Abstract:

Estimating sales volume potential for new innovative products is generally quite difficult. Traditional comparative measurement methods of presenting to potential consumers some competitive products along with the new unique product is obviously not appropriate. This means that share measurement for new innovative products is either inadequate or often impossible since one cannot answer the "share of what?" question properly. Even for products not totally innovative but which have the potential of expanding the category volume significantly, the usefulness of a share method is still questionable. Thus, prior to test market, the only reasonable way to evaluate a new innovation is to test it monadically with all potential consumers and obtain their purchase interest. In the following sections, a description of the test methodology and explanation of the estimating procedure to gauge sales volume potential of new innovative products with case examples will be presented.