Mystery Shopping & Concept Tests: Instrumental in Discerning Actionable Insights

Less than 20% of the products and new concepts that we come across essentially are here to stay. This means they aren’t exactly immortal but have a low mortality rate. This lies true for the concept which hasn’t been tapped into and invested in so that they can transition from a drawing board to a manufacturing line. Therefore, it is crucial that such opportunities are identified as early as possible so that in the world of instant coffee (which is immortal as a product), acquiring new consumers by addressing their need-gaps becomes a reality. One such method is that of concept tests.

Concepts tests would not only aid in streamlining the concept to address the gaps which the existing products are unable to provide but also act as an incentive for the investors to invest. The flipside to the application of the concept test would be an indirect validation of the potential to disrupt existing markets as well as the ability to create new jobs.

The main goal of concepts tests is to determine a few aspects which are as follows

(1)   What are the first thoughts that come to prospective consumers’ minds?

(2)   What are the salient highs and lows?

(3)   To what extent is such a concept believable?

(4)   To what degree is the concept found to be unique?

(5)   How attractive do they find the concept?

(6)   What kind of price bracket comes to their mind?

(7)   Wold the be tempted to purchase the product?

Nevertheless, thinking in such a layered manner and articulating them often becomes a herculean task of cleaning the Augean Stables. To protect the Achilles Heel of consumer research concept tests may be carried out through the presentation of cinematics or narramatics which has the potential to evoke deeper, more reflexive, deeper and more emotional accounts. Albeit it may not be precise and accurate at the same time it helps in bringing the concepts which have the potential to be a sheer winner. While concept tests are employed before to identify the most suitable products or services, there’s another tool which is often used to ensure continued consumer satisfaction and retain that advantage in the market after a product has hit the shop. This is almost an insurmountable hurdle that businesses face today.

In order for businesses to overcome such challenges mystery shopping companies in India are making the most feasible solutions commercially available. When clubbed with survey questionnaires, mystery shopping simply helps businesses to be battle-hardened and identify the swiftest solutions to any unidentified scope of improvements. The needs that are addressed by the mystery shopping companies in India through the provision of mystery shopping services are primarily limited to discerning the perceived levels of satisfaction of product or services as well as the key attention hook which a product might possess while it is sitting on one of the shelves of a supermarket.

The other purposes that mystery shopping companies in India facilitate to address are to determine whether customers have received unbiased customer-service as well as to acquire intelligence from competitors’ businesses by sending mystery shoppers to their brand showrooms, among others.