Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Consumer Product Testing - Words from the Distant Past

The following is a paper written in September of 1953.  It was written by my mentor, Mr. Chuck Krause.  I just found this buried in a file of papers labeled, "Important Research Concepts."  The paper was important in 1953 and I believe that it is important today.  What do you think?

CONSUMER PRODUCT TESTING

Consumer Product Testing is a procedure designed to augment and to be used in conjunction with laboratory product testing.  Usually, in a time sequence, it follows laboratory testing and is used, at least in part, to confirm evidence uncovered in the laboratory.  Laboratory testing alone cannot be depended upon to determine whether or not a product is meeting its objective because, of necessity, such tests are tightly controlled and cannot always represent the complete range of real life consumer methods and problems.  It is possible, for example, for a consumer product test to reveal a facet of product performance which was not uncovered in laboratory tests.

Consumer product tests are appraisals of products used in the home under normal usage conditions.  These appraisals help fill an information gap between laboratory evidence and marketplace reaction.  Most often these tests are run "blind" and therefore give us results uninfluenced by brand name, product package, or marketing strategy.  Consumer product tests alone, though, do not provide the final answer.  The variation in usage conditions from consumer to consumer and, even for a single consumer from one usage to the next, can sometimes obscure real and actual differences which show up in the laboratory.

Essentially, regardless of the particular type of a product test used or the test design utilized, all product tests are alike in that they attempt to determine consumer reaction.  This is in marked contrast to the goal of laboratory testing which attempts to establish actual and demonstrable product performance characteristics, and it is important that users of consumer tests recognize this key distinction.  We may want to determine if consumers simply like or dislike the product, whether they prefer a test product to one or more established products, whether they are able to recognize a difference between products in certain respects, or whether a market appears to exist for a significant departure from existing products.  Because of this variety of purposes, and because of the multitude of variables present in the marketplace and between products, there is no one single consumer product test which fits all situations.  A wide range of product testing techniques must be employed.



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