How Fasteners Brands Can Use Concept Testing Research to Increase Market Share

For fasteners brands in the building and construction industry, launching a new or updated product can be a risk.

Competition in this category has increased over the last decade. What was once a commodity is now seeing branding, premium products, and more specialized applications. You now have increasing challenges to make investments that will pay off by means of capturing greater market share by creating differentiation in a crowded and complex space.

Under such pressure, you can't rely on internal assumptions about customer wants, or simply launch a product that your internal team feels is an engineering feat. Such try-and-see execution can have costly ramifications if you miss the mark.

That’s where concept testing becomes relevant. This type of market research gives you an opportunity to test your assumptions during the early and mid-stages of product development and gather feedback from your target audience before you're too far down your development process.

What is Concept Testing Research?

Concept testing is a research method generally used in the early and middle stages of product development to gauge the viability of a specific concept with your target audience. This can be done through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. As an open-learning process, it enables your team to test ideas that have been somewhat developed but need feedback based refinement. From your concept testing research, you will be able to optimize different products - from nails and screws to nuts and bolts - before investing full product launches.

The process of concept testing involves capturing feedback from product users about applications, features, use cases, needed improvements, and likelihood to purchase. This can help your product development team distill ideas, prioritize which features to add, make adjustments to the original concept, and/or choose whether to fully develop a product. Most importantly, it will give you data-based guidance on whether or not you should continue to next product development stage gate, or cancel your project to make way for more successful concepts.

Early stage gate concept testing is often qualitative. It may be in-person focus groups, one-on-one conversation, or perhaps IHUT (In-Home Usage Test). The results of early stage gate research yields refinement and direction that leads to a reduced number of concepts and likely a focus on feature enhancements. The goal now becomes picking a winner from this limited set of product concepts. There are four common quantitative concept testing methods used during middle stage gate concept checks, which benefit fastener brands:

Monadic testing (Single concept evaluation)
Sequential monadic testing (Multiple concept evaluation)
Comparison testing
Proto-monadic testing
Price elasticity (conjoint)

Choosing which method to use can depend on several factors, such as the complexity of your product or how many ideas you want to evaluate at one time. These factors will also aid in creating meaningful concept testing survey questions.

In general, you’re trying to gather information about your customer’s overall reaction to the concept, there needs for the concept, as well as their purchase consideration; how they might use the product; any weaknesses or unappealing aspects; how the concept compares and would likely perform on the market relative to its target competition; and how it fits within your product mix.

Another component that you’re evaluating through a concept test is the customer’s likelihood of using the conceptualized product as is—and if that likelihood would increase if you made certain adjustments or added different features. You can dig deeper into how it would act as an addition or replacement to what they’re already purchasing, how they’re using competing products, and their preferred method of purchase.

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Examples of Concept Testing Research Reporting

While concept testing is primarily utilized during the product development stage, the data and insights you gather should also be used by marketing, channel, and sales teams to inform your messaging and placement strategy when launching a new or updated product. From this research, you’ll have a better understanding of what your target customer is looking for, which features to highlight, and what price to move forward with in order to appeal to them.

Applying Concept Testing Research to the Fasteners Market

Concept development and testing is used across a variety of industries, and it can be a significantly cost-effective and flexible market research solution for building materials brands.

According to Market Research Future, the construction fasteners market has a projected annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6%, the value increasing from $31.4 billion in 2025 to $42.17 million by 2034. Some of the key players in the U.S. market include Stanley Black and Decker, the parent company of Stanley Bostitch; Simpson Manufacturing Co.; Illinois Tool Works; Fastenal; Fixdex Fastening Technology; and Misumi Corporation.

While branding has been occurring in the fastener market, it is still often viewed as a low-price, commodity category, with fragmentation among national brands, store brands, and imports. Not only do manufacturers have to deal with price pressure, they also have to focus much effort on educating pros and homeowners around the correct application of their fasteners to ensure their fasteners are not substituted simply for a cheaper alternative. There is opportunity within the fasteners market to capture a greater share, but manufacturers have to be intentional and strategic when developing products to maintain loyalty among existing customers, draw interest from prospective customers, and outplay competitors. Concept testing can help you achieve these goals.

For fasteners and hardware manufacturers, concept testing helps you answer a few primary questions, such as:

What are the current pain points professionals and DIYers are experiencing with their fasteners and how are contractors and DIYers solving their pain points and problem today?
What problems does the concept solve, and is that problem significant enough to professionals and DIYers to adopt the new concept?
Which concept features for specific fasteners do professionals and DIYers prefer, and which features would they improve and why?What problems may the concept introduce that need to be solved for?
Do professionals and DIYers prefer your new concept compared to other options on the market and why?
What type of education and messaging will be needed to gain traction with professionals and DIYers?
How willing would contractors and DIYers be to purchase this new concept over alternatives and why?
Do contractors and DIYers see extra value in the new concept and its features to spend a premium?
Which concept is most/least preferred by various audience types and why?

By analyzing responses for your target customer, your team can identify the key purchase drivers of fasteners and hardware products among professionals and DIYers and gain insight into which fastener concepts have the highest likelihood of success.

According to our Fasteners & Hardware report, quality is by and large the top driver for choosing fasteners among professionals, with 78% citing it as a driver compared to only 49% for the second-most important driver. With "Quality" having different meanings for different applications, it is important to understand what "quality" means to different contractor audiences and DIYers. We also found that about two-thirds of professionals are also frequently or always using fasteners for a specific application, which means that even small details and unique features matter.

Applying Concept Testing as a Fasteners Manufacturer

Concept testing can help your manufacturing launch product successfully among your target market segments and ideal customer base. Our expert researchers at The Farnsworth Group will work with you to conduct market research, such as concept testing, and uncover valuable findings to quantify professional and DIYer interest in new concepts for fasteners. Ultimately, we are here to help equip you with insights you need to make an informed decision about the product development investments being considered.

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