Most brands see new product launches as a pinnacle of achievement, but the sad fact is that 95% of product launches fail. To improve odds for success, product research and gap analysis are necessary to create the ideal item or service that will make a splash in the market and appeal to consumers. Whether a company is in the process of upgrading its headphones or aiming to launch a food product in the United Kingdom, looking at the activity of competitors, consumers, and the market is essential for success.
Competitor Analysis
One of the essential ways to win with a new product is to have an in-depth knowledge of competitors’ products, marketing strategies, and types of customers.
It can be useful to look at competitors’ product pages and reviews of their products on eCommerce sites.
One productive strategy is to research products that are successful but have lackluster ratings; This indicates that there is demand and a need for innovation to improve product offerings and add value for customers.
In addition to the strategies raised above, using tools that monitor the traffic on competing websites can provide clues on what works for competitors. It may also be useful to try to determine which keywords are generating results.
Consumer Analysis
Getting to know potential customers is an effective way of boosting sales. Consumer insights provide information about a customer’s needs and shopping habits and can be mined from opinion data collected from reviews, surveys, focus groups, trend analysis, social media, and simply listening to feedback about customer experience.
This data indicates not only what customers want but also their pain points and issues with products that can be improved. Consumer insights can help companies create a marketing roadmap and assist in developing and updating products.
The first step to conducting consumer analysis is to determine who the typical customers are. Factors such as age, location, profession, and hobbies are useful to know when creating marketing campaigns.
This information is helpful for defining buyer personas and figure out the needs and buying habits of consumers in these categories.
Conducting surveys and looking at reviews for similar products can provide information on what these types of customers need, value, and prefer when they go shopping online. With this information, companies can upgrade products to increase their appeal.
Market Analysis
In many cases, there is an instinctive feeling whether there is a market for a particular product or not, but in oder to be successful, businesses nowadays must rely on data to understand their market. User analytics and big data indicate consumer activity and are valuable in creating marketing campaigns.
Financial information about the industry and analysts’ expectations provide quantitative data that can help formulate the big picture. The size, projected growth, and trends of the market are data points that are easy to find and important to use.
Listening to customers, examining reviews, and conducting surveys can detail the motivation behind consumer action and provide clues for future trends.
Think of your ideal customer, their age, gender, location, and favorite activities and pay attention to what people who fit this description are buying and talking about on social media. Companies should compare their growth targets with projections for the industry to calculate market share and pinpoint which customers will buy their products.
Market analysis provides specific guidance on what marketing strategies or innovations will be the most effective.
Significant research is needed to design a product that will appeal to consumers. This research should be ongoing and implemented to upgrade and improve products.
Analyzing competitors, consumers, and the market should be a constant priority for any business. Keeping track of consumer sentiment, market trends, and competitor strategies provides useful information to increase sales and attract new customers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alon Ghelber
Alon is a Tel Aviv-based Cheif Marketing Officer who supports b2b tech startups in capturing customers’ (and VCs’) attention through marketing based on data-driven storytelling.