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Concept Testing and Development

The document discusses concept testing, which is used in new product development to present a proposed product concept to potential customers and measure their attitudes and purchase intentions. It outlines a seven step process for concept testing, including: 1) defining the test purpose, 2) choosing a survey population, 3) choosing a survey format, 4) communicating the concept, 5) measuring customer response, 6) interpreting the results, and 7) reflecting on the results and process. The document uses Segway Inc. and its concept testing for its two-wheeled electric scooter as an example.

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531 views

Concept Testing and Development

The document discusses concept testing, which is used in new product development to present a proposed product concept to potential customers and measure their attitudes and purchase intentions. It outlines a seven step process for concept testing, including: 1) defining the test purpose, 2) choosing a survey population, 3) choosing a survey format, 4) communicating the concept, 5) measuring customer response, 6) interpreting the results, and 7) reflecting on the results and process. The document uses Segway Inc. and its concept testing for its two-wheeled electric scooter as an example.

Uploaded by

shrutlively
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

CONCEPT TESTING

in
new product DEVELOPMENT

Shruthi S Waghmare
Manipal
What is new product
concept?
 Webster’s 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.
New Products Process
Segway Inc.
 US-based company

 Founded in 1999 by Dean Kamen


 Vision: to develop highly-efficient, zero-emission


transportation solutions using “dynamic
stabilization” 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
Eg: Seg-way

The concept was a two-wheeler electric –powered scooter that could be easily folded
and carried. Segway.inc wished to access the customer response to this concept in order
to decide to proceed with its development and to support the company’s financing
efforts
Opportunity identification
and selection
 Dean Kamen saw
opportunity to
solve urban
problems
 Create vehicles of
minimal space,
able to maneuver
and use on
pavements
 Inspiration from
IBOT wheelchair, a
6-wheel balancing
machine for the
CONCEPT TESTING
 Concept testing presents the consumer with a proposed
product and measures attitudes and intensions at this early
stage of development
 Concept testing is based on data gathered directly from
potential customers and relies to a lesser degree on
judgments made by the development team
 It is also closely related to concept selection and prototyping
were, it involves some kind of representation of the product
concept.
Seven step method-concept testing
STEP1
Define the purpose of the concept test
 Concept testing is an experimental activity, and so its
very essential to know the purpose of the
experiment to design an effective experimental
method.

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?


STEP2
Choose 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 survey
potential 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.
 Sample sizes for concept testing are sometimes as small
as 10(qualitative data) or as large as 1000(quantitative
data)
 Depending on the desired data to be collected from the
concept-testing process, multiple surveys with
different objectives may be structured.
 Each of these surveys may involve a different sample
population 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


-a purchase intent survey of 1000 customers-for demand forecast

on which financing decisions were based.



STEP 3
Choose a survey format
Face to face interaction-
interviewer interacts
directly with the
respondents like stopping
people at mall or on streets
, etc.
Telephone-prearranged and
targeted at very specific
individuals like pediatric
dentists
Postal mail-poor response
rates
Electronic mail-to be used
only when the respondents
are likely to receive a
benefit out of it.
STEP 4
Communicate the Concept
 Verbal Description-a short paraor a
collection of bullet points summarizing the
product concept. It may be read by the
respondent or may be the person
administering the survey Eg-Scooter,its
build ,features, its weight,etc
 Sketch-usually line drawings showing the
product in perspective, perhaps with
annotations of key features
 Photos and renderings-when the
appearance models exist for the product
concept. Renderings are nearly photo-
realistic , created by pens and markers or
using CAD tools.
 Storyboard-it’s a series of images that
 Video- it allows even more dynamism than
the storyboard, the concept can be clearly
communicated.
 Simulation-it is implemented as software
that mimics the function or features of the
product.
 E.g.in testing controls for electronic devices
were the user can control the simulated
device via a touch screen or mouse clicks and
can observe its simulated displays and
sounds.
 Interactive multimedia-it displays both
videos and still images of the product
 Physical appearance models-look alike
models
STEP 5
Measure Customer response
 When a concept test is performed early in
the concept development phase, customer
response is usually measured by asking the
respondent to choose from two or more
alternative concepts
 Additional questions focus on why
respondents react the way they do and on
how the product concepts could be
improved.
 Also measures purchase intents like-
ü definitely would buy,
ü probably would buy,
ü might or might not buy,
ü probably would not buy,
ü definitely would not buy
STEP 6
Interpret the results
 Interpretation of the result is straight forward
if the team is simply interested in
comparing two or more concepts.
 If one concepts dominates the other-choose
the preferred concept .
 If the results are not conclusive –choose a
concept based on cost or other
considerations.
 The results of forecast based on concept
testing should be interpreted with caution,
as it is difficult to reach the accuracy in
forecasting.
 Some factors that can cause actual
purchase pattern to differ from the
purchase intensions expressed in survey
are:
-importance of word of mouth-not captured

in concept testing
-fidelity of the concept description-actual

products differ from description of the


product
-pricing-variation in it

-level of promotion-may increase or

decrease the sales


STEP 7
Reflect 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-

Availabilit Fraction of
Overall y and
size of customers who
awareness are likely to
the market of the purchase
product
Thank
You

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