Run concept testing with the consumers who will buy it

Concept testing puts a product idea in front of real consumers before it is built, then measures appeal, preference between variants, and intent to buy. The standard concept testing definition covers the idea, the pack, the price, and the positioning, tested as a package. Teams also ask what is a concept test, and it is one round of that work, run against one audience, with the results read against the decision it has to support.

Concept testing in marketing checks whether the idea and the way it is expressed both land, so it covers the claim, the name, the pack, and the message as well as the product. Concept testing marketing work sits earlier than campaign measurement: this decides what to say, and campaign measurement scores what saying it achieved. Sena runs the earlier half against consumers in the market you are entering.

The common methods for concept testing split three ways. Monadic concept testing shows each person a single concept, which keeps the score clean and needs more people. Comparative testing shows several at once, which surfaces preference and invites people to rationalise. Sequential testing works through them in order. Qualitative concept testing methods add the reasons behind a score, and quantitative concept testing gives you the number to decide on, so most teams run qualitative first to find the language and quantitative second to size it.

Start with unaided reaction, then narrow. Ask what the product is for and who it is for, in the consumer’s own words, before showing any claim. Ask which variant they would pick and why. Ask what they would expect to pay, then ask at your intended price whether they would buy it. Ask what they buy today instead, which is the question most concept testing questions leave out and the one that anchors everything else. Close on what would stop them buying again.

Define the decision the test has to support, then work backwards to the audience, the variants, and the questions. Recruit consumers who buy the category in the market you are entering. Show the concept as images and description, collect preference and price response, and read the results against the shelf those consumers actually shop. Teams asking how to do concept testing usually have the concept and want the audience, and teams asking how to run concept tests at scale want the same design repeated across markets.

Concept testing examples usually look like a variant decision: three flavours down to one, two pack sizes down to the one that holds margin, or a price ladder that finds where intent falls away. A useful concept testing example also captures what the consumer buys today, so the result reads as a switch away from something, which an abstract preference score leaves out.

Concept testing in new product development is the stage gate between an idea and a commitment, and product concept testing is the part of it that scores the product itself, where campaign testing scores the message. Concept testing for products covers appeal, variant preference, willingness to pay, and purchase intent. Sena runs it against real consumers in the launch market and reads the answer against the competitive shelf there.

Concept testing is important because it can move the expensive decisions earlier, while changing the formulation or the price still costs a meeting and leaves the production run untouched. It also names what the consumer buys today, which turns a preference score into a share question. The value sits in the order of events more than in the score itself.

Sort candidates on who they can actually reach. The best concept testing platforms recruit consumers who buy the category in the market you are launching into, over whoever happens to be available. Ask any concept testing platform three things: which markets it reaches, how the people in it were recruited, and whether the result can be read against what is on the shelf in that market. Teams comparing the best platforms for concept testing, or the best platforms for digital concept testing specifically, tend to find the last question separates them. Sena answers it with a store read alongside the consumer read.

Yes, for the consumer half. Ad concept testing scores the idea and the message before production, and Sena collects that response from consumers in the target market. Online concept testing of creative works the same way, with the concept shown on the phone. Teams that shortlist advertising concept testing companies for creative execution often keep Sena for the market read underneath it, since the two answer different questions about the same campaign.