Monadic testing is a great way to find out if you’re not getting enough honest feedback on why people like or dislike your product idea or its pricing. When conducting a survey about a product idea, a marketing campaign, or product pricing, you must first define your target audience and the most effective method for discovering what they think about your product.

Monadic testing is a market research method that assesses your target audience’s perception of your product by exposing them to only one concept at a time. If you want to find the best price for your product, a monadic test can help you figure out why your target audience thinks the price is reasonable or ridiculous.

Monadic tests are classified into three types: split-cell, A/B testing, and sequential monadic test.

What is Monadic Testing? 

When conducting a survey and you split the target audience into separate groups for evaluation, you’re conducting a monadic test. Unlike most survey methods, monadic testing does not require you to compare multiple products at the same time.

For instance, if you are conducting a survey about three products, say jam, chocolate spread, and cheese, you will not ask the audience to rank these three. Instead, you split the audience into three groups to test the three spreads.

Also, the product questions will be the same, but they will be pretty in-depth.

For example, a class of 100 students is divided into two groups to survey a new curriculum for biology and chemistry. 50 students will be asked what they like about the new biology curriculum, and the other 50 will be asked about the new chemistry curriculum.

Why Do People Use Monadic Testing?

If you’re wondering why anyone would choose this method of testing over simply comparing products, here’s why.

Deeper Insights

Comparing different products can be a little superficial. So, the main advantage of using monadic testing is that it enables you to learn what your target audience likes about your products.

It Helps You Improve Your Product

Understanding what people like and dislike about your product ideas helps you improve them. However, some product ideas may have to be dismissed entirely because they cannot be improved.

For example, you want to launch a Guava-flavored yogurt, but you conducted market research and discovered that your target audience dislikes Guava flavor because it tastes and smells like Guava. You’d have to discard this product idea because you have no control over people’s taste buds.

However, if they complain about the thickness of the yogurt, you can make it thicker. 

Read: Concept Testing: Types, Methods + Examples

Types of Monadic Testing

1. Split-Cell Monadic Testing

When conducting split-cell monadic testing, you first split your audience into groups, then introduce the concept to your audience, and then ask questions about it. Your respondents can only answer one question about one concept.

So, if you want to research a different concept you’ll need to find a new set of respondents.

Split cell testing is not testing variants of a concept; it is testing completely different concepts. For instance, a survey about deodorant and smartphones.

Pros of Split-Cell Monadic Testing

Detail Responses

Most people are more likely to give superficial answers when asked to compare concepts. But when respondents are only asked about one concept, they are more likely to provide thoughtful responses.

This is because their sole focus is on this concept and it gives them room to fully analyze the concept.

Read: Need More Survey Respondents? Best Survey Distribution Methods to Try

Lower Chances of Fatigue

Asking people to compare different concepts can be exhausting and repetitive. So there’s a good chance they’ll get tired of questioning after a few rounds of questions.

But with split-cell testing, they are only examining one concept, making it easier for them to answer these questions thoroughly without becoming exhausted.

Higher Completion Rate

When conducting comparison tests, people are more likely to become tired and abandon the survey. Split-cell testing avoids doesn’t wear out your respondents by introducing a single concept to your audience and allowing them to devote their full attention to it.

Although split-cell testing allows your audience to fully focus on one concept, you still need to keep the survey short and simple to get accurate answers. Asking too many questions or lots of technical questions about a concept can be exhausting.

Honest Opinions

This is a significant advantage of split-cell testing over comparison testing. Most people  feel obliged to make a choice when comparing concepts, so they will choose what they believe to be a better choice, not necessarily a good choice.

For example, your respondents may not necessarily like any of the products, but because they feel compelled to make a decision, they select the one that appears to be superior. 

It could also be the other way around; they may like both concepts, but because they feel compelled to choose, they just pick blindly.

Cons of Split-Cell Monadic Testing

It Requires A Large Sample Size

Split-cell testing requires a large audience. This is because when conducting split-cell tests, you have to divide your respondents into groups, and you cannot test more than one concept with a group of respondents.

It Requires More Money and Time

Conducting concurrent tests on different products saves you money, especially if you offer your audience an incentive for their opinions.

Also, sourcing a larger audience takes time. The time required to source a hundred people is not the same as the time required to source 400 respondents.

2. A/B Testing

This form of monadic testing is used to compare responses to product variants. Most marketing campaigns use this to determine which version the target audience will engage with more while already believing one will perform better.

For example, you want to send an email and you’d like to know the subject line with a better conversion rate. To run this A/B test, show the two subject lines to your target audience in half.

So, if your target audience is 400 people, 200 will see the first subject line and the remaining 200 will see the second subject line. 

Pros of A/B Testing

It Improves Your Future Strategy

Before running an A/B test, you already have a version that you believe will perform better. This test determines whether or not your hypothesis is correct.

If it proves your hypothesis correct, you know you can probably stick with your current strategy. But if it proves you wrong, you know you’ll have to change your strategy.

Cons of A/B Testing

Limited Test Scope

You can only test two versions of the same concept at a time with A/B testing. So you can’t test every variation you have, and the truth is that the variation you think will do well may not be the best.

If you want to test all of your variations with A/B testing, you’d have to pair these tests and then run the final test that compares the best-performing variant. This isn’t just time-consuming, it’s also expensive.

Restricted Sample

The tricky part of running an A/B test is ensuring that your respondents must have the same predisposition to the concept. If your test was conducted with people who have a different perception of the concept, your results won’t be accurate.

Going outside your target audience for opinions may not help your product, especially if you’re launching a product.

Since you can’t go outside your target audience for your research, you have to find sources for your audience and for your audience to take the survey. This is difficult because you need to complete this test to move on to the next phase of your campaign.

3. Sequential Monadic Testing

This method of monadic testing involves conducting a survey with a segmented audience about multiple concepts (at least two) in random order.

In sequential monadic testing, you test multiple concepts with the segmented audience while asking the same questions about different concepts.

So, in essence, you’re presenting each concept to the audience without asking them to compare them.

This is a low-cost method of gaining deep insights into multiple products without conducting multiple tests.

Pros of Sequential Monadic Testing

Smaller Sample Size

In contrast to split-cell monadic tests, which require you to collect responses about one concept at a time, this allows you to test as many concepts as you want with the same number of respondents.

It Saves Time And Money

Not having to find different respondents to test multiple concepts cuts down on the time and money you’d have to invest to collect opinions on the concepts you’re testing.

Cons of Sequential Monadic Testing

It’s Prone to Bias

This method is prone to bias because, although respondents are supposed to provide deep insights about each concept individually, people still tend to do so. Their perception of a concept may influence how they perceive others.

For instance, if they liked the first concept, they may find the next concept less appealing. Instead of providing you with genuine insights into the concepts, they are now comparing products and giving you feedback based on their prejudice.

You can avoid this by randomizing the order in which the concepts are presented to each group.

Lower Completion Rate

Also, because your respondents are examining various concepts, the survey tends to be longer, and people tend to abandon surveys when they become bored with the questions or feel overwhelmed by the number of questions.

Higher Chance of Fatigue

When people are asked too many questions, they become tired and tend not to provide accurate answers. Some may even drop the survey entirely.

When to Use Monadic Testing

Monadic testing is most useful when you need in-depth feedback about product ideas or their pricing.

Concept Testing

This is when you want to figure out product appeal; what your target audience likes or dislikes about a product idea. Concept testing provides insight into your target audience’s perception of your concept.

Price Testing

Price testing involves determining how your target audience will react to the price you set for a product. This test will tell you how much your target audience thinks your product is worth. 

This helps you find an optimal price for your product and the price sensitivity.

Benefits of Monadic Testing

1. Prevents Bias

When you use Monadic testing, you are not compelling your audience to pick a concept. Instead, it allows them to evaluate the concept based on what they see or feel about it.

2. Less Distraction and Insightful Feedback

Using monadic testing keeps your audience’s attention on a specific product idea, making it simple to collect a lot of in-depth insight into your idea.

You have their full attention on a concept, so they can provide you with adequate feedback on the concept you want to test.

3. User Friendly

Monadic tests are typically easier for your respondents to understand because they only evaluate one concept or variant at a time. 

Evaluating one stimulus at a time reduces cognitive overload, allowing your respondents to respond more quickly.

Limitations of Monadic Testing

1. It Requires A Large Simple Size

You need a large sample size, irrespective of the monadic testing method you’re choosing. Getting this amount of respondents requires lots of resources, especially time and money.

2. It’s Expensive

Monadic tests require separate tests for each concept or at least different respondent groups. The more concepts you need to test, the more respondents you’ll need, which is more expensive than using comparison tests, which allow you to test the same product idea with the same audience.

Conclusion

Monadic testing is best suited for determining how your target audience perceives your product. It enables you to collect insightful feedback that improves your product and restructures your strategy for developing future product ideas.

It provides a more realistic understanding of why people like or dislike a product or pricing than comparison tests.  

Although monadic testing has significant benefits, it’s quite expensive. So, you should only consider it when it’s necessary.