In Innovation, Being Unique is Sometimes More Important Than Being Liked

It puzzles me why, while many smart companies pre-test their new product offerings in consumer testing, so many base their go/no-go decisions solely on claimed consumer purchase intent. Emphasizing the top-two box, “definitely/probably will buy” score, without strongly considering a product’s uniqueness can terribly mislead you as to the overall potential of the new product.
Think about it. If the new product being tested is not very different from a product consumers are now using, then of course, consumers would see very little risk in trying the new item and would thereby give the tested product a high “definitely/probably” purchase intent score. But if other products are similar, will these consumers be loyal? Will they really buy the new product if other similar items offered them better buying incentives? And, if the new product isn’t sufficiently unique, will the retailer even be willing to stock it?

Sometimes, a better indication of a product’s eventual success is to have a modest consumer purchase intent score coupled with a strong perceived product uniqueness. This could be a sign of an attractive niche brand opportunity--an item that would have “just enough” consumer interest to warrant its distribution. And, because of its uniqueness, retailers could be more open to stocking it because the sales of this item would likely be totally incremental to the store. And because of its modest sales volume, it will be too small to warrant a retailer, or another competitor to copy it.