Innovation and Product Development

Norstat specialises in high-quality data collection for customer experience. Our quantitative and qualitative research methods ensure reliable data gathering about any desired topic or target group, allowing you to get valuable opinions on new products, services and features.

Why is product development research important?

“Innovation is not something that just happens, it requires a plan and a process.”

Jason Fried, Co-Founer of Basecamp

Most product innovations fail, but if it’s too costly to fail, then data collection from Norstat can give your innovation pipeline the best chance of success. Whether it is through online surveys via our consumer panel, or recruitment of focus groups, workshops and co-creation, we have the resources available to refine and test your ideas and concepts.

Data to support innovation

Norstat’s data collection services can support research aimed at understanding the innovation and product development lifecycle, such as:

• Understanding the role of a product within a sector
• Identifying the key drivers of a product e.g. taste, convenience, healthy
• Brand perceptions
• Understanding key needs and wants for a product
• Exploring the appeal of new products, concepts and packaging ideas (including blind taste testing)

Using our online panel for product testing

The Norstat panel has over 4 million respondents across 19 European countries, making it easy to survey people in your target market. Using profiling and screener questions, we can reach people based on characteristics such as:

• Demographics: Age, gender, income, education, location
• Media consumption: Usage and time spent on various media
• Brand and product usage: Users vs. non-users
• Purchase intent: Likelihood to buy
• Behavioural segmentation: Lifestyle, interests, purchasing, attitudes, values

Norstat Express for rapid concept evaluation

Norstat Express is our self-serve survey tool that provides immediate access to our consumer panels, perfect for rapid testing of product concepts, designs and new ideas. It can provide answers within hours, making it easier to test and get feedback early and often. Simply choose your target audience, create your survey with content to test, then launch – you can export the results into Excel, PowerPoint or Norstat Dashboards.

Focus groups for NPD insights

Focus groups can add another dimension to innovation and product development research. Their exploratory nature provides an ideal platform to gather insights in a dynamic setting, helping to shape the direction of new product ideas.

Examples of discussion guide content could include:

• Background/purchase history regarding a product
• Use of a certain product type – how do they use the product?
• Blue sky thinking – how would they want to see the product in the future; needs, desires, what don’t they want?
• Concepts/designs – likes, dislikes, improvements, opportunities
• Designing the perfect product and why

Norstat can assist with recruitment for your focus groups. To understand and compare the reactions of consumers living in different regions, we can recruit groups across a variety of locations.

High-quality data for product testing

The accuracy, reliability, and relevance of data define its quality in market research. For us, a leading data collector for high-quality market research and insight in Europe, everything relies on the representativeness, truthfulness, and capacity of our panels. We apply screeners to match target demographics, consistent survey administration to avoid bias, and rigorous data validation processes to maintain integrity. Our clients back up our claims for panel quality, scoring us:

• 5.1/6 for panel quality
• 5.3/6 on the ability to deliver
• 5.3/6 on client satisfaction
• 49 net promoter score

 Read more about our extensive data quality practices here.

Data delivery tailored for product testing

Like all aspects of our product development solution, deliverables are entirely tailored to your needs. Basic outputs include raw data or data tables, but clients can also opt for bespoke automated reporting solutions, such as Norstat Dashboards.