When developing a new product, two approaches often come into play: concept testing and test marketing. While they serve complementary purposes, these strategies operate at different stages of product development and answer distinct business questions.

It’s easy to confuse the two, particularly because both are used to assess product viability and reduce risk. However, they are not interchangeable. Each offers unique insights that help brands refine their product strategies and avoid costly mistakes.

Let’s break down what each method involves, starting with concept testing.

What Is Concept Testing?

Concept testing is an early-stage research method that evaluates a product idea before it enters the market. The goal is to determine whether the concept resonates with your target audience and to identify any issues with the product’s appeal, messaging, or design before development begins.

In a typical concept testing study, customers are shown a product description, visual, or prototype and asked to provide feedback on its perceived value, uniqueness, relevance, and likelihood of purchase. This process often uses surveys or interviews to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

Key benefits of concept testing include:

  • Reducing product development risk by flagging potential flaws early.
  • Validating demand before investing in production.
  • Uncovering new insights that may influence design or marketing direction.
  • Securing internal buy-in using real-world data.

Different methodologies are available depending on your needs. Quantitative surveys offer broad, statistically significant results, while qualitative interviews provide rich, detailed feedback. In many cases, the best results come from a mixed-method approach.

More information can be found in our
comprehensive guide to concept testing.

With concept testing complete and insights in hand, brands often move to a more advanced phase of product evaluation—test marketing.

Test marketing is a crucial stage in new product development, designed to simulate a full-scale product launch within a limited market. It allows businesses to evaluate how a product, along with its associated marketing plan, performs in real-world conditions—without committing to a national or global rollout.

While concept testing helps refine the idea behind a product, test marketing moves further downstream. It focuses on how the product performs in-market, including how consumers respond to the advertising, pricing, distribution strategy, and overall brand positioning.

In practice, test marketing involves selecting a small but representative market—often referred to as a test market—and launching the product on a trial basis. This controlled launch provides valuable feedback that can shape the final go-to-market strategy and reduce the risk of a costly failure.

Why Test Marketing Matters in New Product Development

For brands introducing new products, the test marketing phase serves as a dress rehearsal for launch day. It allows businesses to:

  • Uncover flaws in the marketing or distribution plan
  • Test consumer response to different promotional strategies
  • Measure actual sales and brand lift before full-scale investment
  • Determine whether the product is ready for a broader rollout

In 2024, with the cost of customer acquisition rising and consumer expectations shifting quickly, more brands are using test marketing to validate assumptions before scaling. It has become especially important in sectors such as FMCG, consumer tech, food and beverage, and retail, where product launches often carry significant investment.

Advantages of Test Marketing

There are several compelling benefits to incorporating test marketing into your product development process:

1. Real-World Insights

Unlike simulations or surveys, test marketing exposes your product to actual market dynamics. You can measure how customers react to the product, pricing, messaging, and channels in real-life scenarios.

2. More Accurate Sales Forecasting

By observing sales performance in a test region, you can generate more realistic projections for broader market demand. This supports more accurate budgeting, supply chain planning, and resource allocation.

3. Marketing Channel Optimisation

Test marketing helps identify the most effective advertising and promotional channels for your audience. This allows you to fine-tune your marketing mix and avoid wasting budget on ineffective strategies.

4. Distribution Strategy Testing

It gives you the opportunity to trial various retail partners, ecommerce platforms, or logistics models, helping you determine the best way to get your product to customers efficiently.

5. Low-Risk Problem Identification

Any strategic missteps, product issues, or campaign underperformance can be caught early. Adjustments can be made before scaling up, reducing the risk of failure on a national or global level.

6. Early Customer Feedback

You’ll gain direct insight into what customers like or dislike about your product, branding, packaging, and messaging. These insights can influence improvements that increase your product’s chances of long-term success.

7. A Signal to Pivot—or Pull Back

If the product fails to resonate with test audiences despite strong marketing support, it may be a sign to rethink the offer or halt the launch. Test marketing provides a data-backed checkpoint before larger risks are taken.

Disadvantages of Test Marketing

Despite its advantages, test marketing also has limitations that brands must consider before committing.

1. High Costs

Effective test marketing involves real spend—on product development, marketing, staffing, and logistics. For startups or budget-conscious businesses, the upfront investment can be a barrier.

2. Delayed Time to Market

Designing, launching, and analysing a test market can significantly delay your product’s rollout. In fast-moving industries, this lag can be problematic if a competitor moves faster.

3. Competitive Exposure

Launching in a public test market can inadvertently reveal your strategy to competitors. If your concept is innovative, others may copy it before you reach full launch, reducing your first-mover advantage.

4. Risk of Misleading Results

Poorly selected test markets, limited sample sizes, or marketing channels that don’t reach key demographics can all skew results. This may lead to incorrect conclusions about the product’s potential.

5. Internal Complexity

Test marketing requires close coordination across teams—including product development, marketing, supply chain, sales, and customer service. If not managed well, the process can become resource-intensive and disjointed.

Is Test Marketing Right for Every Brand?

Not necessarily. For some brands, especially those operating in highly regulated or niche industries, test marketing may not be feasible or cost-effective. In those cases, virtual testing, simulation modelling, or controlled consumer panels may offer more efficient ways to gather feedback.

That said, for consumer-facing products with mass-market potential, test marketing remains one of the most powerful tools for validating strategy and minimising risk before launch.

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Concept Testing vs Test Marketing: Which Approach Is Right for You?

While both test marketing and concept testing are designed to reduce risk and improve outcomes in new product development, they serve different purposes and are used at distinct stages of the process. Understanding when and how to use each can mean the difference between a successful launch and a costly misstep.

Shared Goals, Different Methods

At their core, both concept testing and test marketing aim to answer a similar question: Will this product succeed in the market? Each method offers a way to evaluate product viability before a full-scale launch. Both are also designed to uncover weaknesses, generate customer feedback, and help product teams make more informed decisions.

However, the similarities stop there. The way each method achieves these goals—and the resources required—differ significantly.

Key Differences Between Concept Testing and Test Marketing

  • Timing and Stage
    Concept testing is used early in the product development cycle. It evaluates the viability of an idea, design, or messaging before resources are committed to production. Test marketing, by contrast, takes place later. It simulates a real-world launch to evaluate how the entire marketing strategy performs in practice.
  • Scope of Evaluation
    Concept testing focuses narrowly on consumer response to the product idea, often using online surveys, focus groups, or qualitative interviews. Test marketing evaluates far more—from advertising effectiveness to pricing, packaging, distribution channels, and sales conversion rates.
  • Cost and Complexity
    Concept testing is faster, simpler, and less expensive to run. It’s ideal when budgets are limited or when businesses need rapid, directional feedback. Test marketing requires a more substantial investment, as it involves manufacturing the product and running a controlled launch in a real market.
  • Risk Exposure
    Because concept testing happens behind closed doors, it offers a level of confidentiality. Test marketing, on the other hand, places your product and positioning in the public domain. This increases the risk of competitors observing, replicating, or pre-empting your go-to-market strategy.
  • Data Type
    Concept testing yields qualitative or quantitative feedback based on perception, interest, or likelihood to buy. Test marketing delivers behavioural data, measuring actual purchase patterns, marketing response, and operational performance.

Choosing the Right Approach for Your Goals

The decision between concept testing and test marketing depends on several factors: your product maturity, market size, development stage, budget, and time-to-launch.

If you’re refining an early-stage idea, concept testing is likely the more appropriate tool. It offers clear, focused insights on product appeal, naming, features, or messaging without the expense of a launch. For businesses seeking stakeholder buy-in or alignment across teams, the data from concept testing can also serve as a compelling proof point.

If your product is nearly market-ready and you’re looking to validate your broader marketing strategy before scaling, test marketing is invaluable. It helps you identify which channels deliver the strongest ROI, how your product performs in real-world conditions, and whether your pricing strategy holds up outside of the lab.

A Smarter Way to Launch

Ultimately, both methods can work together to de-risk the product development journey. Concept testing helps ensure you are building the right product, while test marketing confirms that you’re bringing it to market in the right way.

By starting with concept testing, you make sure the idea resonates. By following with test marketing, you fine-tune your execution. Used together, they offer a structured, data-led path to a confident launch—reducing uncertainty and improving the likelihood of success.

FAQs About Test Marketing

What is test marketing in new product development?
Test marketing is the process of launching a new product in a limited market or region to evaluate its performance before a full-scale rollout. It helps brands test not just the product itself, but the entire go-to-market strategy, including advertising, pricing, and distribution.

What are the advantages of test marketing?
The main advantages include gaining real-world insights into consumer behaviour, testing marketing channels and distribution strategies, forecasting sales more accurately, and identifying potential issues before a full launch. It also provides valuable data to secure internal buy-in or refine product positioning.

What are the disadvantages of test marketing?
Test marketing can be expensive and time-consuming. It may delay a product’s official launch and expose your strategy to competitors. If the test market is not well-chosen or representative, the results can also be misleading, giving you a false sense of confidence—or concern.

How is test marketing different from concept testing?
Concept testing occurs early in the product development process and focuses on evaluating consumer reactions to a product idea, typically through surveys or focus groups. Test marketing happens later and involves launching the actual product in a real market environment to test the full marketing plan.

Is test marketing always necessary?
Not always. While test marketing is useful for mass-market consumer products, some businesses may opt for digital prototypes, A/B testing, or virtual simulations to save time and cost. The decision often depends on the product’s complexity, market size, and investment level.

How long should a test marketing phase last?
There is no fixed rule, but most test marketing campaigns run between 3 to 12 months. The duration depends on the buying cycle, product category, and the time needed to gather statistically significant results.

Can test marketing predict long-term success?
Test marketing offers strong indicators, but it is not a guarantee of long-term success. Market conditions, competitive responses, and broader trends can shift after launch. However, it provides the best available snapshot of how your product and strategy will perform under realistic conditions.


At Kadence, we specialise in concept testing that gives you clear, actionable insights before you go to market. If you’re developing a new product or refining an idea, our research can help you reduce risk and maximise success. Request a proposal or contact your local Kadence office to explore how we can support your next launch.

Concept testing is a crucial stage when developing new products. Before you launch a new product in the market, you must understand how your customers will respond and how the product will perform.

Concept testing helps you avoid costly errors and nasty surprises; it is much better to understand your market and make a more confident and successful product launch. In this article, we’ll show you how concept testing works and how to do it. Let’s start with a more in-depth definition.

What is concept testing?

A concept is a precursor to every great product. It’s a detailed outline of what you’re going to produce, who it’s for, the problems it will solve, how it will work, how much it will cost, and much more.

To ensure your concept is ready to go to market, it’s essential to test it properly with real customers. This process is called concept testing, and in the rest of this article, we’ll talk about why this is so important and how to do it methodically.

The benefits of concept testing

Concept testing is the process of testing your concept before launch, so you can confidently put it into the market with a pretty good understanding of how your customers will feel and how they will respond.

There are several different methods spanning both qualitative and quantitative approaches (which we’ll dive into shortly). Still, they all involve presenting concepts to consumers and getting feedback about different attributes. 

(Check out our detailed guide to concept testing for more information.)

There are multiple reasons to do concept testing, such as:

  • You get real feedback from users. Designers and product teams are often too close to the product to make clear-headed decisions, and they might overlook some crucial things. Concept testing allows you to access honest feedback from your target customers, which you can’t replicate with your internal team.
  • It helps you notice flaws. No concept has ever been perfect. Testing your product with real users enables you to detect problems that flew under the radar in the design phase, giving you many new pairs of eyes.
  • It allows you to refine your concept. Before testing, your product is a rough prototype with all the major pieces in place, but it probably needs some extra work. By shedding light on what consumers think, testing gives you some direction for refining and improving your product so that it’s more likely to gain traction when it hits the shelves.

The importance of concept testing

The above benefits are essential for many reasons. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider concept testing in new product development:

  • It’s easier to get backing for your product. Testing gives concrete data about how customers feel about your brand’s products. You can then use this data to make a compelling case to others in the organization about why you are making certain decisions. With this data, it’s no longer a matter of personal opinion, and it will be much easier to convince others.
  • It helps you find out what your customers like the most about the product. Concept testing is beneficial not just for that specific product and how to market it but also allows you to make better decisions in the future by focusing on the things that people like most and targeting popular pain points with different products.
  • Testing can help you segment your customer base. Who should you target with your product? If specific demographics love the product and others are less enthusiastic, this is extremely helpful when focusing your marketing and distribution efforts.
  • It helps you estimate how many sales you’ll make and the ROI you’ll generate with the product when it goes to market. This is helpful when setting budgets, making plans, and getting financial backing from others in your company.
  • It allows you to identify a reasonable price point. It’s common to ask users how much they would expect to pay for a product during testing. This helps inform your decisions about how much to price your product.
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How to test concepts: the qualitative and quantitative methodologies

Concepts can be tested quantitatively or qualitatively. Qualitative methods for concept testing include focus groups, online communities, and in-depth interviews that allow you to uncover rich qualitative feedback from current or prospective customers relating to your planned product. Ethnography or self-ethnography are other alternatives, particularly if the concept you’re testing is worked up and in prototype form that consumers can interact with at home.

The primary quantitative method used for testing concepts is an online quantitative survey, an approach that allows you to test at scale. 

Different approaches for testing concepts 

There are four main approaches for concept testing a new product, each with its pros and cons. It’s best to consider your specific situation and then pick one which works best for concept testing your product.

Monadic testing

Monadic testing is where the audience is divided into groups, and each group is given one concept in isolation and asked to evaluate it via a series of questions.

For example, they might be asked to rate the design, evaluate the price, or give feedback on the packaging.

The pros of monadic testing are:

  • There is less room for order bias since the concepts are shown and evaluated in isolation.
  • It’s easier for users — they only have one product to focus on, and all the questions apply to that product.
  • It encourages more profound feedback as users dive deeply into one concept instead of skimming over several different ones.

On the other hand, the main drawback to monadic testing is that it requires a larger sample size to get enough reliable data. It can be costly to gather all the necessary participants and challenging to find enough people to assess niche concepts.

Sequential monadic testing

In sequential monadic testing, multiple concepts are evaluated one after the other. Each participant sees two or more concepts presented in random order. Participants answer questions about each one in turn.

The main benefit is that fewer people are needed, so this results in the following:

  • Being cheaper to gather enough people and set up the testing
  • Taking less time to collect a sufficient amount of data
  • It also works well with niche markets where there might not be many potential customers

The main downside is that it takes longer to carry out each test since participants evaluate multiple concepts instead of just one.

Comparative

In comparative testing, concepts are shown next to each other, and participants evaluate all of them at the same time. It’s an effective way to find out how one concept compares directly against another in the eyes of your customers.

The main advantage of comparative testing is that it’s suitable for measuring small differences and drilling down into the specific advantages and drawbacks of each product. The main downside is that its comparative nature means it’s not very effective when both products are flawed. 

Comparative testing is often used as a follow-up for monadic testing to gain deeper insights into a specific product.

Proto monadic 

Proto monadic concept testing is a blend of monadic and comparative testing. Customers evaluate a product via monadic testing and then are shown the same product compared to another.

It’s done to confirm the initial monadic results to gain a more sturdy overall conclusion about a product’s strengths and weaknesses.

What to measure

Once you have settled on a testing method, it’s time to consider what you want to measure. There’s a long list of possible factors to analyze with concept testing, and these might vary based on your chosen method.

Here are some common examples of things to measure:

  • Overall reaction to the product – this measures how customers feel about the product overall and can be measured with a Likert scale (a series of options from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”).
  • Reaction to different elements of the product – you can also use the Likert scale to rate specific aspects of the product, for example, the packaging, ease of use, battery life, and more.
  • Need for the product compared to the current market – how much demand does your participant think there is for the product? Is there an urgent need for it, or is the market already saturated with similar products?
  • Comparison with other products on the market – how does your product compare with what’s already out there in the market? Is it a significant improvement on what exists, worse, or just more of the same?
  • Likes and dislikes – what are the individual things people like and dislike about the product?
  • Purchase likelihood – this is where you ask your respondents to rate their likelihood of buying your product. You can use a Likert scale for this (“very unlikely” to “very likely”).
  • Pricing analysis – how much would your participants be willing to pay for the product?
  • Likelihood of use – how much of a need does your participant have for the product, and what kind of role would it play in their lives?

(Check out this article for examples of how to test new product concepts.)

Testing your concepts is crucial if you want to release the best products to your target market, market them effectively, delight your customers, and see your revenue soar.

How can we help?

It’s crucial to do concept testing properly, so your new products have the best chance of success when they eventually hit the market. To find out how Kadence can help you deliver this, request a proposal or contact the Kadence team here.

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.

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. 

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.