CPG concept testing ranges from roughly $500 to $50,000 depending on method. A Gravity Scan is $500 and returns a scored eight-dimension brief in minutes. A Reviewed Gravity Brief is $1,500 and adds senior operator review plus a live session. Traditional market research engagements typically run $15,000–$50,000 and take weeks. Focus groups and survey-based concept tests sit between those. The right spend depends on which decision you are funding.
What is the cheapest read that still de-risks the decision I am about to fund?
Concept testing spend is usually mis-sequenced rather than mis-sized. Founders often buy the expensive study before the cheap one has told them whether the concept is worth studying, or skip the read entirely and spend the same money on a production run that answers nothing.
And, just as usefully, who it is not for.
Eight dimensions, each scored and sourced against 21,170 classified U.S. market signals across 18 CPG categories.
| Dimension | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Whitespace Validation | Whether the space the concept is aiming at is genuinely open, already crowded, or open for a reason. |
| Consumer Language & Signals | The words real buyers use, what they repeatedly complain about, and what they actually repurchase. |
| Format Fit | Whether the format matches category norms, COGS reality, and how the product is actually consumed. |
| Claims & Language | Claim saturation, regulatory exposure, and whether the positioning still reads as differentiated. |
| Ingredient Logic | Sourcing credibility, dose credibility, and whether the ingredient story survives scrutiny. |
| Competitive Positioning | Who you are actually pricing and positioning against, including the brands you have not found yet. |
| Business-Model Risk | Burn exposure, time to proof, and whether the unit economics survive the channel you are aiming at. |
| Founder Readiness | A directional read on operator capacity and go-to-market readiness for this specific move. |
A Gravity Intelligence Brief: every dimension scored and sourced, an overall opportunity score, a go / refine / pause recommendation, and a recommended first move. Where evidence is thin, the brief says so and caps the score rather than inflating it.
Gravity's own prices are exact. The comparison rows are indicative market ranges for context, not quotes — what any given firm charges depends on scope.
| Method | What it is | Typical cost | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask Gravity | One focused market question, answered with sources | Free | Seconds |
| Gravity Scan | Full eight-dimension Gravity Intelligence Brief | $500 | Minutes |
| Reviewed Gravity Brief | The Scan plus senior review by Gustavo Nader and a 1-hour live session | $1,500 | 3 business days |
| Survey-based concept test | Recruited sample reacting to a stimulus | Low thousands | 1–2 weeks |
| Focus groups | Moderated qualitative sessions | Mid four to five figures | 2–4 weeks |
| Traditional market research engagement | Custom primary research to your specification | $15,000–$50,000 | Several weeks |
A read is only as credible as the boundaries around it.
Gravity does not license proprietary paid databases. Public excerpts from firms such as Euromonitor, SPINS, NielsenIQ, Mintel or Circana are read as public excerpts, not as licensed data.
Gravity is not a consumer panel. It runs no surveys and uses no synthetic respondents — it reads behaviour that already happened in public.
Gravity reads the U.S. market. A read on another market would be inference, not evidence.
A Gravity read is a decision input, not a guarantee. It reports what the evidence supports and says plainly where the evidence is thin.
Between roughly $500 and $50,000 depending on method. A Gravity Scan is $500 and returns in minutes. A Reviewed Gravity Brief is $1,500 within three business days. Survey-based concept testing platforms typically fall in the low thousands. Full traditional market research engagements typically run $15,000–$50,000 over several weeks.
Because it is doing a different job. A research firm fields new primary research to your specification, which is expensive because collection is expensive. Gravity reads evidence that already exists — public reviews, assortment, launches, trade press, transcripts, research excerpts — and structures it. It cannot tell you what a recruited panel would say. It can tell you what the market has already demonstrated, and it can tell you today.
It is narrower. The honest framing is sequencing: a $500 read should tell you whether the $15,000 study is worth commissioning, and which question that study should actually ask. Used that way it lowers total research spend rather than replacing it.
A full Gravity Intelligence Brief: all eight dimensions scored and sourced, an overall opportunity score, a go/refine/pause recommendation, and a recommended first move. Delivered in minutes, no subscription, no per-seat fee.
Senior interpretation. Gustavo Nader reads the brief personally, prioritises what matters for your specific situation, and works through it with you in a one-hour live session. Delivered within three business days. The system finds the pattern; the review tells you what to do about it given your constraints.
No. A Scan is a one-time $500. Ask Gravity has a free tier of one credit with no account required, then $49 a month for 25 credits or $149 for 75. Nothing on the Scan side renews.
Yes. A complete sample Gravity Intelligence Brief is published in full, free and ungated, so you can judge the depth before spending anything.
A pause verdict is the product working, not failing — it is usually the most valuable $500 outcome available, because it is the one that stops a much larger commitment. The brief always states its reasoning and its evidence so you can weigh the call yourself.
Written and maintained by Gustavo Nader, founder of Aterra Studio and co-founder of AMAZ. Figures on this page are drawn from the Gravity corpus and from Aterra's published pricing.
Published 2026-08-05 · Last reviewed 2026-08-05 · Methodology · Sample brief