- Circana
- 9 hours ago
- 6 min read
Table of Contents
You’ve invested time, creativity, and resources into a new product idea, but how do you know if it will fly off shelves or flop? Launches are exciting but also risky. For smaller consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, the stakes are even higher. In today’s economy, every decision counts: shelf space is limited, competition is fierce, and even one misstep can derail months of work. The reality is that over 80% of new products fail to gain traction. So how can brands make confident, data-driven decisions without a massive analytics team?
Concept testing surveys help you see what shoppers really think so you can validate ideas and make smart adjustments before hitting the shelves.
What is Concept Testing?
Think of concept testing as a reality check for your ideas. It is the process of evaluating an early product (or product line extension) idea with real consumers before you invest in bringing it to market. It answers fundamental questions: Does the idea resonate? Is it differentiated? Would shoppers buy it at your intended price?
For SMBs without internal research teams, concept testing delivers quick, credible decision-making support at critical development milestones.
Top Metrics in CPG Concept Testing
Concept testing measures these critical dimensions:
1. Purchase intent: Will consumers actually buy?
2. Relevance & uniqueness: Does it meet a real market need and stand out?
3. Price/value testing: Is the price competitive compared to alternatives?
4. Likeability & brand fit: Is it appealing and does it fit with your brand's image?
5. Believability: Is it a credible idea? (Important for new to market, truly innovative launches)
6. Product attributes: Which features excite consumers most?
7. Purchase incrementality: Will it add new sales rather than replace existing?
Testing these dimensions helps brands refine concepts, prioritize ideas, and reduce launch risk.
Common Concept Testing Techniques
Online Surveys (Most common in CPG) Fast, scalable, and structured. Uses Likert scales, attribute ratings, and purchase intent measures to build a complete view of consumer response, at scale.
MaxDiff (Maximum Difference Scaling)A survey technique used to rank a list of features, benefits, or concepts, forcing consumers to pick the "best" and "worst" from a choice set to determine true preference. This is often used to understand which claims, attributes, or flavors motivate purchases the most.
Conjoint Analysis A behavioral approach that mirrors real‑world decision‑making by asking consumers to make trade‑offs between attributes like price, size, flavor, or claims. It is ideal for understanding the combination of factors that drive choice.
Why Good Ideas Can Fail Without Concept Testing
Even the strongest ideas can still miss the mark when they don’t resonate with consumers. Common pitfalls include:
Misjudging consumer preferences or needs
Launching without understanding price/value trade-offs
Overlooking the competitive context
Failing to align with your brand and stand out in the market
For smaller CPG brands, these mistakes are costly. Limited budgets and lean teams mean there’s little room for trial and error. Concept testing reduces uncertainty, ensuring decisions are driven by actual buyer feedback.
Signs Your Team Needs to Concept Test
Product & Innovation Teams
You do not know if your new concept will truly resonate with your consumer targets
You’re choosing between flavors, claims, or package designs.
Retailers ask for “proof this will sell,” and you don’t have shopper‑validated intent.
You need to know if the idea will add new sales or cannibalize your own lineup.
Brand & Marketing Teams
Want to test positioning or creative territory with real buyers.
You’re unsure which features and benefits resonate most.
You need to confirm if the story matches what shoppers value at your price point.
Sales & Retailer Teams
A buyer wants data on product appeal, expected velocity, price thresholds, or target shoppers.
You need a case for space, pricing, or assortment.
Competition has moved and you must quickly validate a counter‑concept.
Why SMB CPG Brands Can’t Afford to Guess
For small and mid-size CPG brands, every decision carries outsized risk. Unlike big, legacy players with deep pockets and guaranteed shelf space, SMBs operate with limited margin for error and fewer chances to recover from a misstep:
Retailer trust must be earned: Buyers expect evidence of demand and differentiation during line reviews. A weak or unproven concept can stall momentum and make future pitches harder to win.
Shelf space is fiercely competitive: Without data to support why a product dserves placement, smaller brands are often passed over for better-validated options.
Sales volatility is unavoidable: Seasonal shifts, macro-economic pressures, and competitive launches can disrupt performance overnight — especially for brands without strong demand signals.
Margins have little room for trial and error: Pricing, pack size, and promotion decisions must be right the first time when budgets are tight.
Innovation carries real cost: Expanding a product line or entering a new category requires confidence that a concept will resonate before investing in production, distribution, and marketing.
Concept testing gives SMBs the insight foundation needed to reduce risk and improve launch outcomes by clarifying demand, pressure-testing differentiation, and identifying risks early.
How to Setup a Strong Concept Test
Traditional concept testing is a heavy lift. You often need to hire an external agency or a market research firm, craft detailed briefs, and then wait weeks (or months) for results. By the time insights arrive, the market could have shifted, competitors might have launched, and your window of opportunity could be gone.
Concept testing is most effective when you follow a structured approach, combining survey responses with verified consumer panels and compare to key competitors. Here’s how to set yourself up for success and what it looks like in practice with Survey Capabilities in Liquid Data Go:
Define your objectives
Be explicit about what you’re testing: whether it’s a new idea, a new flavor, packaging, pricing, or brand alignment, so you can keep your survey focused with clear goals.
Example: A snack brand is developing a new protein bar and needs to know whether this idea has marketplace appeal and is truly differentiated vs others on the market to decide whether to move forward.
Select a verified sample
Insights are most valuable when they come from real category shoppers, not generalized survey panels.
Example: The snack brand surveys consumers who already purchase protein bars and similar protein snacks, not “all gen pop.”
Benchmark against competitors
Context matters. Compare your concept to existing products that your target shoppers buy today to assess true market fit/marketplace reality.
Example: The snack brand evaluates its new protein bar against leading protein snack providers, comparing purchase intent and perceived value to see how it stacks up.
Measure what Matters
Anchor your testing on purchase intent, relevance/uniqueness, price expectations, brand fit, attribute appeal and incrementality, so you can use feedback to refine concepts before production, saving time and resources.
Timely, targeted consumer feedback, within days gives you the confidence to refine concepts, align with consumer preferences, and reduce unforeseen risk before you launch.
Benefits of Survey Capabilities in Liquid Data Go
Liquid Data Go brings together verified omnichannel shoppers, streamlined survey tools, and the power of Circana’s POS data, all in one place. SMBs get:
Verified buyers, omnichannel reach: Access verified buyers for your category, not generic panels — across online, retail, and specialty channels for insights that reflect actual purchase behavior.
Integrated results, connected to purchase data: Get a complete view by combining survey insights with POS data, shopper behavior, and historical trends — calibrated to real sales data from 1,100+ retail partners.
Speed and simplicity: Launch surveys in minutes with ready-to-use, proven templates, and get actionable insights in under seven days to stay ahead of market trends.
Designed for SMBs budgets: Designed for small business budgets and more cost-effective than traditional in-market pilots or third party-led testing.
Actionable, unified insights: Results flow into Unify+ as ready-to-use stories — making it easy for small teams to move from data to decisions.
Ready to learn more? Get a demo of Liquid Data Go®’s concept testing survey capabilities.
