Concept Testing and Development

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ONCEPT TESTINGnew product DEVELOPMENT

Shruthi S Waghmare

Manipal


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What is new productconcept?

Websters says a concept is an idea or an abstract notion. Businesspeople use the term concept for the product

promise,the customer proposition and the real reason why

people should buy.


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New Products Process


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Segway Inc.

US-based company

Founded in 1999 by Dean Kamen

Vision: to develop highly-efficient, zero-emissiontransportation solutions using dynamicstabilization technology

Segway on sale on Amazon.com in 2002

As of 2007, present in 60 countries

Main consumers: security, police, mass retailers,

university, theme parks


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Eg: Seg-way

The concept was a two-wheeler electric powered scooter that could be easily foldedand carried. Segway.inc wished to access the customer response to this concept in orderto decide to proceed with its development and to support the companys financingefforts


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Opportunity identificationand selection

Dean Kamen sawopportunity tosolve urban

problems Create vehicles of

minimal space,able to maneuverand use onpavements

Inspiration fromIBOT wheelchair, a6-wheel balancingmachine for the


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CONCEPT TESTING

Concept testing presents the consumer with a proposedproduct and measures attitudes and intensions at this earlystage of development

Concept testing is based on data gathered directly frompotential customers and relies to a lesser degree onjudgments made by the development team

It is also closely related to concept selection and prototypingwere, it involves some kind of representation of the product

concept.


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Seven step method-concept testing


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STEP1

Define the purpose of the concept test

Concept testing is an experimental activity, and so itsvery essential to know the purpose of theexperiment to design an effective experimentalmethod.

Primary questions addressed are:--Which of several alternative concepts should be

pursued?--How can the concept be improved to better meet

customer needs?--Approximately how many units are likely to be sold?--Should development be continued?


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STEP2Choose a survey population

The population of potential customers surveyed reflects

that of the target market for the product. The survey population to be chosen in such a way that it

mirrors the target market in as many ways as possible. Surveying every possible segment may be very expensive in

cost or time, in such cases the team may choose to surveypotential customers from only the largest segment .

For the scooter, there are two primary consumer segments:

college students and urban commuters. The team decided to form a survey population from both

segments.


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Sample sizes for concept testing are sometimes as smallas 10(qualitative data) or as large as 1000(quantitativedata)

Depending on the desired data to be collected from the

concept-testing process, multiple surveys withdifferent objectives may be structured.

Each of these surveys may involve a different samplepopulation and a different sample size.

Eg: Sigway.Inc did two concept testing- -the team sampled only a handful of potential customers

to obtain feed back on the attractiveness of the concept


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-a purchase intent survey of 1000 customers-for demand forecaston which financing decisions were based.


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STEP 3Choose a survey format

Face to face interaction-interviewer interactsdirectly with the

respondents like stoppingpeople at mall or on streets

, .etcTelephone-prearranged and

targeted at very specificindividuals like pediatric

dentists

Postal mail-poor responserates Electronic mail-to be used

only when the respondentsare likely to receive a

.benefit out of it


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STEP 4Communicate the Concept

Verbal Description-a short paraor acollection of bullet points summarizing theproduct concept. It may be read by therespondent or may be the person

administering the survey Eg-Scooter,itsbuild ,features, its weight,etc

Sketch-usually line drawings showing theproduct in perspective, perhaps withannotations of key features

Photos and renderings-when theappearance models exist for the productconcept. Renderings are nearly photo-realistic , created by pens and markers or

using CAD tools. Stor board-its a series of ima es that


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Video- it allows even more dynamism thanthe storyboard, the concept can be clearlycommunicated.

Simulation-it is implemented as software

that mimics the function or features of theproduct.

E.g.in testing controls for electronic deviceswere the user can control the simulateddevice via a touch screen or mouse clicks and

can observe its simulated displays andsounds.

Interactive multimedia-it displays bothvideos and still images of the product

Physical appearance models-look alikemodels


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STEP 5Measure Customer response

When a concept test is performed early inthe concept development phase, customerresponse is usually measured by asking therespondent to choose from two or more

alternative concepts Additional questions focus on whyrespondents react the way they do and onhow the product concepts could beimproved.

Also measures purchase intents like-definitely would buy,probably would buy,might or might not buy,

probably would not buy,definitely would not buy


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STEP 6Interpret the results

Interpretation of the result is straight forwardif the team is simply interested incomparing two or more concepts.

If one concepts dominates the other-choosethe preferred concept .

If the results are not conclusive choose aconcept based on cost or otherconsiderations.

The results of forecast based on concepttesting should be interpreted with caution,as it is difficult to reach the accuracy inforecasting.


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Some factors that can cause actualpurchase pattern to differ from thepurchase intensions expressed in survey

are:-importance of word of mouth-not capturedin concept testing

-fidelity of the concept description-actual

products differ from description of theproduct

-pricing-variation in it-level of promotion-may increase or

decrease the sales

STEP 7


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STEP 7Reflect on the results and the

process Primary benefit of concept testing-to get

feedback from real potential customers.The three variables from this testing can be

given more importance during forecasting-

verallize ofhe marketAvailabilitand warenessf theproduct

raction ofustomers whore likely topurchase


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hankhankYouou

Concept Testing and Development

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