What is concept testing?


Market Research

Concept testing is the process of finding out how customers feel about your product idea before you launch it. You can use concept testing to evaluate customers’ responses to product features, price points, advertisements and other aspects of the product you’re planning to release. Concept testing helps you create a user experience (UX) design that translates to market success.

Methods of concept testing

There are several types of concept testing:

Comparison testing

With comparison testing, survey respondents review two or more concepts. Respondents may be asked to select the best concept or rank the options. This testing method provides clear results on which concepts respondents prefer. However, these results come without context, as you won’t have any data on why a respondent chose a particular concept over another.

Monadic testing

Monadic tests break your target audience into multiple segments. Each group is presented with a single concept for in-depth analysis. In a monadic test, researchers can ask specific follow-up questions for more context on what makes a certain concept better than others. The sample size for a monadic test must be large to accommodate multiple testing groups.

Sequential monadic testing

A sequential monadic test splits the target audience into groups like a monadic test. But with sequential monadic testing, each group is shown every concept. Concepts are presented to each group in a random order to prevent bias.

The sample size for a sequential monadic test is comparatively small, and this method can evaluate multiple concepts in one round. This structure allows for a streamlined, cost-effective survey process. However, this structure also makes the survey lengthy, which can affect the completion rate and lead to nonresponse bias.

Protomonadic testing

A protomonadic test begins with a sequential monadic test, after which researchers perform a comparison test as well. With this method, respondents examine multiple concepts and then select the one they prefer.

A protomonadic test is an effective way to validate the results of a sequential monadic test. Researchers can determine whether the chosen concept from the comparison test aligns with the inferences gathered from the sequential monadic test.

Benefits of concept testing

Customer response to your product determines its success or failure. If customers don’t like the concept during testing, they aren’t likely to buy it once it’s on the market. That’s why getting their feedback during development is crucial to an effective launch. You can use customer feedback to make the adjustments necessary to help your product succeed.

Concept testing is also highly flexible, proving useful to businesses of virtually any type or size. You can ask customers about any aspect of your idea to gain valuable insights into every detail of your product.

By following concept testing best practices like creating a consistent survey design and choosing an appropriate format for presenting your concept, you’ll get results that help you perfect your product before you launch it.

Survey solutions from Cint

At Cint, we provide the research solutions you need for effective concept testing. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our products.