EntranceHall test, home test. Practice
Hall test
Hall test is a special method of marketing research that involves testing individual characteristics of products.
Hall-test is a research method during which a fairly large group of people (up to 100-400 people) in a special room tests a certain product and/or its elements (packaging, advertising video, etc.) and then answers questions (fills out a form) regarding this product.
Hall test is a special method of marketing research that involves testing individual characteristics of goods (and/or advertising materials) in a closed room. The Hall test allows you to obtain unique information about consumer behavior and assess the consumer properties of a product based on various tested characteristics. http://www.md-marketing.ru/articles/html/article23386.html
When conducting a hall test, representatives of the target audience are interviewed using a pre-prepared structured questionnaire. Most often, a hall test is carried out near crowded places (for example: city markets or crowded streets), where equipped rooms for conducting research ("hall") are installed or in the office of a company engaged in conducting hall tests. In the first room, each respondent belonging to the target group, in the absence of strangers, is asked to choose the option he likes best from the proposed test items and explain the reason for his choice. Test items may include products, packaging, advertising materials, etc. In the second room, respondents are asked to fill out a special questionnaire consisting of standardized questions or answer verbally to questions asked by the interviewer, which makes it possible to determine the selection criteria, frequency and volume of consumption of brands of the product group to which the test items belong or are advertised.
The hall test method distinguishes the following types of testing:
"blind" (without product brand) and "open" testing;
evaluative (one product) and comparative (several similar products).
Hall tests are designed to solve the following problems:
studying consumer attitudes towards goods, brands, manufacturers;
searching for unoccupied niches and developing new products;
assessing the compliance of an existing product with market requirements;
to evaluate the consumer properties of a product based on various tested characteristics in order to improve them;
to obtain information about consumer behavior (selection criteria, frequency and volume of consumption of brands of the product group being studied are determined).
determination of the most significant properties of a product for the consumer when positioning it on the market
identifying areas for product improvement
testing variants of individual product properties (for example, drink recipes)
testing variants of brand names and images
testing product packaging options
selection of the most effective advertising messages in terms of impact on the consumer (slogans, advertising images, audio and video, etc.)
comparison of a product with competing products, substitute products
Advantages
The advantage of the technique is the ability to present and evaluate not only visual information, but also auditory (auditory), olfactory, tactile, gustatory, as well as their combinations.
the opportunity to obtain special information about the characteristics of respondents’ perception of the tested object, which cannot be identified by other methods
relatively low cost of using the method
the possibility of conducting research on sufficiently large samples (based on quantitative parameters)
Flaws
It is not always possible to distribute data to the entire population of consumers
limiting the size of the questionnaire and the nature of the questions asked
the complexity of organizing testing.
Hall tests are used when it is necessary, with the help of existing or potential consumers, to test a new product, its packaging or name during its development, to compare different product options with each other or with competing products, to test an advertising message during the development of an advertising campaign. A distinctive feature of the hall test is the direct contact of the respondent with the test object (for example, a taste test).
A variation of the hall test is blind-test (“blind test”). The main difference with a blind test is that respondents are not told the name of the product they are testing. This is done in order to exclude the influence of the brand on the results of the study, if this is necessary to solve testing problems. http://www.md-marketing.ru/articles/html/article23386.html
The object of research can be: individual characteristics of the product (taste, design, material, etc.), packaging, trademark (name and logo), advertising, etc.
Stages of work:
Preliminary formulation of the problem and setting tasks (conversation with the customer).
Preparation of a technical proposal for conducting a hall test.
Development of a program for conducting a hall test (determination of the target group of the study, location of the study, quantitative parameters of the study, questionnaire, etc.).
Preparation of necessary materials for testing.
Preparing the room for the hall test.
Conducting a hall test.
Processing of data obtained during the hall test.
Preparing of report.
Presentation of the report to the customer and, if necessary, discussion of the results.
Representativeness. To conduct research using this method, directed sampling is usually used, that is, existing and potential consumers who meet specified characteristics are attracted to participate in the research. This ensures qualitative representativeness of the sample, but does not allow drawing conclusions on its basis about any quantitative parameters of the general population.
Sample size. The sample size may vary depending on the objectives of the study, but usually it is at least 100-150 trials.
In case of longitudinal studies (studies conducted over several repeated stages), the number of observations per stage may be less than in one-time studies.
There are currently active discussions about which group of methods product testing belongs to. From my point of view, this is a kind of symbiosis of quantitative and qualitative methods, which is very convenient because it allows...
receive both qualitative information and some quantitative indicators. At its core, any product testing has the same assumption as other qualitative methods (for example, focus groups), that is, that the range of variations in psychological perception is significantly less than the range of variations in purchasing behavior. Thus, even with small samples, we can at least understand the characteristics of purchasing behavior.
Of course, the Hall test is faster and cheaper. Hall test allows us to control the implementation of the technique. Hall test allows the customer to observe the research process. The Hall test allows you to use a more complex technique, including testing advertising and reproducing a purchase situation. Hall tests can test large samples. Why not use such a wonderful method for all products? For many reasons.
The Home test can replace the HALL test when:
First: representatives of the target audience do not walk the streets at all, or are very rare, and their hangout places are unknown to you. Let's say disabled people who like to knit, cut with jigsaws, and so on. This is a difficult audience to reach for the Hall test.
Second: It is vital for you to maintain representativeness and you doubt that exactly those who walk along the central streets during the day make up your target audience. At the same time, you cannot use a telephone recruiter due to your budget. Here again the Home test comes to your aid.
Third. If it is necessary to compare with a product that the consumer usually uses.
Fourth. It is important to use the product in a real environment. That is, when it is necessary to obtain data from the consumer about the general impression of using the product in natural conditions. An example of how conveniently the packaging of a new product fits into a standard refrigerator for an average family.
Fifth. Hall test is used when the evaluation of a product assumes a long period of its consumption. For example, sauces, dishwashing detergents, and so on.
Sixth. The Hall test is used when using a product in public is impossible for ethical reasons (for example, personal hygiene products, toilet paper).
And finally, when you really want to combine the advantages of the Monadic test and product comparison.
Sample size.
What is the sample size in Home tests and Hall tests? This depends on many factors:
The more samples you test, the larger the sample. One of the most important indicators is that they try first. According to various estimates, there should be at least 150 - 300 such people. De facto, sampling has become widespread, where the group of the first sample of one product is 50 people.
The smaller the difference between the samples you test, the larger the number of people should be in each group so that you can pick up even the smallest differences. As a rule, the tasks of Hall tests and Home tests are not a representative representation of your audience, but rather a comparison of the attitudes of different groups towards the product. Therefore, the group is selected in such a way as to ensure comparability of results not only in percentage, but also in quantitative form. Roughly speaking, the number of men and women, the number of young and older people, should be divided approximately equally.
With Home tests, there are several visits to each person who evaluates the products - at least three. First you leave a product for testing, then you come to it, evaluate this product, leave another and at the end compare again. Thus, with each visit, the likelihood that the door will not be opened for you increases. You need to be prepared for the number of respondents to decrease with each visit. Therefore, during Home tests, the sample must be included with at least a 20% margin.
Hall tests. Location of Hall tests and the situation in Moscow.
The choice of location for Hall tests is limited by several parameters. The first is the required flow rate. It is clear that if 30-50 people a day pass along the street, then you will not be able to do the Hall test in the foreseeable future.
Second. The location of the survey also makes a big difference. It is stupid to test, for example, beer for the low-price category on the central streets. Or, near an educational institution, test cosmetics for older women.
Third. The need for room rotation. In order for your Hall test to give normal results, it cannot be performed in the same room. It is advisable to use several points and change them from time to time. Unfortunately, the situation with this in Moscow is not very good. Now the points are quite worn out. The premises on Nikolskaya, Tverskaya, Preobrazhenskaya, as well as the premises of the research organizations themselves, are constantly used by everyone. Some researchers themselves find new points, and then carefully hide them from other companies.
Fourth. Price. The premises, depending on your budget, are chosen on the outskirts or in the city center. The difference is usually twofold. If a room in the center costs about $110, then a room on the outskirts costs $50-60.
Fifth. Compliance of the premises with the methodology. It is not always enough just one room, the ability to separate different parts for conducting different parts of the interview is important, the presence of a utility room for technical work and storage of materials. If you need to conduct double recruitment, if you need to hide the testing product, then you need to have some other premises.
Sixth. Lack of distractions for the respondent. If your test is carried out in a store, then there should not be any distracting smells, sounds, and so on. If the Hall test is carried out anywhere, then your environment should be arranged in such a way that it is convenient to conduct the interview: the ideal option is when the respondent does not see or hear anyone except the interviewer. At least he has the opportunity to speak freely without hearing the opinions of others.
And finally, organizing the interview site. There must be a technical room for storing materials and samples that you are not currently working with.
Who should do the Hall test?
Not all customers know that the recruiter and the interviewer are usually different people. But combination is also practiced. The division is explained by both different functions and the fact that different skills are required. As a rule, the interviewer has more qualifications, a higher paid person, he should be able to better win over the respondent. For the recruiter, it is important to simply invite the person to the room where the interviewer will then work with him.
Provide your recruiters with badges with the company name, and even better - with contact numbers. This will help reduce the number of situations when you want to complain about disgusting recruitment, but it’s unclear to whom. In this case, the research companies themselves will be more interested in maintaining their reputation. In addition, the presence of such badges facilitates recruitment.
Bring your employees' actions to almost automaticity. Practice different conversation scenarios with recruiters. Work out with your interviewers the script and sequence of actions in the interview - where to go, how to turn, which brands to open in what order. A well-executed hall test command resembles a working conveyor belt or a modernist ballet staged by a modern choreographer.
For Home test
During the Home test, there is no one to visually control the interviewers. The most ordinary control is carried out, the same as during other apartment visits. We cannot check how he interviews the respondent, how well he asks him questions, or whether they are in the right sequence.
A huge temptation for the interviewer is the opportunity to reduce his labor costs by leaving all samples for testing at once or completing the questionnaire for the second/third test in the same way as the questionnaire for the first.
Therefore, if possible, control the number and duration of visits.
As a preventive measure, to ensure that interviewers do not carry all the samples at once, do not give them all at once; it is better to have them come again and take a second sample. Because if they leave all the samples at once, then the respondent, as a rule, does not follow the sequence of the sample and experiments with packaging and mixing. That is, you will not get good results.
Finally, a general rule for all interviewers: The interviewer must belong to the same social group as the interviewee.
Recruitment for Hall tests.
What should recruitment be like during Home tests? At this point, the customer makes most of the claims. It should be accessible and easy to implement. Don't burden the interviewer with things he won't be able to do anyway. He will not be able to determine by appearance what social class a person belongs to. Give interviewers a small number of criteria. The greater the number of criteria, the smaller the group, the more difficult it is to recruit respondents and the more often recruiters begin to lie. The standard set is gender/age/active consumption.
Give small age quotas. This is due to the uneven distribution of ages of respondents within age quotas. For example, if the age is from 25 to 30 years, then the number of 25-year-olds in the ratio of 30-year-olds is 3:1. That is, the distribution shifts towards younger ages. And so on for all age groups. Therefore, it is better to give four smaller ones instead of one quota for 26-45 years; the distribution of ages in this case will be more uniform.
And finally, strict control of recruitment. Send mysterious visitors who try to infiltrate Hall tests, give people voice recorders so that they record their recruitment process. The stronger your control, the more “clean” respondents will come to you for the Hall test.
Or give up recruiting on the streets altogether. In what cases is this possible?
This is “double” recruitment. Then, when that recruiter who works on the street brings people, focusing only on external indicators - appearance, age, gender. Moreover, his payment does not depend on how many actually passed the test. Next, a supervisor works in the room, who, in fact, selects the right people to conduct the research. If necessary, he selects based on more difficult issues - frequency of consumption of the desired product, social status, income level. In no case should a supervisor's salary depend on how many people come, but only on the time he worked. Disadvantages: the need to exceed the number of initially recruited several times, an increase in the cost of the survey and the required area by one and a half to two times. Some researchers believe that such a double recruit is incorrect in relation to respondents - first they call and then send, in addition, this is a significant increase in the cost of the survey in relation to gifts
Or telephone recruitment - this is applicable in those organizations that have a CATI system. Telephone recruitment does not increase the cost of recruitment very much, about two to three times, but it does not affect the overall cost of the study as much as is sometimes feared. Also in this case, the cost of gifts increases in order to encourage respondents to go to the location of the Hall test. Telephone recruitment allows us to ensure a very high quality of those who come to the Hall test.
Tested materials.
It is very important what to compare with. When there is a Monadic test, it is clear that you are not comparing with anything, but we don’t really like to carry out the Monadic test, and they mainly conduct comparative tests. At the same time, the task is very often: “Our company has developed three product samples - choose the best one.” Or, “our advertising agency produced four commercials, we choose which one. From my point of view, we can, of course, focus on this task, but at the same time there is a great risk that when the product enters the market and is compared with what is actually on the market, it will fail. Because we did not receive any data on comparison with what is actually on the market. Therefore, from my point of view, the list of tested materials must include at least the main competitor.
Realistically assess the capabilities of your respondent. I was told about a case where they tested 5 low-alcohol cocktails and one respondent tried all five flavors. In this case, the phenomenon of the influence of order, which Askhat spoke about, was manifested - there was simply nowhere else to go.
If products are tested for tastes and odors, then testing more than two samples is highly undesirable. The person simply stops distinguishing and perceiving. For packaging, it is permissible to test up to 3-4 samples; it is quite difficult for the respondent to perceive more.
Rotation. It would seem like a completely elementary thing, but we are faced with the fact that they forget about it. If two tastes are being compared, then it is imperative that half of the “A” samples tested should be tasted first, as well as half of the “B” samples.
Overwhelm the taste. Between samples of products, be sure to add a layer of neutral flavors. Usually this is drinking or sparkling water and white bread. They are quite neutral in taste and can somehow smooth out the impression of the product.
Number of materials tested. Be sure to stock up. I have had cases when 400 samples were tested and exactly 400 samples were brought to us by the customer. As a result, we didn’t get the sample because the respondent breaks something during the tests, tries a lot or doesn’t try it and asks to “repeat” and so on.
And finally, pay attention to the quality of the tested material and expiration dates. Expiration dates, no matter how funny it is to say, very often affect test results. I was told about a case where so-called “live yogurt” was sent from abroad, but due to difficulties at customs, the yogurt sat at the border for 1.5 months. And this had to be tested! You can easily imagine the result.
Comparability.
When testing materials, it is very important to ensure their comparability. The packaging must be unmarked. Must be marked with numbers and not contain any indication of the manufacturer, name, etc. As an example, I brought dishwashing detergent and cigarettes. True, the inscription that “smoking is dangerous to health” is still preserved. To carry out the test, either small, anonymous packages are prepared in advance, or a batch is purchased from a local retail chain and the labels are peeled off/disguised - in this case, the shape of the package itself is also important. Even if you have sealed the name of the product, it is not at all a fact that the consumer will not recognize it by its packaging. In my practice, there was a case when it was necessary to test toothpaste; the customer bought the toothpaste of the main competitor, squeezed it out of the tube and packaged it in unmarked packaging.
All tested products in each group must be manufactured in the same plant and be from the same production batch. Samples from different batches can significantly affect the test results, since we do not yet have stable quality for many products.
A certain, identical temperature and consistency at the time of comparison is also a very important thing. The Hall test room is not always equipped with a refrigerator. Even in 95% of cases they are not equipped. Typically, the product is cooled in the refrigerators of the research organization, and during the test it is placed in basins of water to ensure that the temperature remains at the desired temperature.
And finally, if you test packaging, it must be of the same quality as packaging on the market. That is, imagine if you are making an imitation purchase and in front of you is a shelf on which there is black and white packaging or packaging that does not have standard parameters. Our consumer, by the way, likes to touch and twirl everything in his hands before making a choice. Try to make the packaging as similar as possible to those on the market. Only in this case can testing the purchase have real results.
And finally, the technical support for Hall tests. These are screens and bedspreads that allow you to split the room into zones and hide from the attention of consumers those products being tested that do not yet need to be seen. Disposable utensils, in quantities 20% greater than those needed for the test. The tested product must be individually packaged. If the customer delivers you packaging designed for large consumption, then you will have to transfer the product into individual packaging before the test. The consumer reacts very badly when they try to give him a spoon to try from a dish from which 50 people have already tried before him.
Price.
Finally, the question that interests the customer most is cost. Let's see what components are included in the cost of tests.
Room rental - from 50 to 110 dollars, depending on location.
Gifts are not very expensive, from 3 to 10 dollars. Usually this is something that the customer produces himself. At the same time, we all understand that donating the customer’s products is, to a certain extent, a violation of the ESOMAR convention, but, nevertheless, both the customer and the researcher are happy to do it.
Paying interviewers, recruiters and technical assistants. The calculation here is simple, that is, a person who works on Hall tests should earn from 20 to 30 dollars a day. Payment for supervisor and observer - from 20 dollars and above.
Thus, on average, the cost of a hall test. for the customer from 10 to 20 dollars, depending on the complexity of recruitment and the size of the questionnaire. The range of opinions on the cost of Hall tests varies from the emotional “a good Hall test cannot cost less than 15” to the skeptical “For 10 we will interview even a kangaroo in Australia.”
For the Home test, this cost for the customer is from 12 to 25 dollars.
I would like to immediately note that most of the statements given here relate to FMCG. These are the most frequently tested products. For B2B things are completely different, completely different laws apply there.
How quickly can you get results?
Hall test and Home test - a single deadline for preparing questionnaires and processing results. The Hall test field can be quite short. Sometimes 2-3 days is enough. There are cases when recruitment is easy and the questionnaire is small, then it’s not difficult to interview 400 people a day. But, as a rule, the average rate is about 100 people per day. But such a good flow happens in the first days, until easy quotas are chosen. After which the remaining 50 unfortunate people have to wait another three days. For Home tests, the time frame for the field itself is very long. The more visits, the longer the Home test. In addition, it is necessary to give the respondent the opportunity to use this product and evaluate it. Therefore, the minimum period for the Home test is about 3 weeks.
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Description of the polling method with central location (hall test) The ability to pose reasonable questions is already an important and necessary sign of intelligence and insight. I. Kant
During hall testing, respondents for testing the test subject is provided, and then asked to fill out a special questionnaire consisting of standardized questions, or answer the interviewer’s questions orally. The Hall test method is an integral part of the field of product research.
An example of a study performed using the hall test method
Testing detergent fragrances
Testing of fragrances_Y_G_B_2010.ppt
Possibilities of the hall test method
A variation of the hall test is the “blind test”. The main difference between a “blink test” is that respondents are not told the name of the product they are testing. This is done in order to exclude the influence of the brand image on the research results, if this is necessary to solve testing problems.
Advantages of the hall test method
Main advantages: the ability to conduct fairly long interviews (up to 45 minutes), the ability to actively use visual materials (samples of competing products, cards, posters, product packaging, the product itself), monitoring the work of interviewers,low price for research using the Hall test method, the ability to quantify qualitative indicators, excellent results in combination with the focus group method.
Other benefits:
- the ability to present and evaluate not only visual information, but also auditory (hearing), olfactory, tactile, gustatory, as well as their combinations
Benefits of CAWI:
- demonstration of non-existent test packages without the need to create them (3D modeling)
- centralized data collection (simultaneous testing is possible in several places/cities with simultaneous data collection on one server)
- paperless technology
- improving the quality of interviewers' work
- collection and analysis of information in real time
Limitations of the hall test method
The main disadvantages of the hall test method: the possibility of recruiting respondents depends on the location of the room in which the survey is conducted and the difficulty of recruiting certain categories of respondents (motorists, actively working, children, etc.).Other restrictions.
- Hall tests are rarely used to study difficult-to-reach/narrow target groups. In this case, careful pre-recruitment is necessary.
- When testing a product, it is not always possible to create a testing situation that is close to the real conditions of consumption of the product - from opening the packaging and storing the product at home, to the actual conditions of its use. However, product selection situations / simulation of a purchase situation can be reproduced in a hall test as realistically as possible.
- The hall test is not recommended for testing personal care items.
The main types of the hall test method
- "open" testing
- "blind" testing (blink test);
- evaluation testing (one product or sample)
- comparative testing (several variants of competing products or samples of the product being tested)
Geography of hall tests
Moscow and Moscow Region- by our own qualified specialists.
Other cities of the Russian Federation and CIS countries- with the help of regional partners with whom our company has been cooperating for more than 10 years. At the same time, you can be absolutely sure that the data will be collected, processed and presented according to uniform standards, regardless of the region of the study. The customer can be provided with an audio-visual presence in almost all cities of the study via the Internet.