Innovative New Designs and Colors

¶ … innovative new designs and colors will translate to the American market, the company must find an appropriate test group. The best group in this instance would be the early adopters. That group will be a viable gauge for the colors and designs in general. Early adopters tend to be widely dispersed, which makes face-to-face interviewing difficult. Typically, a series of telephone interviews could be conducted, but the product is being tested for a response to the visuals. An online focus group would be appropriate, especially for the colors. In is unknown, however, if the Internet is an adequate forum to test innovative designs. If the designs are primarily superficial in nature, the Internet would be an adequate forum but if the designs significantly impact functionality, then the products would need to be tested in person. However, products of this nature are often purchased before handling so it is reasonable to expect that an online focus group will be sufficient. Online focus groups allow for specific targeting of early adopters. They will tend to be the ones with sufficient interest in such everyday products that they will be on a website about them, and volunteer to offer their opinions.

2) the effectiveness of Hallmark cards is the result of the combination of words and images. This makes the use of telephone-based research inherently less valuable. In order to properly test the effectiveness of the word/image combinations, the audience must see mock-ups of the cards. The greeting card industry tends not to have early-adopters, so the research should focus on a mainstream audience.