Month: December 2021

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What Is Central Location Testing?

Central location testing (CLT) is a vital piece of the puzzle for brands looking to gain consumer insights into their products. CLT is a qualitative market research approach in which research takes place in a specific, controlled environment such as a testing lab, restaurant, shopping center, department store or other suitable locations where the brand wants to have a presence. Central location testing provide brands with the opportunity to gain critical customer feedback without many of the biases that can decrease the reliability of the findings and allow research teams to collect all-important non-verbal feedback.

The Challenges Of Central Location Testing & How To Overcome Them

When conducting a central location test it should be adequately planned, expertly designed and directed by trained staff. Below we will outline some of the challenges of central location testing and how you can overcome them.

Biased Responses

Occasionally, participants may give biased responses to interviewers. These favourable psychological responses may be because of something simple such as the participant taking a liking to the interviewer. In this situation, they might give answers that may be different from what they really believe. For this reason, it is important to train your interviewers to a high standard.

Interviewer Misconduct

Interviewer cheating is another challenge of central location testing. On occasions, interviewers can intentionally provoke biases or push participants towards specific answers. To avoid this scenario you should always work with a trusted consumer research company, with reliable staff, such as Wirral Sensory Services.

Participant Recruitment

In some instances it may be hard to recruit enough participants. For example, if you are running a central location test in a supermarket or shopping centre, you can face problems if there are fewer shoppers than expected. To prevent this it is best to organise tests and recruit participants beforehand. Wirral Sensory Services can conduct the market research fieldwork you need for all your central location tests (CLTs). We interview and recruit participants that you need for your market research project, deliver the products for testng, complete the follow up survey, and give you the results. Our market research is completely confidential and is conducted so that it is enjoyable for respondents, provides clear results and offers you accurate insight into what consumers are really thinking.

Your Dependable Partner For All Your Central Location Testing Needs

To enjoy the benefits of central location testing, you must choose the correct research method. At Wirral Sensory Services, we have helped leading UK brands to choose and conduct the most suitable research methodology for their brands. Our team of trained researchers have more than 20 years of experience in conducting research within the food, beverage, and household products industry. The feedback our researchers provide is accurate, unbiased, and allows many of the UK’s leading brands to create products that consumers love. Whether you are a new brand entering the market or an existing brand trying to expand your market share, the experienced researchers at Wirral Sensory Services can help your product succeed. Contact us today to learn more about how our research methodologies can help you create an industry-leading product.

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What Is Product Concept Testing?

Product concept testing is an early market research method that maximises the odds of you launching a product that people want to purchase. You explore the viability of a product with its target consumer early on and improve its development from the feedback and data acquired from the testing. Concept testing is a vital stage of product development. It will help you to avoid costly errors and unpleasant surprises. The information acquired will give you a much better understanding of the market and assist you in achieving a much more successful product launch.

The Advantages Of Product Concept Testing

There are many reasons why you should conduct concept testing before launching a product. These include:

Real Feedback From Consumers/Users

Product designers and developers often get to close to a product to make a sensible decision about it. Just because an idea feels right doesn’t mean its commercially viable. Product concept testing provides you with real feedback and data from your target audience that you can’t replicate with your businesses internal team.

Helps You Identify Shortcomings

Almost all product concepts have their flaws. Testing your product with real consumers helps you to identify weaknesses that weren’t noticed during the design and development phases. It is always a good idea to get a fresh pair of eyes on your product.

Allows You To Improve Your Product

Prior to testing, your product is just a sample that has all the major components in place yet needs some minor tweaks. Product concept testing can help shed light on what your target audience think about your product. This will give you some ideas on how to revise and improve your product so that it’s more likely to be a hit with consumers when it is launched.

Why Product Concept Testing Is Important

The advantages of product concept testing outlined above are important for numerous reasons. Here are some of the reasons why you should contemplate concept testing as part of your product development:

Helps Your Product Get Backing

Concept testing gives you accurate data about how your target market feels about your product. This information can then be used to demonstrate to others in the business why you are making certain decisions. Not having this evidence can make it hard to convince colleagues as it is just personal opinion.

Helps You Discover What Your Target Market Like About Your Product

Product concept testing will help you find out what your target consumers like about your products. This information can be really useful during your marketing campaigns. It can also help you to make better decisions when creating other products. This is as you can focus on things that consumers like and target specific problems faced by current or prospective customers in the marketplace.

Helps You Decide A Price Point

During product concept testing it is standard to ask participants how much they would expect to pay for a product. This will help you to make a decision on how much your product will retail for.

Customer Segmentation

Product concept testing can help you to segment your customer base. If data shows that a specific demographic adore your product and others are less passionate it can be extremely helpful when it comes to your marketing campaigns and distribution efforts.

Helps You To Estimate Sales

Data gathered during concept testing can sometimes help you to estimate how many units you will sell and the ROI (return on investment) you can expect once the product is launched. This information is really helpful when it comes to deciding on budgets for marketing campaigns and attaining backing from others within the business.

Trusted Product Concept Tester

Product concept testing can enhance your product development and marketing strategies, reduce the time required to market and launch your product, and keep your customers happy. If you’re weighing up whether to pursue concept testing for your new product lines, why not email our team today at info@wssintl.com to learn more about how we can help your brand gain valuable insights into what your target consumers think about your products and how they can be improved before launch.

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Consumer testing forms one of the cornerstones underpinning any leading brand’s success. For those competing in the food and beverage industry, consumer taste tests, in particular, provide vital data and insights that can give your brand an edge over the competition. With that in mind, let’s look in more detail at why consumer taste tests often hold the key to success for consumer products.

Consumer Taste Tastes Improve Sales

By subjecting your products to consumer taste tests, you can gain valuable information about the perceived tastes of your product and, crucially, its ability to appeal to consumers. You can uncover small but meaningful details that can transform the ability of your product to meet the demands of your target audience. Just a slight tweak to a recipe can change the fortunes of an ailing product or dramatically improve the sales of a new product upon launch. Without consulting consumers’ palettes beforehand, you may have to invest a lot of development time and money to manufacture a product that consumers actually want. So, not only can you improve sales, but you can also avoid that significant investment in time and resources by conducting straightforward consumer taste tests with experienced and accredited research partners.

Customer Taste Tests Facilitate Competitor Comparisons

If you find yourself stuck wondering what it is that competitor products have that your offerings don’t, customer taste tests may reveal the answer. By stacking your product up against market leaders, you can begin to develop deeper insights into the flavour profiles and perceived tastes that are winning over your target market. It could be that you may have overlooked an essential ingredient that your customers look for when buying products from your category. Or perhaps your product’s texture or physical size is deemed undesirable by consumers. Either way, by gaining those critical insights from taste testing, you can make the necessary adjustments to your product before it hits the market and is met with a lukewarm consumer reception.

Subject Your Products to Consumer Taste Tests to Aid You Bid in Gaining Supermarket Listings

With the nature of supermarket listings, if your product is to gain a spot, it has to knock another product from your category off the shelves. Without compelling evidence, that’s not a decision most supermarket buyers will make. What more compelling evidence could you have than empirically proving that your customers prefer your product over competitors or even the current market leader? Consumer taste tests can reveal that consumers prefer your product’s flavour and taste profile over competitors, which will help make your case to a supermarket buyer. If you never invest in this critical element of consumer research, securing supermarket listings could prove an insurmountable task.

Partner with Industry-Leading Taste Testers to Secure a Competitive Edge for Your Products

Wirral Sensory Services has provided consumer taste-testing services to leading international brands for close to three decades. With our research expertise and enormous pool of taste testers, we can deliver the data, insights, and evidence you need to create market-leading products. Our range of services are designed to help you reduce costs, maximise sales, and understand exactly what your consumers want from your products. So, if you are looking to bring a new product to market, or improve the market acceptance of an existing product through reformulation, then make sure to get in touch with a member of our expert team today to discuss your consumer taste testing requirements. Call us on +44 (0)151 346 2999 or email our team at info@wssintl.com.

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History is littered with mistakes made by brands launching products without conducting the necessary research. Who can forget the launch of the “New Coke” in the 1980s (which lasted all of two weeks) or the flop that was Google Glass? The latter example proves that even the most innovative of companies can badly miss the mark with their consumers. The good news is that, by investing in product concept testing, companies can develop their product ideas in a safe, controlled environment with the input of their target audience. Whether you are launching a new product to market or thinking about redesigning or rebranding an existing product, below are three reasons you’ll want to put your ideas through product concept testing. But first, what is product concept testing?

What is Product Concept Testing?

Product concept testing is the process of uncovering what your target consumers think about your new product concept. By investing in this consumer research method, you can identify which ideas will become runaway successes and which ones should be best shelved. Concept testing methods include online questionnaires, face-to-face surveys, focus study groups, and one-on-one interviews. Irrespective of the specific research method, concept testing identifies the specific features and benefits that will make your ideas a hit or miss. Once in-depth testing has been carried out, you will know whether your idea will be a major hit or an opportunity for a narrower market segment that might not warrant the time and resource investment. With product concept testing covered, let’s go into why you need to invest in this vital research process.

#1: Product Concept Testing Helps You to Filter Out Ideas Not Worth Your Time

While one day of blue-sky thinking with your team could yield dozens of potential product concepts, you need a way to narrow down your potential list of ideas and find out which ones are worth throwing your weight behind. With product concept testing, there’s no more guesswork. You’ll hear straight from the horse’s mouth which ideas are going to cut it and which should be thrown in the bin. By employing a broad spectrum of consumer testing tools, you can identify winning product concepts and unearth opportunities to further refine them. You’ll then have the confidence to move onto the next stage of development knowing you are pursuing the right strategy.

#2: Product Concept Testing Helps You Understand What Matters to Consumers

Even if an initial round of surveys suggests your product is likely to be a home run, you still need to think about the aspects that will ensure success. How you position your product, what it looks like, colour schemes, packaging, and price are just a few of the elements you’ll need to receive input from consumers to make sure you focus on the right aspects. With a blend of qualitative and quantitative consumer research methods, you can find out what matters most to your intended audience and get to work on catering to those specific needs. Working in this manner significantly reduces your chances of failure since you’ll already know what the customer is looking for. You simply have to execute it.

#3: Product Concept Testing Allows You To Fix Problems Prior to Launch

One of the reasons so many products fail is that they miss the mark so badly that fixing the problems would cost more than the venture is worth. However, you can buy yourself the flexibility to develop a product that consumers truly want and need by extensively testing before launch. By continually iterating and tweaking based on consumer feedback, you can avoid the costly launch mistakes made by the companies mentioned above. Yes, this will require significant investment before even reaching mass production. However, these costs would be dwarfed by the investment required to try and fix a botched product launch.

Speak to Wirral Sensory Services Regarding Your Product Concept Testing Requirements

Here at Wirral Sensory Services, we have helped international and domestic brands of all sizes to develop market-leading products through a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. From online surveys and questionnaires to dedicated focus group studies, we can conduct all manner of testing to ensure that you nail down a successful product idea before you bring it to market. If you would like to learn more about our product concept testing services, simply get in touch with a member of our team on +44 (0)151 346 2999 today.

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When bringing a food product to market, there are a whole host of product testing methods you could undertake before reaching the launch stage. But which ones are the most important and therefore used the most? In this post, we’ll take a look at the product testing methods you are most likely to use on your new or reformulated food product.

Taste Testing

Taste testing is by far the most popular food product testing method. It involves a group of your target demographic being asked to rate the taste of a new food product either in solitude or in direct comparison to competitor products. Those surveyed will rate your product (and others if necessary) based on a number of criteria, revealing how your product stacks up against the competition. While this method does suffer from a certain degree of subjectivity (you are asking for opinions after all), these tests take place in controlled settings and give researchers a chance to record non-verbal feedback in addition to the scores given by participants. This method is vital for understanding the consumer acceptance levels of your food product.

Sensory Profiling

Sensory profiling is different from taste testing because it’s carried out by trained experts rather than members of the public. These panellists use their superior skills to objectively outline the sensory profile of a specific food product, allowing them to pinpoint each aspect of its taste to the last molecule. The end goal of this method is similar to that of taste testing, evaluating the food product’s flavour, texture, appearance, aroma, etc. However, the findings are more objective as they are delivered using expert taste testers who can objectively detect specific characteristics rather than give their subjective opinion.

Packaging Research

You may be surprised to learn that packaging can be even more vital to your food product’s success than taste. That’s why you see so many adverts for brands with a lower market share using blind taste tests to demonstrate their product is better than the market leader. The problem is, it doesn’t matter that their product objectively tastes better. Customers are still preferring another brand. The reason? Better branding and packaging. Thus, packaging research is crucial to your food product(s) success. By using methods such as focus group studies to understand what type of packaging elements consumers prefer, you can give your product the best chance of success when it hits shelves.

Contact Wirral Sensory Services Regarding Your Consumer Goods Product Testing

Product testing is a vital stage of the product development phase. Without accurate and reliable testing, you will have no idea whether your product has what it takes to secure a winning market share. At WSS, we have been carrying out all forms of food, beverage, and household product testing since 1997. We have relationships with some of the world’s leading brands and manufacturers, and our product testing services are widely-regarding as industry-leading. So whether you need to invest in taste testing or packaging research, contact us today for more information on how we can help you develop marketing-leading consumer products. We are available by phone on +44 (0)151 346 2999 or via email at info@wssintl.com.

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Consumer testing is a vital part of developing industry-leading products, yet many fledgling brands try to bring a product to market without conducting any. Even established brands can make the mistake of not thoroughly carrying out consumer testing on a reformulated product and become shocked when the relaunch doesn’t go to plan (remember the “New Coke” disaster of the 1980s?). Thus, without well-rounded consumer testing, you can’t expect your product to be a runaway success. You will be entering the market completely blind and unsure of where your product might be going wrong. As the adage goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” With that in mind, let’s look at the specific reasons you need to submit your new or reformulated product to thorough consumer testing before bringing it to market.

You Will Receive Potentially Game-Changing Feedback from Your Target Customers

You have to be the best within your chosen segment to be successful, and you need to outperform what’s already out there. But how do you know if you are on the right track without testing your product with target consumers? The short answer is you don’t. You need to submit your product to a wide range of customer research methods to ensure it will perform as envisioned. You are likely to pursue methodologies such as taste testing and sensory profiling for food and beverage products. By contrast, household goods might be better suited to home use testing where customers can use the products in their intended environments. No matter what the best type of consumer research is best for your product, comprehensive testing will reveal whether your product idea is living up to expectations and what you can do to improve it. If the initial feedback is negative, you have time to make changes before the product goes to market, instead of going with what could be a failing concept and bleeding cash for years trying to get it into profit.

Consumer Testing Helps Brands Avoid Costly Mistakes Post-Launch

As we’ve just hinted at, by pouring considerable sums into consumer testing, you are likely to save yourself significant costs in the long run by avoiding a disastrous product launch. Huge sums will go into the manufacturing and marketing of your new product, and they could all go up in smoke if you have to carry out a product recall, for example, when your customers spot something wrong with your product in the real world. Carrying out customer testing pre-launch uncovers problems before you even begin with your spending campaign. Receiving useful, critical feedback will mean that you can focus more on the specific tweaks that need to be made to your product before you launch, saving you vast sums of money in the long run.

Consumer Testing Help You Gain Insights into Competitor Products

Consumer testing isn’t always about seeing what your product does well. It’s also about understanding how it stacks up against your competitors. When undertaking consumer research with both your product and those of competitors, you can better understand what is truly vital to your target customers and how your product can be tweaked to better meet their needs than what’s already out there. For example, suppose you find that competitors’ products are more popular because their packaging design attracts more attention on supermarket shelves (rather than its actual performance). In that case, you can focus on improving your product’s packaging to steal market share. Traditionally, many brands didn’t really consider testing competitor products until after they’d launched their own product, but consumer testing allows you to take a more proactive approach by spotting opportunities to gain an edge over competitors early on.

Speak to Wirral Sensory Services Today Regarding Consumer Testing

At WSS, we help new and established consumer goods brands unlock game-changing insights into products through consumer research. We are industry leaders, with over 20 years of studies conducted for some of the world’s leading companies. So if you want to make sure that a tweaked existing product or a new concept will hit the target before spending a fortune on a launch campaign, make sure to contact a member of our friendly team today to discuss your consumer testing requirements in more detail. Call us on +44 (0)151 346 2999 or email us at info@wssintl.com.

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Product benchmarking is a vital process that ensures your product is up to scratch. Yet, despite its importance, many brands forgo this vital aspect of consumer research. So with that in mind, let’s examine product benchmarking in more detail and explain why, when executed correctly, it can help your brand deliver a product that is head and shoulders above competitors.

What is Product Benchmarking?

Simply put, product benchmarking is the process of putting your product up against leading competitors to understand how it stacks up concerning consumer preferences. You can also use product benchmarking to compare a new formulation of your food or beverage product against an old one. There are several different parameters you can benchmark your product for, including but not limited to taste, smell, and looks. Participants used in product benchmarking are from your target demographic and are the same people who you would market to if introducing the new product to the market. Once the product benchmarking process has taken place, you can factor in these results when developing your marketing strategy and/or make any necessary product changes before launching a new product.

Why Carry Out Product Benchmarking?

There are several benefits that product benchmarking delivers to your organisation. Firstly, it enables you to identify problems with your product and make improvements that are likely to positively impact your bottom line. Secondly, it helps you gain a deeper understanding of your competitors’ success (or lack thereof). You can look at how those brands have marketed their product or understand what constitutes a top-performing taste profile in the eyes of your target customers, for example. You can then look in more detail at what they’ve done well and where they may have fallen short and find opportunities for quick wins. Finally, when benchmarking involves testing a new product against the best-selling food or beverage products in your market, you can use the results to help you launch your brand with superior sales potential while avoiding the pitfalls that many of your competitors may have made before you.

How Is Product Benchmarking Carried Out?

Product benchmarking is most likely to be carried out in a central location testing environment with members of the public who you classify as your target market. Your products and those of your competitors (if doing a competitor analysis) are then evaluated by consumers against a number of criteria (such as appearance, aroma, flavour, texture etc.). The answers are then collated and analysed to understand if there are any statistically significant differences between products for each tested attribute. These findings are presented in a report that you can use to address any critical areas of concern or uncover opportunities for you to tweak your product so that it is likely to outperform leading brands.

Contact Wirral Sensory Services for Your Product Benchmarking Analysis Today

At WSS, we are market leaders in unbiased consumer research. We help leading British and international brands uncover game-changing insights into their products that help them avoid costly mistakes at launch or spot opportunities to secure increased market share. Whether you want to commission a standalone product benchmarking study, or you wish to form an ongoing consumer market research relationship, we are here to help you deliver the best possible consumer products. Contact us today on +44 (0)151 346 2999 or send your enquiry through to info@wssintl.com.

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Central location testing is a vital piece of the puzzle for brands looking to gain consumer insights into their products. They tend to occur in neutral environments such as shopping centres, department stores, or other locations where the brand wants to have a presence. They provide brands with the opportunity to gain critical customer feedback without many of the biases that can decrease the reliability of the findings and allow research teams to collect all-important non-verbal feedback. However, not all central location tests are the same. Different central location test methodologies provide different insights into consumer reactions, and feedback varies across these individual methodologies. Below are some key differences in types of central location testing.

Monadic Central Location Test

In a monadic test, each participant is exposed to one stimulus. It could be that they only taste one product or only give feedback on the packaging of one product. This test is helpful for brands looking for initial feedback on a new product or packaging concept. This can help them make any last-minute changes before they go into production, saving time and money in the long run.

Paired Comparison Central Location Test

Participants taking part in a paired comparison test are given two products to evaluate. For example, they may be asked to assess the relative taste quality of two products alongside each other. Participants are usually asked to compare them based on a set of standardised criteria to generate relative rankings. This methodology is perfect for brands looking to compare their products against the current market leader. It can also be useful for evaluating similarities and differences between two products and seeing which variables elicit the strongest customer feedback, such as testing different flavours of the same product. You can repeat this test several times to ensure the validity of the results, proving beyond doubt that the findings were not random.

Sequential-Monadic Central Location Test

The sequential-monadic test works the same way as the standard monadic test, except this methodology covers two products. They evaluate the two products separately, and then once those assessments have taken place, participants are asked to re-evaluate together to generate relative rankings. Carrying on the monadic test in this manner neutralises the natural tendency among many participants to exaggerate differences when comparing two products simultaneously.

Contact Wirral Sensory Services for Your Central Location Needs

While the above list of central location testing methodologies is by no means exhaustive (there are other options such as triadic preference testing and proto-monadic testing), they are the most common research methodologies used within the consumer goods industry. At WSS, we’ve carried out central location testing for more than two decades. Our expert team of researchers conduct consumer testing in ways that minimise bias and ensure validity. With consumer research carried out by our team, you can rest assured you receive consumer insights you can trust. So, no matter your specific testing methodology preferences, make sure to contact a member of our team today to discuss your brand’s consumer research project in more detail. We are available via telephone on +44 (0)151 346 2999 or via email at info@wssintl.com.