CONCEPT TEST

The 50-journey card for bus and tram in Flanders

Thinking of taking the bus or tram? Thanks to today’s high fuel prices and urban low-emissions zones, public transport is a more interesting and relevant proposition than ever. And it’s no different for our neighbours to the South, in Flanders. Public transport services there are operated by De Lijn. SPRINT explored new pricing concepts on behalf of De Lijn in a bid to make services even more appealing to travellers.

Want to take a bus or tram in Flanders? Then you will, of course, be needing a ticket for your journey. De Lijn offers several different types of individual journey or period tickets. This means you can buy the sort of travel pass that best suits your needs, such as a ticket for an individual journey or a pre-paid card for a series of return journeys. The organisation is determined to continuously tailor its range of products to its target group, so it wanted to test out a new type of travel pass, called the 50-journey card, that offers greater flexibility to people who work from home, for example. SPRINT carried out a concept test to explore this new idea quickly and simply.

Rehabilitation after COVID-19

The idea for a new type of travel pass didn’t appear out of nothing. Since the lifting of a number of coronavirus restrictions, working from home on a regular basis has become a reality for a lot of people in Flanders. For that reason, De Lijn expects that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic part of its target group will only make the journey into work a few days a week, rather than 5 days a week before the pandemic. Users of public transport of this kind therefore need a travel pass which lets them travel frequently and flexibly to and from work.

Concept test de Lijn
Concept test voor De Lijn

SPRINT’s concept test: test KPIs and generate an at-a-glance report

By opting for a concept test, De Lijn could be assured of a clear overview of how the 50-journey card scored in terms of attractiveness, relevance, distinctiveness, credibility, brand coherence and intention to purchase. An on-line questionnaire was presented to working people aged 25 and over, who had used the services of De Lijn at least once in the previous 12 months. The respondents were also divided into two groups, each with 400 people. Thanks to these two groups and matching versions of the questionnaire, De Lijn was able to obtain an in-depth overview of the needs of the respondents.

In addition, the questionnaires contained a heat map that charted the target group’s likes and dislikes. The following principal questions were included in the concept test to get a more detailed assessment:

  • The number of days per week on which the respondent used the bus or tram once the coronavirus restrictions had been lifted
  • Distinctiveness of the new travel ticket in relation to the current range
  • Mark out of ten for the new multiple-journey card
  • Relevance of the travel ticket at individual level
  • Attractiveness of possible season tickets for a specific period and discounts

Is the 50-journey card a success waiting to happen?

A total of 800 respondents completed the questionnaires, which were made up of both multiple-choice and open questions. Via an interactive dashboard, De Lijn was able to view the responses and answers. As the questions in the questionnaire were linked to relevant KPIs, the dashboard was a reliable source of data.

On the basis of this feedback, the organisation opted to go ahead with development of the 50-journey card. So if, in future, you want to take the bus or tram in Flanders, don’t hesitate to consider the brand new 50-journey card.

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