Quantitative research

Product & Concept Testing in India

Test concepts, prototypes, packaging and taste before you launch.

Quick answer

Use this method when the question calls for scored reactions to the real product. Market Research India runs 100–150 per cell over 2–6 weeks, in 50 Indian cities and fourteen languages.

Proposal in 24 hours
Scoped, itemised and fixed-fee.
50 cities, 14 languages
Our own supervised field teams.
Senior-led, NDA-first
A research director on every project.

2,400+

Projects delivered

Cities with field teams

Industries covered

Indian languages

What this method settles

Commission this when one of the questions below is holding up a decision. If your question is not on the list, say so in the brief — we would rather recommend a different method than sell you this one.

Does this concept clear our action standard, or not?
Which variant wins, and is the gap statistically real?
What specifically do people dislike, and is it fixable before launch?
How does it score against the market leader on a blind test?
What volume should we plan for in year one?

How we run it

5 stages, with one research director accountable across all of them. The person who scopes the study is the person who presents the findings.

1
Set the action standard first
The pass mark is agreed before any data arrives, which is the only way a test result can genuinely stop a launch.
2
Design the cells
Monadic, sequential monadic or paired designs are chosen for the question, with rotation and blinding to remove order and brand effects.
3
Control the product
Samples are coded, temperature and portion controlled, and served in identical conditions, because serving variance reads as product variance.
4
Field and diagnose
Overall scores are collected alongside attribute diagnostics and just-about-right scales, so a low score comes with its explanation.
5
Score against norms and forecast
Results are read against category norms, then converted into a volume estimate using trial and repeat assumptions you can inspect.

At a glance

Product & Concept Testing — typical study parameters

Typical scale: 100 to 150 respondents per cell for central location tests; 150 to 300 households for home-use tests
Fieldwork window: Two to three weeks for a CLT; four to six weeks for a home-use test
Lead time: Venue booking and product logistics take ten days before the first session
Coverage: Central location tests in metro and Tier 2 venues; home-use tests nationwide
Languages: Testing in the respondent's own language, with sensory vocabulary pre-translated
Core methods: Central location tests · Home-use tests · Monadic testing · Sensory panels
Reporting: Go or no-go scores against action standards, optimisation guidance and a volume forecast
Best suited to: Deciding whether to launch, and what to fix first

What you receive

3 named deliverables, each written to be used rather than filed. Everything ships with the underlying data, so your team can keep working after the debrief.

Go/no-go scores
A clear verdict against the pre-agreed action standard, with the statistical confidence stated rather than implied.
Optimisation guidance
Attribute-level diagnostics naming what to change — sweetness, texture, fragrance, pack opening — ranked by effect on overall liking.
Volume forecasts
A year-one volume estimate built from trial and repeat rates, with the assumptions exposed for your finance team to stress.

Quality control in the field

Fieldwork in India fails quietly when nobody checks it. These controls are run on every product & concept testing study, by a quality team that reports separately from the field team.

GPS and duration stamps on every interview
Each tablet record carries a location and a length. Interviews that are too short, or clustered at one convenient address, are pulled before they reach the dataset.
Twenty per cent audio back-checks
A fifth of all interviews are re-contacted or audio-reviewed by a quality team that does not report to the field supervisor who ran them.
One supervisor to six interviewers
Supervisors accompany each interviewer at least twice a week and sit through the full interview, not the doorstep introduction.
Translation and independent back-translation
Every instrument is translated into the field language, back-translated into English by a second linguist, then piloted before launch.
Blind coding and palate reset
Products carry three-digit blind codes, rotation is randomised, and palate or sensory resets are enforced between samples.

Method choice

Product & Concept Testing, or one of these instead?

Most briefs can be answered more than one way, and the wrong instrument is the most expensive mistake in research. Here is how product & concept testing compares with the two methods buyers most often weigh against it.

	Product & Concept Testing	Pricing Research	Focus Group Discussions
Best used for	Deciding whether to launch, and what to fix first	Setting a price the market will accept	Hearing a category argued out between real users
Typical scale	100–150 per cell	300–1,200 respondents	6–12 groups
Fieldwork window	2–6 weeks	2–4 weeks	2–3 weeks
Evidence produced	Scored reactions to the real product	Modelled demand at each price point	Language, reactions and the reasoning behind them
Projects to a population
Relative cost	Mid, driven by cell count	Mid	Moderate

Where this method stops

A test tells you how the product performs against a norm. It will not tell you whether the category needs the product at all.

City coverage

Where this work is strongest

We field in all 50 cities, but these are the markets where this method has the most to offer — because of the infrastructure, the respondent base or the sectors concentrated there.

Before you brief us

Frequently asked questions

How long does a product & concept testing project take?

Two to three weeks for a CLT; four to six weeks for a home-use test. Venue booking and product logistics take ten days before the first session. Analysis and reporting add a further one to two weeks, so most studies close inside six to ten weeks from brief to debrief.

What sample size do you recommend?

100 to 150 respondents per cell for central location tests; 150 to 300 households for home-use tests. The right number is set by the smallest subgroup you need to report separately, not by a round figure, and we will say when a smaller sample would answer the question just as well.

What drives the cost of product & concept testing in India?

Incidence and audience difficulty first, then scale, the number of cities and languages, and the depth of reporting. Relative to other methods on this site, the cost profile is: mid, driven by cell count. Send a brief and you get a fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours.

When is product & concept testing the wrong choice?

A test tells you how the product performs against a norm. It will not tell you whether the category needs the product at all.

How do you control quality in the field?

Each tablet record carries a location and a length. Interviews that are too short, or clustered at one convenient address, are pulled before they reach the dataset. Beyond that, blind coding and palate reset: products carry three-digit blind codes, rotation is randomised, and palate or sensory resets are enforced between samples.

Can international teams commission this from outside India?

Yes. We report in English, run calls across US, European and Asian time zones, and handle local-language fieldwork and translation end to end.

Study at a glance

Discipline: Quantitative
Typical scale: 100–150 per cell
Field window: 2–6 weeks
Projectable: Yes
Relative cost: Mid, driven by cell count
Cities covered: 50

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Keep exploring

Everything built on this method

8 metros, 42 Tier 2 markets, 30 sectors and 15 guides, each applying product & concept testing to one specific context.

Tier 1 metros

Full-scale fieldwork, viewing facilities and senior decision-maker access.

Tier 2 markets

Each city covered from a local field base that also reaches the surrounding districts.

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By industry

The same method applied to one sector’s audiences, vocabulary and buying process.

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Guides and pricing

Cost drivers, briefing checklists and buyer guides written for this method.

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Other quantitative methods

Closest alternatives, where a different instrument may answer the question better.

Every other service

The full method set, from qualitative immersion to strategic modelling.

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Next step

Ready to scope a product & concept testing study?