If you’re running a fast-growing business, there’s a high chance you’ll be looking towards creating a new product or service. It might be the case that your expansion is focusing more on what already exists. However, branching out is always sensible as a business, as with diversification comes strength and should not be a path that is overlooked. Something that might make you apprehensive of going down the path of creating a new product is the lack of guarantee that it’ll succeed at the end of it all. This article will look at how this crisis can be averted via concept testing within the new product development process.
Firstly, it’s important to understand where concept testing fits into the bigger picture of the new product development process. The seed or spark of an idea must come from the creative process first. This is nurtured by the creatives of your company into a substantial concept. Concept testing is needed at this point before anything is physically created and further research is undertaken.
The reason for this is because concept testing is all about getting public feedback on your idea. This feedback can often be not what is expected. As everyone during the creative process might have really been behind the concept and thought it was destined for success. While concept testing can show, the public has no interest in such an idea. As heartbreaking as this is, it’s vital to find out this information early on. The new product development process is not cheap. A lot of money can be pumped into it without any guarantee of a return. Finding out this news early on allows you to go back to square one without wasting all this money.
This type of feedback relies heavily on it being unbiased. If your own company is running the concept testing process, especially if you’re a well-known brand, feedback could be distorted. This sort of information is worthless. In fact, it can be worse than worthless, as it could set you on a path that you think is profitable, but is in fact, far from it. To avoid this, it could be worthwhile handing over this process to a third party, such as a market research company. This will guarantee feedback to be unbiased, and therefore more valid information to make decisions from.