Concept Development & Testing - Blog 3

Concept Development & Testing - Blog 3

Concept Development and Testing is the third stage in the new product development cycle. This stage is when companies test their new ideas, either products or services, before any prototype has been created. (Lamb,Hair,McDaniel, 2009).  The product or service concept development is a detailed description of the idea, in words easy to understand for the target market, to get that stage slight changes and altercations may be made to enhance the product or service. Whereas concept testing involves putting the developed concept idea to the target market and recording their response (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker, Brennan, 2009). Companies use the feedback they get from the target market to help aid the decision on which product or service they are going to continue developing. (Peng & Finn 2008).During concept testing companies often ask their target market questions such as, what is their perceived value of the concept? Meaning how much do they think it is worth to them, how much they would pay for it. Also questions like the typical purchasing frequency they could expect for their product?

Concept development and testing is happening right now in companies, for example FIFA tested their world cup ball with over 600 professional players and 30 teams in ten countries across three continents before the world cup in 2014. All of the balls FIFA produce are certified with a FIFA quality mark, this quality mark indicates to consumers that the ball is of top quality. (Quality.fifa.com, 2014)

Another sporting example of companies testing their products is Lycra Sport; Every Lycra Sport fabric style is tested to meet demanding standards for elongation, fit and recovery power. Lycra have created a graph to see record the results of their testing and only those products that fall within the desired results region of the graph are given the greenlight to continue with development. (Lycra.com, 2014) (See Graph - Appendix A) 

When I have developed my concept, Archball, I would test the concept by offering the idea to my target market. My target market is boys and girls aged between 13-21, I would ask my target market if the sport is easy to understand? I would also ask them if they would pay to play the sport with their money? How often they could see themselves playing the sport? Would they replace the sport they play now with my new sport concept? And reasons why they would or wouldn’t, and I would also ask them for any suggestions they think they will enhance the sport as a commercial business.

 

 

 

Appendix

 

A.

Refrences

Lamb, C., Hair, J. and McDaniel, C. (2009). Essentials of Marketing. 6th ed. Cengage Learning.

 

Lycra.com, (2014). LYCRA® SPORT fabric. [online] Available at: http://www.lycra.com/g_en/webpage.aspx?id=963 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2014].

 

Peng, L & Finn, A (2008). ‘Concept testing: the state of contemporary practice’, Marketing intelligence and planning. 26:6, pp. 649-674. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1747079&show=abstract (Accessed: 23/11/2014).​

 

Quality.fifa.com, (2014). adidas brazuca – tried and tested - FIFA Quality Programme. [online] Available at: http://quality.fifa.com/en/Footballs/Football-facts/adidas-brazuca--tried-and-tested/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2014].