The Value of Product Testing Essay -- Business Market Research

Based upon 30 years of marketing research experience, spanning thousands of research projects, I am convinced that product testing is the single most valuable marketing research that most companies ever do. The great value of product testing is, perhaps, best illustrated by some of its many uses. It can be used to: • Achieve product superiority over competitive products. • Continuously improve product performance and customer satisfaction (i.e., to maintain product superiority, especially as consumer tastes evolve over time). • Monitor the potential threat levels posed by competitive products to understand competitive strengths and weaknesses. • Cost-reduce product formulations and/or processing methods, while maintaining product superiority. • Measure the effects of aging upon product quality (shelf-life studies). • Implicitly measure the effects of price, brand name, or packaging upon perceived product performance/ quality. • Provide guidance to research and development in creating new products or upgrading existing products. • Monitor product quality from different factories, through different channels of distribution, and from year to year. • Predict consumer acceptance of new products. Companies committed to rigorous product testing and continuous product improvement can, in most instances, achieve product superiority over their competitors. Product superiority, in turn, helps strengthen brand share, magnifies the positive effects of all marketing activities (advertising, promotion, selling, etc.), and often allows the superior product to command a premium price relative to competitors. Most companies, unfortunately, do very little product testing. Few companies really u... ...he structure and mechanics of execution will vary greatly from product category to product category. For example, computer software can be tested, furniture can be tested, store environments can be tested, dog food can be tested, airline service can be tested, equipment prototypes can be tested, etc. Competitive Advantage The ultimate benefit of product testing is competitive advantage. Product superiority is the surest way to dominate a product category or an industry. Companies dedicated to ongoing product improvement and product testing can achieve product superiority, and achieve a competitive advantage of great strategic significance. Companies that ignore product improvement and product testing, on the other hand, may wake up one morning to find themselves on the brink of extinction from a competitor who has built "a better mousetrap."