Case Study: Medical Device Testing

Market research of a new breast milk tester to give mothers the confidence to breast feed

The Client Issue

Our client had developed a concept medical device to facilitate at-home, immediate testing of breast milk for alcohol and caffeine content. The client believed that the device would not only give mothers the initial confidence to breast feed, but that it would also take away the barriers of breast feeding for longer. Having sought patent approval, the client then needed to explore the product concept with breast feeding mothers, in order to understand potential market opportunity and also to gain thoughts on shaping the product design and a likely price point.

The CMR Approach

CMR proposed a combined qualitative and quantitative approach for this medical device.

Stage 1 of the study was an integrated focus group. Initially, the product concept was presented to each participant on an individual interview basis for a 15 minute interview. Once the interviews were completed, the participants were brought together in  a group to allow creative interaction to develop.

Stage 2 of the study was an online survey of mothers with children under 7, and was designed to ascertain from the mothers their attitudes and concerns towards alcohol and caffeine consumption during breast feeding, and to gauge their interest in  the new product  and also their expectation of the likely cost of the product.

The Key Findings

  • The respondents gave their views on the quality and availability of information once they had given birth
  • The client gained valuable insight into mothers’ feelings towards their concept device, and how it should be marketed in order to gain maximum target market impact
  • The research indicated the positive effects that the product might have on women, and the impact it might have on the duration of time for which women would breastfeed their babies

The Impact

The research allowed our client to understand the concerns of women around consuming alcohol and caffeine during breastfeeding, and gave them access to their target market, even allowing for an understanding of packaging product name, the best design for the final concept, as well as the price and an optimum number of tests to be sold in a package. It also emerged during the course of the focus groups that there is minimal information available to women about diet once their baby is born, and that the information that was available was often conflicting leading to concern. This clearly demonstrated to our client that there was a need for their product.

 

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