Reality is often stranger than fiction and sometimes that’s the case with consumer insights as well. People often ignore consumer insights when starting a new business or launching a new product. Thinking that they ‘know’ what the target market wants since they have been in the industry for decades.
But, often this proves to be their downfall since the market is always changing, the consumer is always changing, and the product needs to change with the changing time otherwise you’ll be creating a business or a product for someone who doesn’t want it or worse considers it out of fashion.
You can go through history and have a look at all the companies that failed to adapt and understand the reality of their consumers and thus failed miserably. Some examples of such companies and products are:
Kodak was a company who failed to move with the changing times, they were leading the photography industry in the 20th century but totally missed out and got destroyed because they were in denial of the digital age and didn’t understand that their consumers are moving on.
Nokia was one of the first companies to create a cellular network in the world. At one point, everyone had a Nokia but they too got sidetracked and close to bankruptcy because they didn’t understand that their customers wanted something more than just a device with a good keyboard.
The world had moved on to smartphones and working on devices that had great software and thus Nokia got left behind.
At one point, every office executive needed and wanted a Blackberry. They were known for their robust security and software features but with the advent of smartphones especially Samsung and Apple, soon the market moved on and now Blackberry is out of production.
Yahoo
Yahoo was at one point the leading website and internet companies out there. But, they choose to focus more on the media side and ignore consumer insights and what they wanted by neglecting the search engine features.
At one point, Yahoo gave the offer to buy Facebook but look at them now. No one remembers Yahoo but everyone is looking for their friends on Facebook.
Google Glass
Google glass is an example of a product launched by a billion dollar company that no one wanted.
Even the creators were unclear about it’s role, some thought of it as a fashion accessory. While others thought it was a futuristic gadget that hobbyists will use. Whatever the case may be, they didn’t do proper market research, ignored the consumer insights and that ended up costing the company a billion dollars.
Understanding Consumer Insights
The process of understanding consumer behavior, market research and consumer insight starts when you understand that your expectations might be totally different from what the reality really is.
It means you need to have an unbiased opinion of what you might find from the market research and you should be open minded enough to realize that you might be wrong on the hypothesis that you thought of initially.
In simple words, it means that the latest, greatest and best idea you thought of might be totally useless and a money losing endeavor when put through the test of market research and consumer insights.
Sure, it will hurt. (I mean who likes to be proven wrong?) But, this will save you more time, money and heartache at the end of the day.
Most companies, executives and business owners don’t have the courage to do that, they don’t want to face the reality and this is probably why most companies often end up bankrupt and being beaten by the small, upstart and innovative company that was willing to move with the time.
Approaching Consumer Insights From A Reality Basis
The way to approach consumer insights from a reality basis is to first realize that whatever you find may not be what you like.
After that you need to know that market research is not conducted in the air. This means you need to go there in person or virtually and talk to your target market and see what their needs, problems and concerns are.
There is a reason why successful multi-million and billion-dollar companies CEOs often spend a lot of their time doing customer service and understanding what their customers are actually facing. This way they get to know their real concerns in the data behind them, not something that their exactive should want to show them on spreadsheet or PowerPoint.
After this they go out and see what a competition is doing. Does the competition have a product that is similar to what they are thinking of launching? How does the competition solve this current problem that their target market has?
If they see an opportunity where a product can be introduced that will solve the problem better than the competition or if the competition is not addressing the problem at all then they move on to the launching phase.
Successful companies don't launch products to the mass market, instead what they do is they often launch a beta version or what startups like to call the MVP (minimum viable product) version of a product. If there’s enough demand around the product then they move on to the next phase, otherwise they’ll just stop working on the product, shelf it and move on to the next thing.
After this most Products go through a very long process of iterations where they are improved and optimized and then introduced to the mass market.
Compare this approach to the lazy approach of launching a product without doing the due diligence and you’ll see why it’s critical to understand the reality of consumer insights.
Not only will this save you a lot of time but also your hard earned money and your reputation as a leader in your own business.
Vase.ai can help you do this and much more by shortening the process it takes to do market research.
If you’re a company that has a business in the south east Asia market or is planning on launching a product to this market then Vase.ai can massively improve your odds of success. With Vase.ai you’re going to get access to consumer insights from 3.5M people that are based on reality and not expectations.
You’ll see and understand what they want, what they lack, how the competition is doing and even see your brand’s perception in the eyes of your future and current consumers.
Use Vase.ai and give your business and product the chance it deserves.