This whitepaper assesses the current state of the concept testing industry and proposes two paths for forward progress.

First, we detail the evolution of concept testing and the changing roles it has filled in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) innovation space over the past five decades. We then describe the industry today, which represents a pervasive global best practice with outsized organizational importance. Next, we dive deep into the current state of the industry, ex-plaining both the significant drivers of continued usage and the emerging broad frustrations among users and buyers.

We propose two options for addressing the shortcomings of concept testing. We model in specific detail two future worlds that would much better meet the needs of today’s innova-tors. In the first, the “fix it” approach, we conceptualize what the tools and products would look like if the industry evolved to a highly-performant, mature state. We then turn to disruption. The “replace it” option envisions a clean-slate innovation qualification system that solves the root problems that plague how players in the CPG world innovate. We believe that each option is viable and that both may be desirable or even necessary in order to bring about the complete revolution that is, we believe, urgently needed.