Concept Development and Testing

Concept development and testing

What is it?

Concept development and testing follows idea generation and screening in the new product development cycle. A product concept is defined as a detailed version of a product idea that is stated in meaningful consumer terms (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). After a product idea has been screened organisations look to test the concept with groups of their target market, they look to gather information on consumer reactions to a description of the product/service or to visual representations of the product (McDaniel, Lamb & Hair, 2011). Consumers are then asked questions on the product which help the organisation evaluate which concept has the biggest appeal in terms of potential sales (Kotler & Armstrong).

To the left is a product positioning map [See Fig.1]. This model shows where in the market a certain product would fall and this can lead on to show what the potential target market would be. This example provided is for cars. Showing the price of the car against the fuel economy provides us with which car would suit a different area of the market. 

Examples

One example of an organisation which has undertaken concept testing is Lycra, who undertook concept testing to evaluate customers wants with regard to new sport fibre clothing. Lycrca asked questions regarding interest in the product, how believable the organisations claims were, how different customers thought the product was and how much customers thought the product would cost, this allowed Lycra to evaluate possible consumer demand and purchase intention (Lycra 2008).

Another example of an organisation that developed a concept and tested it in research labs is Athletic Propulsion Labs, who claim to have made a basketball shoe that allows athletes to jump significantly higher (APL, 2011). This shoe was banned by the NBA, as it was judged to provide athletes with an ‘undue advantage’; the owners claim that this serves as proof that their products work. 

My Concept

Having established in the idea screening stage that my cone collecting idea was the one with the biggest potential I have chosen to take that forward to testing and concept development. The product name have been finalised as “Cone King”.

Concept A – Picks up cones and acts as a stand but does not distribute cones as this would cost more and be harder to develop.

Concept B – Picks up cones and distributes them, this costs more to develop but is a higher quality product with more uses.

Having tested both concept ideas with people in the industry, including teachers and coaches, it is apparent that nearly all people asked would prefer Concept B, even if it cost more money, as it has more uses and would improve the overall coaching experience vastly.

Reference List

APA, (2011) “About us” Available at: http://www.athleticpropulsionlabs.com/about.html (Accessed 24th November 2013)

Kotler, P.  & Armstrong, G. (2012) Principles of Marketing. 14th Edn. London: Pearson Education.

 Lycra (2008) “LYCRA SPORT Fabric”. Available at: http://www.lycra.com/g_en/webpage.aspx?id=963 (Accessed 24th November 2013)

Mcdaniel, C.D. Lamb, C.W. and Hair J.F. (2011) Introduction to Marketing. 11th Edn. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.