The Concept

What is a Concept

• A simple one or two sentence expression addressing how the consumer will benefit from the product/service, and reasons why they may believe the product/service will satisfy their needs.

• It identifies the important unmet need the product will satisfy i.e. how will the consumer’s life be meaningfully different having used this product/service?

• A concept is strategic in nature. It establishes a product’s/service’s POSITION IN THE MARKETPLACE.

Key Components of a Concept

• Accepted Consumer Belief
  – Defines the issue on which the product will capitalize
  – A statement about the category/service about which the reader will immediately and instinctively identify
  – Often referred to as the “Head-nod” or the “Hook”
  – It can be logical, rational, emotional, etc.
  
  

• Benefit
  – Also known as the “Promise”
  – It is in response (the Answer) to the unresolved Accepted Consumer Belief
  – The single-minded pay-off for the consumer
  – The reason to succeed in the market (the DISCONTINUITY)
  – The core of your strategy
  
  

• Reason to Believe
  – Why the consumer should believe the benefit is deliverable
  – It is the path of consumer understanding that ties everything together (value ladder)
  – It can be technical in nature, authoritative in nature (respected endorsement), systems oriented, physical characteristics, etc.
  

How Do You Build Concepts?

• Build concepts yourselves, incorporating resolutions to unmet needs
• Build concepts multi-functionally
• Build concepts with internal review boards
• Build concepts with external review boards

Presenting To Customers

Focus Groups

• Initial refinement usually takes place in Focus Group Setting

     1. Allows for building and laddering among respondents
     2. Allows for development of “consumer language”
     3. Allows for quick consensus - positively or negatively
     4. Allows for defensible positioning

• Will often incorporate a “triage” approach
• With refinement, will move to ONE-on-ONEs

One-on-one

Focus groups are a good way to get quick, somewhat diverse inputs and feedback. Even a skilled moderator has a hard time managing ‘group think’ and a dominant few piercing the bubble on otherwise good ideas. So watch out and try to run several groups in multiple areas with differing mix of prospective customers.
The other thing that focus groups often miss is the deep thoughts, the personal thoughts, especially on any more sensitive or complex concepts. So one-on-one interviews once you have brought increasing focus to your concepts is often advised before finalizing to a quantitative test of what appear to be the best.

Quantitative Study

The use of formal scoring and the gathering of associated demographics that aid targeting are real values of next going to a quantitative concept test.

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