“Anyone who launches new products will immediately appreciate the power of this resource to influence design direction, target appropriate price points, and select materials with high consumer appeal. What I love most is that it facilitates open and powerful discussions across the marketing, design and business teams. It minimizes reliance on “the gut feel” of just one individual in an organization and helps create a unified vision for success.”
And They Are Still Doing Research!
Think things are rough for you? We are currently conducting research for a consumer products company that lost $600 million dollars in the third quarter due to the pandemic. $600 million dollars and they are spending money on research! That’s impressive. Why are they doing this? Because they know that the path forward is one where products have to be perfect. Guess work doesn’t cut it any more. Knock-off’s don’t cut it any more. In-house employee “research” doesn’t cut it any more. Products have to be right. And “right” means “right” by consumers.
Think of it like this. Retailers, regardless of whether they are brick and mortar or digital have far less capacity and luxury to try products to see if consumers want them. Many have seen drastic cuts in internal resources, especially staff. They don’t have time for extensive sales analysis. They don’t have time to set up tests in stores. They don’t have time to figure out what’s going to work. They don’t have the luxury of taking a flyer on an unproven new product. They need to make it happen.
That means you need to up your game. You need to go into that retailer (Zoom!) meeting prepared. And not prepared with an internal sales pitch but with FACTS in the way of quantitative consumer research. Our clients go into meetings and start presentations with comments like this:
“We tested this new X with your customers, Mr. Retailer. We spoke to 400 of them who purchased this product category in the last 3 months in your store. We tested our new product against the top products in your store. Our new product ranked first (or second or third or whatever). Your customers prefer this product over many that you carry in your stores today. That means you’ll see gains in sales and share if you take in our new product. Your customers like our product because X% of them like feature A, Y% prefer feature B, etc.”
Our research prepares you with meaningful facts and figures that retailers can rely on to make sound decisions. At a time when the next trade show is months away, and at a time when every product has to count, research is the only way to guarantee that your products will count with consumers. Maybe that’s why we and other research companies are having a great fall season. Our clients are doing their consumer homework.
Call 609.869.1108 or email us today (Rick@designres.com Janine@designres.com) to learn how we can do your consumer homework!