Concept Testing Study. Find out if your concept has what it takes before you build it.
Appeal, uniqueness, purchase intent, and price expectations — measured with real consumers from your target market. Screener and attention check included. From $0.73/response.
A concept test puts your idea in front of real consumers — before you've built anything, spent money on it, or committed to a direction — and asks them to evaluate it directly.
Four things it tells you:
Appeal
Does the concept interest your target consumer? Not "is it a good idea in the abstract" — does the specific person you'd sell it to want it? Appeal measures the initial hook.
Uniqueness
Does the concept feel different from what's already available? Consumers who find a concept compelling but not unique are telling you the market is already covered. That's useful before you enter it.
Purchase intent
If this product were available today at a realistic price, how likely would your target consumer be to buy it? Purchase intent is the closest proxy for real demand that concept research produces.
Price expectations
What price does the target consumer expect this type of product to carry? This gives you an early read on pricing before you run a full Van Westendorp study.
How it works
Set your audience.
Target the specific consumer profile your concept is built for — the right category, demographics, and purchase behavior. Concept testing with the wrong audience produces misleading results. If your concept is for frequent category buyers, screen for that.
Launch the study.
Use the Concept Testing template — built with the four core concept evaluation metrics, a screener to qualify respondents, and an attention check. Present your concept as a brief description: product name, what it does, and the core benefit. Under 2 minutes from template to live.
Collect responses.
The panel delivers results from 30M+ verified respondents. 150–300 respondents per concept gives you reliable data. If you're testing multiple concepts, use a monadic design — each respondent evaluates one concept only. Cost confirmed before you launch.
Read your results.
Per-question analytics break down appeal, uniqueness, purchase intent, and price expectations by response distribution. If you're testing multiple concepts, compare scores side by side in the exported data.
Why monadic design matters: showing respondents two concepts in the same survey creates comparison effects — they'll rate the second concept relative to the first, not on its own merits. In professional concept research, each respondent sees one concept. You split your sample between concepts and compare results in analysis, not in the survey itself.
A standard concept test with 200 respondents per concept runs approximately $150–$200 in panel costs. Testing two concepts? Budget $300–$400. Run each as a separate study with different respondents.
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Common questions
What is concept testing in market research?
Concept testing is a quantitative research method that measures consumer reaction to a new product idea — before the product is built. You present a concept description (what the product is, what it does, what the core benefit is) to a sample of your target consumers and measure appeal, uniqueness, and purchase intent. It's the standard research method for filtering which product ideas are worth developing and for diagnosing which elements of a concept need work.
How many respondents do I need for a concept test?
150–200 respondents per concept is sufficient for reliable results. If you're comparing two concepts head-to-head, you need 150–200 per concept — 300–400 respondents total, split between the two studies. More respondents give you tighter confidence intervals and more reliable subgroup analysis (e.g., appeal by age or gender), but the marginal return above 300 is small for most concept tests. Use our sample size calculator → to dial in the exact number.
What's the difference between monadic and sequential concept testing?
In monadic testing, each respondent evaluates one concept only. In sequential testing, each respondent evaluates multiple concepts in sequence. Sequential testing is faster and cheaper (fewer respondents) but introduces comparison effects — respondents rate each concept relative to what they just saw, not on its own merits. Monadic testing produces cleaner, more realistic data because each respondent comes to the concept fresh. The SegmentOS Concept Testing template is designed for monadic testing — one concept per study, independent respondents per concept.
What counts as a good concept test score?
Purchase intent is the most-watched metric, and the standard benchmark is the "top-2-box" score — the percentage of respondents who select "probably would buy" or "definitely would buy." A top-2-box of 30%+ is generally considered strong for a B2C consumer product in a competitive category. 20–30% is moderate — the concept has potential but needs work. Below 20% is a signal to rethink before investing. These benchmarks vary by category, so compare against your own historical tests when possible.
Can I test a concept that doesn't exist yet?
Yes — that's the point. You present a written description of the concept: what the product is, what it does, the core benefit or differentiator. It doesn't need to be a working prototype or even a mockup. A clear, specific one-paragraph description is sufficient for respondents to evaluate. The clearer and more concrete your concept description, the more reliable the scores.
What should I do if appeal is high but purchase intent is low?
This is the most common and instructive concept testing result. High appeal, low purchase intent usually means one of three things: the price expectation is higher than your target price (run a Van Westendorp study to find the acceptable range), the concept is compelling but the respondent doesn't personally need it (check your audience targeting), or there's a specific objection — check your open feedback question for patterns. Don't dismiss a high-appeal concept over low purchase intent without diagnosing the cause first.