Concept testing in marketing: What is it and how can it help you?

Pretty much every marketer has faced this scenario – you come up with a campaign concept or merely an idea for an ad creative and immediately start wondering whether it’s got potential.

If only there were a way to put your idea to the test before you allocate a substantial amount of your budget to it.

Well, guess what? There is. It’s called concept testing.

What is concept testing?

In marketing, concept testing is a research process used to evaluate consumer responses to an idea or concept before it is introduced to the market.

You might be thinking – wait, how do I test an abstract thing such as an idea? Easy. As long as you can verbalize it, put it on paper, or sketch it out, you’re good to go.

The input you provide is then shown to your target audience to gather their feedback, preferences, and potential buying intentions.

Why should I care about concept testing?

The answer is simple – it saves you time and money in the long run.

Concept testing helps ensure that your ad or product ideas resonate with your target audience.

Suppose you were to deploy a product that your target audience simply doesn’t care about. In that case, you’d have to either compensate for it by spending massive amounts on subsequent marketing campaigns to sell at least a portion of your original target or you’d be forced to pull the product entirely.

How can I test my concepts?

There are many different approaches to concept testing. We’ll briefly cover the three main ones we feel are most relevant to marketing.

Surveys

Surveys serve as a quantitative tool to collect extensive data on how audiences react to product ideas. By answering structured questions about their views, preferences, and recall, participants provide measurable insights into the viability of a concept.

Although constructing a survey to get opinions on an idea sounds like a no-brainer, it does involve a couple of caveats.

It is, for one, a lot harder to put together a cohesive questionnaire that actually provides you with relevant insights. Not to mention the respondents – where do you find them?

All this is better left in the hands of professional researchers.

Focus groups

Focus groups involve small, diverse sets of participants who engage in moderated discussions about their reactions to product ideas. This qualitative approach offers deep insights into emotions, motivations, and perceptions.

Nevertheless, the small number of participants might not represent the broader market, and the presence of a moderator can influence the feedback.

And much like the previously mentioned surveys, a focus group is much harder to execute than you might think. You’re not just talking to a bunch of strangers, you have to follow a script, actively listen to what your respondents are saying, and subsequently sift through their answers for useful findings. Phew!

Software testing

Concept testing software like Behavio provides a more detailed and precise analysis than traditional methods.

Behavio leverages recent marketing science to evaluate key elements of concept ideas. Instead of merely asking respondents for their opinions, it involves tasks that yield more accurate reflections of actual consumer behavior.

Software concept testing also makes the whole process easier and faster. Usually, marketers can upload their ideas and concepts to a simple user interface, which provides them with real-life data in a matter of days.

What results can concept testing provide?

Before we talk about ad concept testing specifically, it is important to note one thing.

Studies indicate that successful ad creatives excel in three key areas:

1. brand
2. need
3. emotion

To achieve maximum impact, all three elements should be executed effectively.

A good concept testing software such as Behavio is able to show you, whether your idea can eventually succeed in communicating all three aspects successfully.

Long story short – it tells you whether your idea is going to blow your customers away or leave them scratching their heads.

Behavio puts these metrics up against competitors so you can get a better idea of where your concept stands. Here’s what that looks like:

Branding in concept: How well does the concept feature and represent your brand? Does it have a high enough brand recall? Do people remember it?

Need in concept: How well did people see what the concept was supposed to convey? Does it fit the product you are trying to sell?

Emotion in concept: Did people enjoy the concept? Was there a lot of mixed emotions or was it an all-around enjoyable experience?

By looking at these metrics, you can safely say, whether you should go forward with a concept, tweak parts of it, or abandon it altogether.

How do these results help me?

Concept testing gives you a heads-up when it matters the most – at the very beginning of the ad creation process.

This way, you save money by not pursuing ideas or variants that simply do not work with your target audience.

It’s always better to base your strategic marketing decisions on real-life findings from your customers rather than wild guesses.

Final thoughts

Concept testing is a valuable tool that lets you see if your ideas resonate with your target audience before committing to them.

By using an all-in-one software like Behavio, you can get real feedback on how well your concepts meet the audience’s needs, evoke the right emotions, and represent your brand.

The concept testing process helps you make smarter decisions, saving time and money by avoiding ideas that might not work.

So, before you go all in on a new campaign or product, concept testing can give you the confidence that your idea is on the right track.