In-Store Placement of Use Tests

In all my years of conducting use tests and doing in-store research, I never thought of utilizing the store environment for obtaining use test participants.  It never occurred to me to conduct conventional use test placements in the store rather than through the mail, in CLTs or Malls.  It wasn't until I started to observe the way Sorensen Associates was utilizing store shoppers.  They were conducting research in the stores in the same way I was using the shoppers, but they were going one step further.  They were recruiting and placing the test product directly into the hands of the shoppers for testing and they were doing it with blind test samples.

I must confess that I had never given this approach to testing a thought.  Why, I don't know.  Maybe it was that use test placement was not a problem for me and therefore I never considered looking for another resource for participants.  I must admit, I should have.

In the fifties and sixties, sample representivity was not a problem.  In the seventies, we first started to see a shifting away from participation in our testing.  This was primarily in the Mail Panel and Mall research.  In the eighties, all testing protocols were suffering from a lack of participation.  All that is, except in the in-store research.  We were still getting 90+% participation.  Why didn't I see the opportunity at that time for increasing the quality of our sample through in-store recruiting?  Actually, I don't know, but I think I had bigger fish to fry at the time.  In the eighties, especially the late eighties, we were involved in making decisions that had a profound impact on the future quality of consumer research and the quality of our population samples were not a major concern.

Think about it.  The supermarket is a great place to find eligible and cooperative panelists.  What better place is there to learn and understand about the shopping habits of the consumer?  If you want to know what people buy and why, what better place than the supermarket?  If you are evaluating the appearance or communication properties of a package, what better place is there to do the testing?  Why wouldn't you do pricing evaluation in an environment that includes the competition and their respective prices?  The advantages of in-store research go on and on.

A Thought for the Day:  If you only look at the mountain from one position, that is the only path you will know to get to the top.  If you will first walk around the mountain, you will find many paths to the top, some easier than others.  I guess Dr. Herb Sorensen and I were standing on different sides of the Use Testing Mountain.