What is product testing

One of the valuable ways to get marketing information is testing. In this case, quantitative information is obtained basing on customer opinions and feelings.

In the market there are easily recognizable goods with constant demand, regularly appearing new goods produced by well-known companies, and fundamentally new goods that had no rivals before. Statistics claims that just one of six new items, appeared on the market, will be successful. The remaining five will disappoint buyers and cause losses to manufacturers. Therefore, analysts recommend conducting testing before releasing a new product and regular testing for goods already established on the market.

What Is Product Testing (PT)?

PT is a kind of marketing research for finding out customer opinions about a particular item and determining prospects for its promotion.

Depending on whether the research subject is a new item or an existing one on the market, there are two types of marketing tasks:

• For a fundamentally new item or proposed new goods – options for existing items, it is necessary to determine possible prospects for its sales, possible risks (losses) volumes or potential profit for manufacturer
• Well-known and best-selling items are tested in order to study their existence against the existing background in competitive environment, and necessary solutions for their further release (price reduction, changing the shape, packaging type and volume, new design solutions, advertising promotion and so on).

The Main Goals of Product Testing

• Identification of product’s advantages and disadvantages.

• Assessment of goal achievement, set for goods developers.

• Determination of formula and dosage of item components.

• Assessment of a product’s consumer properties as compared to its main competitors.

• Clarification of product perception regarding similar competitors’ items.

• Choice between alternative goods options.

• Identification of unaccounted problems of using a product and design flaws.

Testing Procedure

The standard marketing testing procedure consists of the following steps:

• Product presentation.
• Individual samples or in comparison with other goods.
• Obtaining an overall assessment of a presented item.
• Finding out the desire to buy a product and purchases estimated frequency.
• Studying the price range accepted by customers.
• Determining product position among similar items and comparing it with competitive items.
• Other questions about individual product characteristics.

Product Testing Benefits

High efficiency is the most favorable factor in terms of testing study results. Just this one method can encourage a company to make serious and important decisions.

It does not require direct contact with respondents. This is one of the few studies where you can get results from people without contacting them. For example, when a company needs to decide on the choice of packaging, it simply produces two different types, and then finds out which one is the most popular.

Testing is one of the main tools in marketing research and, if proper organized, allows you to evaluate the prospects for promoting the product on the market. Scheduling Worldwide marketing specialists gained a huge experience in this field. Contact us for the professional support.