Play Market Research, a Sydney-based market research agency, has today announced the launch of the new Pop Up Shopper Community, which it says is Australia’s first syndicated product testing platform for FMCG companies.
Play says the Pop Up Shopper Community promises a rethink of centralised product testing, offering faster, more cost-effective, and more accurate insights aimed at driving innovation within the FMCG sector.
Chris Thomas, founder at Play Market Research, said the Pop Up Shopper Community has now commenced testing its first 20 products, with the eventual goal of ranking and benchmarking every product in the supermarket against one another and providing this information to clients.
“Six months ago, we recruited thousands of shoppers to create a new, automated and systematic program of product testing. Rather than pay respondents to attend a centralised location and complete long and arduous surveys, the Pop Up Shopper Community focuses on In Home User Testing (IHUT) – making completing surveys faster, more convenient, and more fun overall for everyone involved,” said Thomas.
Each month, participants are sent a monthly hamper filled with ten products from categories they are proven to buy from already. Whereas cash is the primary motivation in most sensory research, the Pop Up Shopper Community is instead motivated by receiving a large range of free products that are relevant to them and their tastes.
Each hamper includes a link to ten short online surveys, allowing respondents to test the products when and where they would normally consume such products.
“This not only raises the quality of the data, but significantly lowers costs to undertake research from the outset. Our short questionnaire is both comprehensive and standardised, giving FMCG companies a very clear indication of how their products are situated within a category.
“The net result is that the Pop Up Shopper Community will give our clients a new tool to accurately gauge new or existing products against competing products, and determine improvements, more quickly and more cost effectively than ever before,” said Thomas.
Thomas says that Play Market Research’s success to date has been built on a philosophy of challenging the accepted methodologies of the Australian market research industry.
“Since founding Play Market Research in 2013, we have grown to become a trusted supplier to some of the biggest names in the industry. Our focus has always been on removing the pain points typically associated with ‘traditional’ product testing, and in doing so, deliver better results and better storytelling,” explains Thomas.
“The launch of the Pop Up Shopper Community is our latest innovation, offering a radical new approach that has benefits for both our FMCG clients and our thousands strong community of respondents.”
The results of the first 20 product reviews will be released in October.
