I am a huge fan of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain Tesco’s.
Now, I know that it’s probably very unfashionable of me, but I have nothing but admiration for the company and it’s boss Terry Leahy. It’s a giant, accounting for over 30% of all spending in supermarkets in the UK.
And it’s achieved all this the old fashioned way by being very good at what it does and providing customers with great value.
And there’s something else that it does as detailed in this article that I came across in today’s UK “Daily Telegraph” – “Tesco’s Hidden Test Centre Reveals A Taste Of What’s In Store For Shoppers”.
The company has a rigorous process that it uses to test all products before they are allowed in the stores. Interestingly, the testing panel is made up of ordinary people who make up a pretty representative sample of the company’s customers.
So, if testing products in advance makes sense for a succesful company like Tesco, it might well be worth thinking about doing yourself. The harsh facts are that most new products fail. You can weight the odds in your favour by firstly doing your market research properly.
But once you’ve done that, why not take it a step further and see what your intended customers think?