Have your consumers help you perfect your concepts before final validation

Nowadays, it is increasingly commonplace for concepts to face confrontation with target consumers before actual concept testing. This usually entails offline scrutiny and refinement of the insights or concepts by focus groups and through client workshops. These methods of offline testing are undeniably useful, but generally cost companies a lot of extra effort, time and money. Wouldn’t it be welcome to efficiently test your concept this early on in the process, without cutting corners? MetrixLab has successfully risen to this challenge with Concept Booster, or BOOST©, for your benefit.

Outline

BOOST© is MetrixLab’s online method developed to qualitatively optimize insights and/or concepts before actual quantitative validation. Its online nature makes it time- and cost- efficient, allowing you to include more consumers - from anywhere in the world - than in any traditional focus group set-up would be possible. BOOST© creates a unique knowledge platform for this early stage of development. It offers quick and in-depth feedback and useful concrete outputs, giving you the re-assurance you need in the concept confrontation phase.

To be clear: the BOOST© approach exceeds the mere transference of offline focus groups to an online environment. BOOST© guarantees to generate the necessary level of output required to build a profound understanding of feedback and reasons why, and more.

Methodology and set-up

BOOST© works by means of a questionnaire, in which Digital Marker techniques and open ended associations are incorporated. Participants can be drawn from MetrixLab’s OpinionBar, our online and worldwide consumer panel that holds a wide variety of about 800.000 respondents, or for instance your own client database. After selection according to your target group, we address respondents with a questionnaire on the relevant insight or concept in text format, and ask them for their first reactions, their opinions (in general as well as in particular) and lastly their suggestions for improvement.

First reaction
The first questions regard the respondent’s first reaction to the insight & benefit put forward in your concept, with questions like: How does it make you feel? What thoughts does it evoke? The ‘Reason to Believe’ aspect of the concept, or RTB, is excluded at this stage. Participants are asked to give their first spontaneous reaction to the insight through an open ended question. Additionally, respondents participate in a free association exercise with regard to the particular insight & benefit.

KPI Evaluation
How does your concept score on the most important aspects? To find out, we have respondents evaluate the insight in question on the KPI’s normally used in insight validation (client specific if necessary): they are asked to rate varying statements that concern the insight. Results are put in a clear KPI overview (if applicable per country).

Specifications
In the exercise that follows, respondents are presented with the insight and benefit in text format again. By means of a digital marker they highlight the elements that are most appealing and/or unappealing to them. Subsequently, they comment on their views, explaining why these particular elements do or do not appeal to them. This straightforward exercise gives you the opportunity to already extract clear input for optimization of your insight & benefit.

Suggestions
Lastly, respondents are presented the original insight & benefit text yet again and asked to rephrase the text so that it now does appeal to them, once more offering you suggestions for optimization. In conclusion, we report to you on the results of the collective exercises as well as our recommendations for improvement.

Your benefits

Time- and cost-effectively testing your insights or early concepts with the help of your own consumers, BOOST© has all the advantages you may expect from qualitative research. MetrixLab’s BOOST© offers you:

• All the benefit of online testing, especially in case of a multi-country research, saving time and money over any traditional focus group-like set-up.
• A set-up ruling out interviewer bias or any other kind of unwanted situation in which participants are influenced in terms of first impressions and reactions, be it intentionally or unintentionally.
• The possibility to evaluate, in a semi-monadic set-up, a maximum of three insights or two concepts per respondent.
• Respondents participate in their own environment, behind their own PC, at a time that is convenient for them.
• The option to include more respondents (a higher sample size) in the online qualitative phase, for a more quantified feedback.
• Rich and diverse feedback on the various elements of your insight or concept, when you need it, how you need it.