26 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Other forms of comparative testing such as taste tests, and sniff tests for perfumes, are permissible where only one variable is involved and may well prove useful in sorting out products for further consumer testing from a range of possibilities. Tests of this type are often cheap and simple to administer, but as in all consumer testing, the objectives must be clear, the sample adequately defined and the results carefully interpreted. Such tests, however, fail to satisfy one of the most important criteria for product testing - that the products under test should be used in as normal a situ- ation as possible, and the findings should therefore be interpreted with the particular test situation in mind. The whole area of product testing in which sensory perception is involved is one in which a great deal still needs to be done to improve existing techniques. The weaknesses in present methods stem mainly from the inability of many people to communicate their impressions to the inter- viewers. This inability is not helped by our inadequate vocabulary. Even experts would find it very difficult if not impossible to describe a perfume in such a way as to conjure it up in another expert's mind with any degree of precision. Commonly, whatever the difference between two test tooth- pastes for example, most reasons for preferring one or the other are con- cerned with taste similarly in the case of soft drinks most comments concern flavour or sweetness, even if the difference is one of carbonation. Perhaps the solution to this problem lies in the area of non-verbal responses. Much experimental work has already been done using psycho- galvanometers to measure the degree of perspiration on the skin which, it is said, varies involuntarily depending on outside stimuli. Measurement of pupil dilation is another technique currently being advocated. At the present time the latter appears to be better able to measure reactions to visual and aural stimuli, but work on reactions to touch and smell is in hand. Both these techniques must be regarded as experimental but usable measures may well be developed from them in the reasonably near future. I have referred earlier to postal tests. In my experience, covering some dozens of tests involving a wide variety of toiletry products and where the test was later repeated using personal interviewers, in only one case has the preference differed for the two techniques. As an interesting aside perhaps I ought also to state that in a large number of personal interview double placement blind tests, on only very rare instances has the preference established in the first fifty completed interviews differed in direction from the final result, despite the often seriously unrepresentative nature of the first fifty interviews in terms of sex, age, product usage etc.

PRODUCT TESTING IN THE SPHERE OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 27 DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS Let us now turn to the problem of finding and developing new products, whether they be real innovations or radical changes in existing products of such a nature as to render them 'new' to users. Products of this kind can originate from one of two sources: (1) Knowledge of the market. (2) Product research. In the first of these alternatives, the 'idea' may be the outcome of a scrutiny of the basic data about the market to locate gaps to be filled, or it may be based on nothing more than 'hunch'. In either case the 'idea' usually emanates from the marketing management more rarely from the advertising agency. In the second alternative the new product may be the result of a conscious attempt on the part of the product research staff to formulate a particular kind of product it may also be a 'lucky find', the outcome of research in an entirely different field. Whilst I would not wish to belittle either of these alternatives, I feel the former offers the greater chance of success. Having said that I must also say that there is considerable scope for improvement in the consumer research techniques which have been used by most companies in the past. Irrespective of the origin of a new product idea, it seems to me to be of the utmost importance that the acceptability of the idea (and of the product eventually developed from it) should be tested among customers. The means by which these aims may be achieved are by no means rigid or even generally accepted, though they should normally follow each of the three phases from initial conception to test market launch listed below. At each stage I think it important that marketing, product research, advertising, pro- duction and consumer research should be represented at the meetings which will be necessary to discuss each successive step in the development plan. By securing the agreement of all these interests at each stage, a much smoother passage, and enhanced chances of success, should ensure. Phase I - Concept testing Preparation of verbal product descriptions The 'idea' embodied in a description will usually be based on the detailed knowledge of the market to which I have referred earlier. The actual wording of the description requires great care and pilot checks among