Product testing research is a proactive and essential process that contributes to the overall success and sustainability of a business.
Whether it be a new product or service or updating original versions, collecting feedback before launching can ensure it meets customer expectations, regulatory standards, and market demands.
In this blog post we’ll go beyond a basic definition of product testing research, but also dive into its benefits, types, and steps to conducting a successful study.
Product testing involves measuring an audience’s reaction to a product or service in development before it reaches the market.
In our experience, the audience should consist of your target audience at the least but should represent a sample of potential or current customers.
Once your respondents are gathered, it’s best to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data and analyze them to see what the feedback says about the product or service.
It’s crucial to test products and services before they reach the market or during their development to ensure a successful launch. Getting direct feedback from your target audience lets you refine the product or fix any issues before it ever reaches shelves.
And you’re not just judging the product itself. Testing also reveals how customers respond to factors like price, packaging, and brand perception. You can even test individual components separately to confirm each part of the product is pulling its weight before launch.
Here are some of the most common benefits of product testing:
In our experience, product testing pays off most when it’s run in multiple cycles at each stage of development, rather than as a one-time check. The more you test when launching, revising, or refining a product, the more you get out of it.
Recommended Reading: The Importance of Ongoing Research Through Pre and Post-Product Development
It’s best to gather research on things that can be tested or changed with your customers’ feedback.
Things such as price, product satisfaction, perceived value, and performance are all things that can be measured. Other things like brand perception, lifetime value, and status can also potentially be measured in product testing.
Luckily when it comes to market research for new product development, you are not short of options. Here are a few methodologies to consider.
Surveys are best suited for product testing since they can ask different types of questions and get different types of feedback from customers (including qualitative and quantitative). For survey data, you’ll want to promote honest criticism with no bias so using filter questions ahead of time is a good idea as well.
In-home usage tests are one of the most popular ways to do product testing. This is where consumers can use the product in their environment which can change how they react to it. Because feedback comes from the natural home environment rather than a lab, it tends to reflect how the product will actually perform once it’s on the shelf.
It’s also possible to facilitate IHUTs online making it much easier to get higher quality data.
Watch our brief video for more information on in-home usage tests.
Certain industries like consumer packaged goods, cosmetics, auto, and tech like to use focus groups for their product testing.
It can help give more context to their product and get specific feedback for the product that maybe the company is looking to exaggerate (like a physical component).
Qualitative feedback is just as important as quantitative and collecting both is always a great idea.
When you need the why behind a rating, one-on-one in-depth interviews let a moderator probe reactions in real time and surface detail a survey never could. They work especially well in early-stage testing, while you’re still shaping the product.
Product testing and pricing research go hand in hand. It’s always best to do both where possible to find out how customers feel about the price.
Even with a fantastic product that customers have no issues with, you still need to know what they’re willing to pay for it.
That’s why choosing a price is another important part of the strategy whether it be through online pricing surveys or choice-based conjoint analysis.
The price should be competitive but not too high which is why including pricing research is critical. If your pricing is not flexible, you’ll want to know where your potential price point is before launching your product at a possible loss.
With product testing, a lot of context is assigned to the product which is perfect for pricing research since more context can signal the value of your product to potential customers.
By mixing the two objectives, you’ll more likely find valuable pricing research that is reliable.
For your product launch to be successful, it’s important to pick things that need to be measured or potentially changed. It’s not possible to test everything all at once, so coming up with key things to test is just as important.
Working with a product testing research company can help narrow down your objectives or separate them into different stages of research.
This should ideally include a target audience like current customers or potential customers. The audience should be aligned with the values of the company to get the best quality data.
Oftentimes this can be achieved through online panels or your customer email list.
Next, writing an engaging survey with quality questions that closely align with your goals and objectives. Our product testing research company recommends keeping survey questions to a minimum – no more than 15.
It is easy for respondents to become fatigued or disinterested in a long survey which impacts data quality significantly.
This is where the data can be broken down into actionable things so it’s important to interpret it correctly. Once the data is analyzed, use the findings to correct issues properly, assign a new price point, or add any new features where possible.
Drive Research is a full-service market research company with decades of experience conducting surveys, focus groups, IHUTs, and other research methodologies for product and package testing.
To learn more about our services, please contact us today.
