Off-Brand Testing

Off-brand testing is similar to:

• Single-blind studies in scientific research. The researchers know who is being experimented on and who isn't, to help remove bias that may affect the subject's perception and behavior.
• Blind taste tests are usually used to compare one brand to another, albeit in a more mature product category.

Potential Biases

As this is a technique used to reduce bias, there are no major additional biases. It's worth noting that you can still go overboard with selling instead of validating, even without branding. There are a number of techniques that will influence the outcome but will not necessarily tell you about true demand. For example, heavy scarcity tactics will increase "sales," but will not help you understand the underlying demand. On the flip side, having too many options will depress response.

Field Tips

• Fight the urge to throw a big bang corporate-style launch when validating an idea using off-brand testing. It works, and it gives you data you can stake your career on. - @LaunchTomorrow
• There is a time for brand compliance, security, and all of the other goodies you're used to. First do a smoke test using off-brand testing - @LaunchTomorrow
• Corporations do not lack ideas, but rather have a hard time deciding on what ideas to invest in. -  @davidjbland https://medium.com/@davidjbland/lean-startup-comes-home-8f205993da40
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Case Studies

• Toyota used an off-brand landing page test with Facebook ads to figure out if anyone would actually want to pay for gas from the convenience of their car. They were concerned the presence of their brand might skew the results.
• “Traditionally what we might have done is develop an app and release it and then see what happens next. But we knew that with this, if we were going to get it right we would need to expose it to customers and get their feedback.”
• Dell uses off-brand testing to test landing page variants that the company won't be implementing in the near term. Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen in A/B Testing: The Most Powerful Way to Turn Clicks Into Customers
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Tools

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References

• Medium - David Bland: Lean Startup Comes Home
• Harvard Business School: Kill a Brand, Keep a Customer
• Wikipedia: America's Test Kitchen
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