Deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile 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.

Earlier we had made you aware of the danger of “inadequate concept specification” and how it can be avoided. Presented below is the second common pitfall associated with this type of research – and how you can avoid it.

Second Common Pitfall: Missing or bad pricing

Problem: A special case of inadequate specification is missing or bad pricing. Using a customer intercept, in-store interview, or a mobile survey to ask purchase intent when price is unknown isn’t really meaningful, while asking purchase intent when price is unrealistically high or low yields distorted results.

Solution: Conduct some form of pricing research if you (or your client) can’t provide reasonable prices. Alternatively, use the concept test for other purposes (prioritizing a list of options, assessing characteristics or perceptions, etc.).

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming.