Concept Testing: Does Menu Pricing Matter?

Whether to include the price in early stage concept testing is an important question. Some people argue that price needs to be presented, so that people can make an informed decision. Others say that price can’t accurately be known at the time of early stage concept testing, and that putting a “fake” price on the concept could result in misleading feedback. To find out what the effect might be, we ran a test, using concepts for potential menu items for a globally prominent quick service restaurant (QSR).

One arm of the test saw descriptions of potential mains, with a price. The other arm saw them without a price, but they were told “assuming the price is reasonable to you.” Ten concepts were tested, with seven measures, including purchase intent. A 95 percent confidence interval was used to test for differences.

A Mixed BagThere were very few differences between the priced and unpriced arms. And the variations that exist do not tell a clear story. Out of 70 comparisons…