CHICAGO – Nov. 4, 2026 – Circana LLC, a leader in turning consumer data into growth, today announced the launch of its new Concept Testing and Forecasting Solutions in the U.S. The offering includes two connected solutions, the Innovation Screener and the Concept Testing Suite. Together, they combine research with participants sourced from Circana’s active panel of 500,000 verified buyers with Circana predictive analytics to help brands identify their strongest new product development ideas and predict commercial potential before committing to launch. These panelists share actual purchasing behavior through receipts, online purchase information, apps, and other sources, allowing Circana to select research participants based on purchasing history combined with demographics and physiographic information.
More than 80% of new products fail, underscoring the stakes for innovation teams. Yet, teams often have to prioritize ideas and commit resources before they have clear evidence of future demand. Traditional rating methods can give similarly high scores to multiple ideas, obscuring true consumer preference. Concept test results may also lack the true market context needed to estimate an idea’s commercial value.
Circana's new solutions address these challenges at two critical stages of the innovation pipeline:
Innovation Screener evaluates early-stage ideas, features, flavors, claims, benefits, messaging, and simple concepts. A choice-based model reveals the trade-offs consumers make in the marketplace, reduces rating inflation, and identifies clear winners. It then pairs those results with predictive early sizing so teams can prioritize the ideas with the greatest potential.
Concept Testing Suite supports later-stage decisions for more developed concepts. It combines consumer evaluation and competitive benchmarking with verified purchase behavior, point-of-sale data, and market assumptions such as distribution, pricing, and media investment. These inputs power a predictive model that forecasts sales opportunity, brand and category incrementality, source of volume, and brand impact.
By grounding concept feedback in verified purchase behavior, Circana’s approach has achieved a 90% success rate in predicting in-market behavior, validated by point-of-sale and panel data. Its forecasts fall within +/-10% of actual in-market performance.
"Brands can't afford to guess which ideas will win," said Patty Altman, president of Global Solutions for Circana. "Our Concept Testing and Forecasting Solutions connect what consumers say with what verified buyers actually purchase. That connection turns concept feedback into a clear view of commercial potential. Brands can make go or no-go, investment, and launch ‘[[‘[’45 decisions with confidence. They know what an idea could be worth before it reaches the shelf."
A snacking company recently used Circana's verified-buyer testing to evaluate multipack concepts among purchasers of specific pack types and shoppers at major retailers. The resulting insights enabled the company to identify the strongest configuration and build a more credible sell-in story for its retail partners. The company has since repeated this type of analysis to support and optimize additional line extensions.
Circana Innovation solutions support the full new product journey, from identifying unmet consumer needs and white-space opportunities to validating in-market results through solutions such as Liquid Testing. The Innovation Screener and Concept Testing Suite are currently available to U.S. clients, primarily consumer packaged goods and durable goods manufacturers developing new products, line extensions, packaging, claims, and other innovations. For clients whose innovation plans extend beyond the U.S., additional global concept testing solutions are also available.
About Circana
Circana is a leader in providing technology, AI, and data to fast-moving consumer packaged goods companies, durables manufacturers, and retailers seeking to optimize their businesses. Circana’s predictive analytics and technology empower clients to measure their market share, understand the underlying consumer behavior driving it, and accelerate their growth. Circana’s Liquid Data® technology platform is powered by an expansive, high-quality data set and intelligent algorithms trained on six decades of domain expertise. With Circana, clients can take immediate action to future-proof and evolve their growth strategies amid an increasingly complex, fast-paced, and ever-changing economy. Learn more at circana.com.
Circana Media Contact
Shelley Hughes
Email: shelley.hughes@circana.com
