Deploying surveys to test new concepts is often a key step in new product or service development. If not done right, it can produce useless or (even worse) misleading results.

In this ongoing series, we’ll share with you six common (and deadly) pitfalls associated with this type of research – and how you can easily avoid them.

First Common Pitfall:  Inadequate concept specification

Researchers often us customer (and non-customer) surveys to test ideas which are not fully specified. When this happens, respondents have trouble answering purchase intent or other overall interest questions. Alternatively, respondents may interpret what’s meant to be the same concept in many different ways, so their answers aren’t comparable.

Solution: Think like a respondent – what would they need to know about the concept in order to make a simulated purchase decision? If you (or your client) can’t provide this information, then the concept may not be ready for testing.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in journey mapping, path-to-purchase research, deploying customer intercepts and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, and mystery shopping. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. Contact us at 1-800-549-7170 or send an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.