healthy meals from scratch – be that through recipes or product launches.

But health goes beyond just diet. There’s also a greater emphasis on fitness and on mental health, with PwC reporting that in China, 87% of consumers are focused on taking care of their mental health. There are numerous opportunities for brands to support consumers in these areas, which we analysis in detail in the full report.  

To learn more, download the full report: Consumer Trends Asia: 2021

To learn more about how these trends are playing out in each market, our analysis of the implications of these trends and success stories of brands making inroad in these areas, download the full report.

Alternatively, if you’d like our support in understanding the changes taking place in your key markets and how you can capitalise on these, please get in touch.

The arrival of Covid-19 has brought with it dramatic changes in food and drink purchase patterns. Shelf-stable food like pasta, rice and canned goods flew off the shelves. Immune system boosting ingredients were top of the shopping list. But which behaviours will stick and what are the longer term food industry trends to watch?

We spoke to consumers in 10 countries, as well as our own internal food and beverage experts to understand the global picture and the local nuances and trends in each market. We wanted to understand how people are eating and drinking in this new normal, and what implications this has for the future.

We’ve summarised the key global and local trends in this blog post but for the full findings, download the report: Understanding the Impact of Covid-19: Food Industry Trends for 2020 and Beyond.

Global food industry trends for 2020 and beyond

The pandemic has improved eating and drinking habits across the world

Over half (53%) of the consumers we spoke to told us that since the onset of the pandemic, what they eat and drink has changed for the better. Some countries like India and Vietnam have seen a big swing towards healthier diets, whereas others like the US, UK and Japan have been more consistent. Overall, very few people (just 6%) believe their diet has changed for the worse.

People are cooking more at home and they’re eating more fresh fruit and vegetables

With more time at home, and health high on the agenda, it’s unsurprising that half of consumers globally (51%) are now cooking more for themselves and their families. This trend is more prevalent in some Asian markets, such as India, China, Thailand and Vietnam, than it is in the US, UK or Japan. But even in this market, consumers have found an innovative workaround to sourcing home-cooked meals. Over the past few months, professional chef / dietician delivery services like Sharedine have boomed in Japan. This is where a personal chef will come to a customer’s house and cook a number of dishes from scratch that can be reheated over the coming days. The service even includes grocery delivery!

At a global level, people are also more conscious of what they eat, with a real focus on fresh produce. Half of consumers globally (51%) tell us they are eating more fresh fruit and vegetables. This is more significant than any other dietary changes, such as eating more grains and nuts (adopted by 29%) or eating more meat-free products or dairy and cheese (practiced by just 16% and 13% respectively).

Health-conscious consumers are looking to boost their immune systems and brands are responding

Even now long after the onset of the pandemic, immune-boosting solutions are still at the top of consumers’ shopping lists. Consumers in markets like India are looking to natural ingredients. But others, like those in Thailand and China are making use of a new range of RTD products that have sprung up to meet this need. The “water plus” category has boomed in Thailand, with brands such as Yanhee Vitamin Water, B’lue, VITADAY Vitamin Water and PH Plus 8.5 Alkaline Water coming to the fore. In China, product launches have included milk with immune globulin, Vitamin C fruit tea and Chinese jujube drinks.

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Consumer Trends in Asia: 2021

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Worries about the origin of food are one of the key food industry trends for 2020 and beyond

When asked which of the behaviours they’d adopted in the pandemic that they’d continue in future, being conscious of where the produce I consume originates from for safety / health reasons came out top. We see this reflected in consumer behaviour. Some people in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia have moved away from visiting wet markets, opting instead for mini supermarkets or online solutions. In some markets, there are also significant groups of consumers that are opting to eat more meat-free products, perceived to be less prone to infection. This amounts to 32% of consumers in Vietnam, 28% in India and 23% in China. With these concerns top of mind for many consumers, it’s the brands that prioritise hygiene and safety that will come out on top. We’re already seeing some great examples of this happening, with the help of technology. One example is Haidilao. This hotpot restaurant in Beijing has installed smart robotic arms to prepare and deliver raw meat and fresh vegetables. It’s also introduced technology to track and dispose of food that has passed its expiry date.

Supporting local is a key consideration for many consumers

Across the world people are doing their bit to keep local food and beverage brands afloat. This looks set to continue in future. When asked which of the behaviours they’d adopted in the pandemic that they’d continue, supporting local produce and food and beverage brands came out second highest.

In Japan, this trend has manifested itself in the 応援消費 (Consume To Support) movement. This initiative that went viral, ranking first amongst the top 10 consumer trends in the first half of 2020 according to Rakuten, an online retail giant and Nikkei, a flagship financial newspaper. The term was first created and gained popularity in 2011 when a 3.11 earthquake shook the eastern part of Japan and people showed their support through making purchases from the damaged areas. In the pandemic, we saw a resurgence of this. Consumers purchased from the food and beverage brands hardest hit – farms, manufacturers and restaurants with excess stock – thanks to innovative apps like Pocket Marche and TABETE.

We’ve seen similar movements in other markets. In Indonesia #belidariteman (buy from a friend) was promoted by the Association of Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs (HIPMI) encouraging people to support local. In the Philippines, the traditional value of “Bayanihan” which translates as “spirit of communal unity” has seen Filipinos shopping from local food and beverage brands in these difficult times.

With local being an important purchase consideration for consumers both now and in the future, brands will do well to emphasize their heritage and role in the community going forwards.   

Consumers are looking to food and drink as escapism to create occasions at home

As people spend more time at home, there’s a real opportunity for brands to help consumers create special occasions with their loved ones through the power of food and drink. This could be through providing inspiration for at-home events and special recipes for consumers to cook themselves. It could also be achieved by creating products, services and experiences that can be delivered at home. There are some great examples of this emerging around the world. In Singapore, bar and restaurant, Tippling Club, is offering virtual cook-along sessions with its in-house chef. In Hong Kong, Café Earl Grey is delivering restaurant signatures with simple instructions to cook and assemble at home. These dishes are accompanied by an extensive selection of curated wines and bottled cocktails. And in the Philippines, restaurants are delivering uncooked ingredients so that people can cook their favourite dishes at home.

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Online shopping is on the rise but this is playing out differently in different markets

Food and beverage brands have had to innovate to survive in the wake of local restrictions. Online has played a critical role in this transformation. Consumers across markets have experienced the benefits of online shopping first hand, accelerating its growth. But this has played out differently in different markets. In Vietnam, ghost kitchens have been set up to meet the growing demand for meal delivery. In Indonesia, a jastip service allows consumers to make and receive orders from local wet markets via WhatsApp. And in the UK, where online grocery is more well established, growing numbers of older customers are moving their grocery shopping online. In 2019, just 8% of over 55s in the UK had bought food and essentials online. This figure has now soared  to 25% according to the How Britain Shops Online report.

Country specific food industry trends

Food industry trends in the UK

One of the key global trends we see in the UK is the shift towards supporting local. Office workers in the UK have been encouraged to work from home for the majority of 2020, meaning that food and drink spend has been concentrated closer to home – and we expect to see this continue as working patterns shift as a result of the pandemic. According to Mastercard data, it’s been people shopping and eating out locally, rather than spending money in Central London, that has driven the economic recovery in London. Other key trends in this market include the growing number of silver surfers that are embracing to online grocery shopping as mentioned above and rise of at-home food and drink occasions. As in other markets, brands are anticipating consumers will spend more time at home, and catering to this with services such as online cooking classes and delivery collaborations.

Food industry trends in the US

We expect to see consumers continuing to eat and drink more at home in the US too, as many office workers continue to remotely, and city dwellers flee to the suburbs. Whilst consumers are enjoying cooking at home and planning to do more of it in future, they’re are also ordering more takeout, and looking to meal kit companies for ease and convenience. Attitudes towards health in the US depart from the global trend. Whilst 53% of consumers globally tell us that what they eat or drink has changed for the better, in America only 25% think this is the case. In the US, consumers are viewing health more holistically. Whilst some are looking to food and drink to support physical health, others are using food as a tool to support their mental health, with two thirds of Americans eating more comfort food than before.

Food industry trends in Singapore

Global trends such as the rise of online shopping and a growing focus on health and wellness are reflected in Singapore. In fact, an AIA survey conducted prior to Phase Two of safe reopening found that Singaporeans are allocating the highest portion of their expenses on healthier meal choices. One trend that is more specific to Singapore is the growing importance of sustainability. When it comes to sustainability efforts, Singapore falls behind many other nations in terms of recycling, plastic-use reduction, and food wastage reduction, and this has come into sharper focus as a result of the pandemic, alongside more recent government efforts to achieve a Zero Waste Singapore. In response, we’re starting to see the rise of more sustainable packaging, “ugly” produce and bulk food stores.

Food industry trends in Vietnam

Vietnam has seen big changes in the channels people use for shopping. Online meal delivery has boomed as restaurants have pivoted, and ever more Vietnamese consumers are turning to the mini supermarket, as worries about food safety and origin come to the fore. In line with this, organic food is also growing in popularity, although high prices mean that at present this trend is confined to the middle class.

Food industry trends in China

In China and Hong Kong, global trends around health and eating at home are particularly important, with 86% of Chinese respondents acknowledging their desire to eat at home even after the pandemic ends according to Nielsen. Concerns about food safety are also front of mind, and in response we’re seeing a growing trend towards automation and contactless processes in manufacturing and distribution.

Food industry trends in Thailand

As in Vietnam, meal delivery in Thailand has boomed, accelerating the adoption of online and mobile banking and contactless payment methods. The global trend towards an increasing emphasis on health is evident in Thailand, too with 71% cooking more for themselves and their families and 62% consuming more fresh fruit and vegetables. Many Thai consumers are also looking towards beverages as a way of looking after their health. Drinks containing Vitamin C have seen 47% growth compared
to last year.

Food industry trends in India

Like their counterparts in Thailand, Indian consumers are looking for immune boosting products, but many of the specific trends we see playing out in this market are driven by food safety concerns. As mentioned previously, a significant number of Indian consumers are eating more meat-free food due to worries about infection, and they’re also buying more packaged food. Against this backdrop, street food vendors have had to pivot, elevating their offering, leading to the emergence of gourmet street food.

Food industry trends in Japan

As mentioned above Japanese consumers have been quick to support local brands through the 応援消費 (Consume To Support) movement. This is a trend that we believe will persist in Japan, albeit not as prominently as it does on a global scale. Our research shows that 1 in 4 consumers in the country say they will be more conscious of supporting local produce and food and beverage brands in future, compared to 4 in 10 globally. One emerging trend that is quite specific to Japan is the move towards stocking up on food. In most countries this behaviour peaked at the height of the pandemic and has since subsided but in Japan 41% of consumers plan to ‘stock up’ on essentials rather than buying day-to-day in future and 35% are intending to buy more frozen or tinned produce. This can be explained by looking at the specific experience of the Japanese people. In response to natural disasters like earthquakes, typhoons, flooding and landslides, Japanese consumers are used to having to stock up.

Food industry trends in the Philippines

We see this trend towards bulk buying emerging in the Philippines too, where 48% of consumers say they plan to ‘stock up’ on essentials instead of buying day-to-day. Global trends around eating more healthily are also important in the Philippines, which is significant given that the traditional Filipino diet is higher in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than most Asian diets.

Food industry trends in Indonesia

Trends in Indonesia closely mirror those seen globally. There’s been an uptick in online grocery shopping, with a large proportion of Indonesian grocery shoppers (59%) having used e-commerce sites for this purpose according to a Snapcart survey carried out in May. People have also started to adopt online shopping in new categories, such as OTC, multivitamins / supplements, herbal products, and even RX drugs. Cooking more at home, and supporting local food and drink businesses are also key trends in this market.

To learn more about the food industry trends in each market, download the full report – it’s packed full of facts, stats and examples from each country. Alternatively, if you need further support in understanding changing consumer behaviour in your market, please get in touch with us. We have a wealth of experience in food and beverage, having worked with the likes of Mars, Unilever and Arla, and would be happy to share our expertise.

Marketing textbooks are littered with examples of products or services which flopped when they hit the market. 

Take Juicero, in which investors pumped a staggering $120 million – all for a wi-fi connected juice maker which nobody had indicated they wanted or needed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was scrapped within two years. 

Or ESPN’s mobile phone service, which was pitched at the wrong price – some $400 – whilst also offering the target audience a lack of choice around handset. The service was swiftly shut down, with ESPN instead opting to provide content to Verizon. 

And remember New Coke? Launched in 1985, it’s still remembered today as a major marketing misstep.The product was abandoned after only a few weeks, with Cola-Cola reverting back to its old formula. 

It’s clear that some of the world’s most innovative companies have failed to accurately foresee the impact of new launches when they hit the target market. Even Google, for instance, arguably launched its wearable Google Glass concept too soon. Its sky-high price did not help, and it failed to connect with consumers.

Fortunately there is a way to avoid this type of failure. By conducting  product concept testing before a product launch, businesses are able to develop their ideas in a safe and controlled space with the target audience ahead of launch.

The concept in question can be many different things. It might be a totally new set of product ideas that no one has ever seen before. It might be a redesign or rebrand.

Testing methods can be online, for instance via quantitative surveys or via online communities focused on gathering qualitative insight; or face-to-face, in a focus group or series of in-depth interviews. 

Whatever the method, conducting concept testing can pinpoint the value – or otherwise – of specific features and benefits, as well as indicating whether a product concept will be a major hit or a more niche offering which may not justify the cost and resources needed to make a reality.

Concept testing does require an investment in market research, but any costs at this stage will be minimal in comparison to launching a product which goes on to fail.

After all, testing is the process of uncovering what your potential consumers like or dislike about your concept, helping you identify which ideas will fly and guiding their future development to ensure success. What’s more, concept testing can enable marketers to understand what to communicate at launch, whilst also helping to identify the customer segments with the most potential

Here are the five key reasons why concept testing is so important:

1. Concept testing can help you filter ideas so you know which to develop further

Concept testing can help you move beyond blue-sky thinking and determine which of your ideas will be a hit. Rather than relying on subjective opinion, it gives you data that can bring the whole team on board by providing a consensus about which projects to develop and which to shelve.

In this way, great concept testing unites teams behind the ideas that have real potential. There’s no need to worry about office politics or lengthy and frustrating ‘design by committee’. With concept testing you can hear directly from the consumer what’s likely to cut it – and what won’t.

By using a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques, you can understand the consumer view of different concepts, and explore whether the products or services you’re looking to develop will resonate. Employing a range of testing tools enables you to identify the product concepts with the highest appeal, as well as understand how these can be refined. This allows you to move to the next stage of development with confidence.

It’s no overstatement to say that the use of a well-designed, concept testing survey or a skilfully moderated online community can pave the way to success. But any survey template or discussion guide needs to be designed in such a way that ensures that the overall package, as well as individual features or attributes are each assessed and fed back on. 

This is something that needs to happen in the early stages of decision-making, too. It cannot be left too late as the point of concept testing is to help you iterate your ideas and to tweak them ahead of launch so that they are primed for success.

2. Concept testing can help you steer clear of bad decision-making.

Testing concepts in detail before launch may sound like it will delay your go-to-market strategy, but in the long run it can save your organisation significant time, prevent financial losses, and protect your relationship with customers. Failed products or services are enormously costly but fortunately concept testing exists not only to help you avoid the bad ideas, but also to uncover those with untapped potential.

Concept testing can help you to find the strongest option to take forward among a number of choices or find ways to improve underperforming concepts. Either way, it’s a great way to ensure, quickly and easily, that whatever you’re planning has a solid chance of success. In this way, concept testing can help you avoid an embarrassing failure and take your product development processes from good to great, thanks to that all-important feedback from those who matter – your customers.

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3. Concept testing can help you understand what elements matter to consumers.

Even if you immediately gauge that your product ideas are likely to fly, there are still many additional things to consider through testing methods – such as your positioning, the kind of packaging or branding that would be considered attractive and –  arguably the most important factor in the production of any product or service – the most appropriate price.

In this way, a concept test is a way to optimise your innovation, drastically reduce the risk of project failure and limit excessive costs. Concept testing is crucial for product developers to determine the innovation’s chance of success. It can shed light on blind spots, inefficiencies, misinterpretations or problems that can lead to failure. Using testing methods like surveys as well as qualitative research, via a focus group, in depth interview or online community, can all help to tease out your target audience’s wants or needs.

4. Concept testing enables you to fix problems prior to launch.

The sooner concept testing is undertaken, the more flexibility there is for optimising your initial idea to develop a product that customers truly want and need. 


Through concept testing you can understand what elements don’t fly with customers so you can ditch underperforming elements to save costs or iteratively improve concepts so that they better meet consumer needs. With an online community, for instance, it’s possible to develop concepts based on consumer feedback, and then upload them for further feedback, in this way allowing you to refine ideas swiftly.

5. Ultimately, concept testing ensures that you develop products that consumers will buy.

Concept testing puts the consumer voice at the heart of product development, thereby ensuring that new products will resonate with customers, dramatically increasing business performance. 

The results of a concept test can help you to identify the pain – or the delight – relating to new ideas. Concept testing can  enable you to establish how your product would fit into the lives of your target audience; how often they might use it and, crucially, which product concept they would be willing to pay for.

Good concept testing means getting under the skin of your customer and letting their feelings and needs guide you towards the solutions with the most potential. By putting consumers central to product development, you can develop products and services that outperform the competition.

In order to achieve this, it’s important to partner with skilled market researchers that can design studies that get you the insights you need. From a qualitative perspective, this means professionals that can help people open up, answer fully, and elaborate on their responses to concepts. In an online community for instance, the researcher must carefully guide and curate the discussion in order to gain in-depth feedback. 


Ultimately, concept testing gives you a better idea of consumers’ reactions to your ideas. It clarifies the need your solution is addressing, consumers’ perceptions of the product, how it fares against other similar solutions, and what can be done to maximise adoption and market impact. 

So it should come as no surprise to learn that this type of market research can have a huge impact on your business, enabling you to understand where to focus efforts in product development by uncovering the view of the target market. 

Product development need never be risk, nor the creation of successful products be a wild stab in the dark. If you’d like our support with a concept testing project, please get in touch or request a proposal. 

Before they reach the target market, products or services always start off as unproven ideas. But in order to avoid costly failures, businesses need to understand whether or not they’ll be a hit with consumers.

Concept testing is the process of using qualitative or quantitative research in order to test your ideas ahead of launch. It enables you to ascertain which features are likely to be popular with the target audience, and which may need changing. 

Key methodologies and testing methods can include in-depth interviews, online communities and the use of a testing survey to gather feedback on your potential product.

Paving the way to success

Testing product ideas with your target audience enables you to optimise your approach before introducing products to the market, helping you to get features right from the earliest stage and to dramatically boost your chances of success, by asking potential customers what they think. It can also prevent costly failures so an investment in effective concept testing is a worthwhile investment.

After all, seemingly minor product features can have a fundamental effect. In this way, market research enables you to find out what potential customers care about in order to determine which attributes should be incorporated into the final design, ahead of the official product launch.

Product and concept development

Behind almost every successful product is a careful research and development phase – and we’ve worked with some of the biggest brands to take their big ideas, and turn them into products consumers love.

But how do you test a product concept effectively?

Here are five examples of how to test concepts for any potential product.

1. Run an online survey to test overall concept appeal and to narrow down your options

A concept test survey can be a powerful tool. A testing survey can reach large audiences of carefully targeted consumers, providing rich data to be analysed. It is possible to test a number of concepts, in order to understand their appeal and to help you decide which concepts to take forward for further testing.

Product developers know that the use of effective survey questions is a proven way of generating relevant information on which to base future decisions. Questionnaires are typically used for obtaining valuable data. For example, to ascertain how many potential customers there are, whether they would find such a product or service useful, and the sort of price they would be willing to pay. 

The key is to ask the right people the right questions, and to ask enough people to get meaningful results. Often a likert scale is used; a type of scale used to rate various features or attributes, in the eyes of end users. Do bear in mind, too, that you need to approach a significant sample of people who match the profile of your target audience when sending out questionnaires.

Effective concept testing can also give you relevant information and clear pointers as to which demographic groups, geographies or market segments will get as excited about your idea as you are.

2. Employ conjoint analysis to understand which features really matter to consumers

As well as asking potential customers which concept they prefer, you can use techniques like conjoint analysis to gauge which product features are most important. This is a technique which involves presenting people with a series of attributes and asking them to rank them in order of appeal.

Conjoint analysis is regarded as an effective way of gaining detailed insights. Essentially, it’s a way of measuring the value that customers place on a product’s specific features. It typically works via a survey, in which participants are shown a combination of attributes and asked to compare or rank them. It can help to measure and understand customer preferences for particular features, to generate actionable insights to guide the development of the product.

Whilst the process involves offering respondents a range of choices. It’s important, however, not to overload respondents so that they remain fully engaged with the process.


This approach can help you identify the features that matter to consumers. Use this to categorise features into ‘need-to-have’ versus ‘nice-to-have’. Consider which features and functionality your product really needs in order to be compelling to the target market to prioritise your investment.

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3. Use qualitative methodologies to hone your ideas along with the target audience

Group discussions are a tried and tested way of getting rich qualitative input. We can bring groups of potential customers together – face-to-face in a focus group or in an online community – and conduct a carefully guided discussion, often with prototypes or other stimuli to spark conversation. This allows us to drill down into the product features that consumers really want or need. Qualitative research can also reveal unmet needs, inspiring further development and ensuring your product or service has an edge over the competition.  

 
In some cases, qualitative feedback can be gained by conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews. This is particularly useful if you have a detailed or complicated concept that’s targeted at a niche B2B audience.

It’s important to use open-ended questions to gather insights: Ask respondents what they like and dislike and give them the space to explain their views. This provides the opportunity to get objective feedback from your target audience without restrictions or bias, and to obtain detailed and actionable feedback. 


Questions can include, for instance, ‘How appealing are following the features?’ or ‘Which of the following attributes are most important to you?’ or ‘How well do these statements describe the product?’ 


Choosing the right questions, moderating the discussion, probing at the right intervals and keeping respondents engaged is key to successful product concept testing. With so many products failing, testing your concept early is also vital. By testing product concepts thoroughly and early, you’ll know which concepts are likely to drive revenue before you have invested too much time and effort in development.

4. Embrace an agile and iterative testing approach

Another way to test product concepts is to develop an agile and iterative testing approach. Online methodologies like online communities lend themselves well to this, as it’s possible to test concepts, gain feedback, adapt the concepts based upon this and then retest them with consumers.

An online community is an online research platform where consumers are brought together to take part in a series of tasks. The discussion is curated by our team of researchers in order to gain in-depth feedback which will enable effective concept iteration.

The online community platforms we use have built-in features for concept testing. For example it’s possible to mark up images to highlight which aspects you like or dislike, adding detailed commentary. The results of this exercise can be analysed and the concept iterated accordingly, with the new and improved idea put back into the community for further feedback and testing. The result? By harnessing feedback loops to refine and retest, you’re able to develop the strongest concept possible. 

Even after your product has launched, there’s real value in continuing to gain feedback. Once your product is in consumers’ hands, there’s more to learn about the role it plays in people’s lives, and any unforeseen pain points that  could require further changes to address. Be ready to test your product concept to ensure it gets better and better. By honing and refining your product features you can continue to stay ahead of the competition. So always refine and iterate. Successful product innovation is never finished. The beauty of product concept testing is that you have the luxury of being able to respond to feedback until you hit on the optimum prototype. 

5. Harness new technology to bring ideas to life for consumers 

To get the most out of respondents during a piece of concept testing research, it’s important that you bring concepts to life by creating stimuli that enables the target market to picture your proposed products or services. With our own design team in house we can take your initial ideas and turn them into beautiful mock ups that ensure the core idea is clear.

To take this a step further, we are currently exploring how we can use augmented reality (AR) to really bring concepts to life, thereby eliciting higher quality insights. Through AR we can create 3D digital prototypes that consumer can place in real environments using their phone. Not only do immersive methods like this deliver richer insights, but they also allow you to test ideas in context.

Get under the skin of your potential customers in this way and let their feelings and needs guide you towards the solutions with the most potential. The results will speak for themselves.

To find out more, please visit our concept testing services page or request a proposal from our team. 

So you have a number of exciting concept ideas but you’re not sure which to take into further development? This is where conducting online concept testing comes in.

Online concept testing is the process of evaluating product ideas with consumers prior to their introduction to the market. It can include both quantitative and qualitative research, via surveys and online communities, for instance.

It’s a great way to bring consumer insights to the heart of the new product development process. These insights can help you understand which products or services will be a hit with your target audience. In this way, a concept test can dramatically reduce the risk of a product failing when it hits the market, helping to ensure a successful product launch.

Online concept testing can also point to areas of your concept that need tweaking, or new features which could be added. It can also help you answer questions such as whether the price is right and how where your idea fits in relation to competitor offerings and the perception of your brand as a whole.

But there is no one-size-fits-all approach, rather a range of methods that can be combined and tailored to meet the demands of each project. 

What online approaches can you use for concept testing?

You can take either a quantitative or qualitative approach to concept testing – or combine both. 

The main quantitative technique is an online concept test survey. Through online surveys, you can reach thousands of targeted and engaged respondents, providing rich and robust data that can be analysed. In the survey, the concept test would involve consumers reviewing a text description or a visual representation of the concept. Then, the audience would be prompted to answer questions or to discuss their impressions of your idea. 

Single-concepts can be tested through monadic survey design, whilst multiple concepts can be evaluated using sequential design (read more about this in our post on what concept testing is and why it’s important). Once we have ascertained the level of interest or purchase intent data for each concept, these can be plotted on a chart to show which spurred the most promising response. We can also unpick the relative effect of different attributes such as price or features, with the help of a well-designed survey template, advanced statistical techniques. 

When it comes to qualitative techniques, you can either run an online community – a carefully curated space to engage respondents in a group setting, as well as one to one tasks – or run a series of in depth interviews over video chat, in which you have the ability to share concepts on the screen.

What’s the advantage of online?

Online surveys enable you to reach a representative sample to gather robust data quickly and efficiently. 

Online qualitative approaches, like online communities can deliver more detailed feedback than you might get in person. The sheer quantity of comments in an online community is vast – providing a real depth of insight. 

An added benefit of qualitative online testing methods is that they can enable you to test ideas in multiple markets at the same time, so you can identify and explore common themes, rather than having to run focus groups over a number of weeks to get feedback in each market.

Online concept testing best practice

Objectives first, methodology second

Try to avoid embarking on the research with a set methodology in mind. Instead take a step back and think about your objectives and where you are in the product development process. This will help you choose the right approach. 

Ask yourself whether you require high-level responses to multiple concepts, or detailed feedback on one, in particular? Do you need qualitative inspiration or quantitative rankings?

Also think about how far along the development process you are. If you have a prototype of your concept that respondents can interact with it may be that an offline approach like a focus group could be more appropriate, whereas if your concepts are at an earlier stage, an online approach could be more valuable.

We tend to use a combination of testing methods to build up a picture of how products or services could fit into the lives of those you hope will use them – and we’ll tailor the methods based on the project. Often, we’ll work with clients to quantitatively test initial concepts to understand those with most appeal to the target market. This is often followed by an online community in which consumers help you hone your ideas further.

That said, it’s always critical to build a tailored approach depending on what you’re trying to achieve and who you’re trying to reach. For instance, if you’re looking to get feedback on new concepts from hard-to-reach, or B2B audiences, a digital in-depth interview could be appropriate.

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Choose the right tools

Many online community platforms are specifically built with concept testing in mind and have tools that allow respondents to mark up elements of a concept that they like or dislike, along with a justification. 

But always ensure the agency you work with has the right security protocols in place to protect early stage ideas. The platforms we use include a number of built-in security features. Images can be watermarked with a unique respondent identifier and, if you’re testing ads, we can set videos to self-destruct after they’ve been watched once. On top of this, we use all the confidentiality procedures we would for concept testing in-person. With such stringent processes in place, we’ve never experienced a leak. With us, your ideas are in safe hands.

Moderation, moderation, moderation

When you’re testing concepts in an online community, it’s important that conversation is carefully guided just as it would be in an offline focus group. Skilled market researchers know how to curate the conversation in an online setting, finding links between people and encouraging them to open up and feedback comprehensively on ideas.

Through a combination of effective moderation, probing and carefully structured analysis, we can identify the overall themes and elicit the information you need to move forwards in the product development process.

Bring ideas to life for consumers

To get the most out of respondents, it’s also important that you bring concepts to life by creating stimuli that enable the target market to picture your proposed products or services. Often, the early-stage concepts we receive from clients are only roughly sketched out. 

It might be a selection of words on a Post-It note, or a collage of images found online. We work with our in-house designers and copywriters to build on this, fleshing out concepts and designing mock-ups and prototypes to make sure that your initial ideas can be easily understood by consumers. After all, it’s much easier to feed back on an idea you can properly visualise.

We use prototypes to bring ideas to life for consumers in face-to-face focus groups but one of the benefits of qualitative online concept testing methods, like online communities, is that these mockups can be amended based on consumer feedback and then fed back into an online community for further comment. This allows us to iteratively improve the concepts over time to build on and strengthen initial ideas.  

At Kadence, we’re taking this principle a step further by exploring how we can use augmented reality (AR) to further bring concepts to life, thereby eliciting higher quality insights. Through AR we can create 3D digital prototypes that consumers can place in real environments using their phone – in their home, in a supermarket, wherever they happen to be. Not only do immersive methods like this deliver richer, higher quality insights, but they allow you to test concepts in context, thereby overcoming some of the challenges of face-to-face approaches.

Finally, it might sound obvious but it’s also important to ensure that your concepts are ready to be tested. It’s better to delay an online focus group if your concept is not yet fully developed, nor its purpose clear. If your ideas are easily understandable, can be brought to life and readily understood, your participants will be able to provide more comprehensive feedback.

Rigorous research shows you whether you’re really on to something. It puts everyone’s ideas on a level playing field and can help companies navigate internal politics to find a path ahead. After all, it’s your customers who will decide which idea is a success.

In this way, market research can dramatically increase the chances of developing a product concept successfully. Ultimately, testing is the process that enables you to proceed with confidence, and what can be better than that? We’d love to support your organisation with concept testing research. To discuss the best way to test your new ideas – be that online or offline –  please request a proposal.