Focus groups may be organised to collect in-depth information on the target market, product, price, buying place, promotion, preference, preference over competitive products and long term buying predictions.

Retail audits can be bought from commercial companies who regularly monitor sales of products in retail outlets, or more likely today, from the summarised information of supermarket electronic data. This information not only gives the market shares of the competing products, but continuous sales records, which can be a basis for sales forecasting. The sales of competing products need to be backed by information on the qualities of the different competing products, from either technical comparison or consumer comparison of the products, as well as on the competing companies and their methods of marketing.

For industrial products, there is a need for industry studies to discover the different customers in the market and their characteristics - size, method of processing, company organisation, economic status, and present use of raw materials.

There is also a need to study the whole market channel and the physical distribution system. In consumer food marketing, the retailers have a strong control on the introduction of new products, so there is a need to study the competing products on their shelves and how they promote them, their attitudes to new products, and the effects on their new product behaviour of the prices, discounts, and promotional financing by the manufacturers. One also needs to investigate any retailers' charges to obtain shelf space for new products.

The place of the new product on the company's and the market's product life cycle is determined to ensure that a suitable marketing strategy is selected. Internally, the place of the new product in the company's product mix and product line is studied to see how the new product will affect the complete product mix and also individual products.

Think Break 5.8 Building the marketing: a new starch product A medium sized starch company has developed a new starch product which gives a clear solution with a high viscosity and a bland taste, which can be used in soups, sauces and gravies, puddings and desserts, meat and fruit pies. Discuss the types of industrial market segments that you could use for this product and how you would conduct a market survey to determine its target market segment and the position of the product as compared with other starch products.

5.8.2 Large consumer test

Large-scale product testing of the final prototype product is undertaken by consumers, or in industrial marketing by one or two large customers in their plants or by a number of food service outlets. To obtain results for the major decision to go into commercialisation, it is usually preferable to have a statistical sample of the target market so that the accuracy of the buying prediction is known. However, the sample size is often limited by practical considerations such as the amount of money available, the time to do the test and the amount of product available.

The questions to be answered in the large-scale test include:

      Which consumers like/dislike the product?
      Do they prefer it to competing products?
      What product characteristics need improvement?
      Does the product or the packaging need to be redesigned?
      Will they buy the product at the given price?
      In what price range will they buy the product?
      How much will they buy, and how often will they buy at the different prices in the price range?

The consumer products are tested in a central location such as a shopping mall or in the home.

In the central location test, a stall or a caravan is set up in a central position such as a shopping mall and people passing are asked to taste the product and give their comments on a self-administered form or in an interview. This does not give a random sample of the population but it is quicker and cheaper than the in-home test.

In an in-home test, the consumers are given a sample of the product, either unidentified or with the full branded pack, and asked to prepare and eat it in their household. The consumer or all the members of the household can be asked to comment on the product. A problem is the timing of the test which can influence a food product. It is preferable to do the consumer test at a time of year when the product would be expected to sell but this may not be possible. If done at a low acceptance time, this must be taken into account when analysing the results.

Industrial product testing with small processors and food service outlets is very similar to the organisation of the in-home test. Sufficient product is given to the processor to try the product in their process, and to the food service chef to develop a dish to put on their menu. A restaurant may test this dish by putting it onto the blackboard menu and watching their customers' reactions to the dish. The processors and the food service outlets are usually interviewed after the test to find how the product has been used, the problems and successes with the product, the intention to buy, the acceptable prices and predicted quantities to be bought. With larger processors, pilot plant or small production trials are organised either jointly by the supplier and the buyer or often by the buying company because of secrecy.

Products for overseas countries should be tested in that country, and international companies either have their own testing facilities in those countries or contract local market research companies to conduct the research. International product testing uses the same techniques but presents problems. First there is the problem of language - the questionnaires have to be in the language of the consumers and there may be problems in translation not only into a particular language but even into a particular dialect. Definitions of products and product characteristics may be substantially different. Scaling methods may also have to be changed. For example the 9-point hedonic scale from 'like extremely' to 'dislike extremely' may not be acceptable in a culture where expressing negative opinions is socially unacceptable, so the dislike terms have to be removed.

Think Break 5.9 Building the marketing: in-home testing of a baking mix and a dairy cream Outline how you would organise an in-home test for:       baking mix for making muffins;       dairy cream in an aerosol can. Decide on the questions that you want answered, how you would present the products and the packs, the target consumers, the distribution of the samples and the questionnaires. How would you use the results?