Do You Have A Permission Slip From The Consumer? - Steve Blacker

Nine out of ten new products fail because so many companies launch them without conducting adequate consumer research Or they fail to ask the right questions show a concept versus a finished product or rely upon a few non projectable focus groups When you launch a new product without investing the right amount of time and resources you are doing so without a permission slip from your current customers or potential prospects Using five or six focus groups to determine consumer behavior is akin to a drunken man using lampposts for support rather than for illumination Showing a rough concept versus a finished or adequately mocked up sample product gives you highly unreliable results The rougher the concept the more apt people are to give misleading statementsAsking the right questions is extremely important too When CocaCola launched a new cola to replace their existing one they failed to ask consumers how they would feel about this major change Instead they only tested reactions to the new cola While the new cola tested well when Coke pulled the old cola off the shelves sales plummeted The old cola was quickly reinstated but after a major market share lossMany companies have tons of sales data market share numbers etc very few know how to separate information from facts Actionable information provides new customer insights This occurs only by asking the right questions at the right time and on an ongoing basisSeveral important questions any company needs to ask itself are Are we getting hung up on shortterm numbers and missing long term trends Do the survey results truly tell us what our customers want What can we specifically do to attract new revenue and customers What do we need to do next to make this happen Bear in mind that it39s easy to get caught up with data that measures what your customers do instead of what your customers wantThe saying expects the unexpected applies to consumer research as well It39s important to look for surprising data or unforeseen numbers that can improve your gotomarket strategies and make you aware of an opportunity long before your competitors realize it39s there Perhaps even more important surprises can serve as early warnings when there39s still time to do something about a potential major problemBeware of only focusing your ongoing surveys results on either your highly satisfied or highly dissatisfied customers Your best potential customer base is often those who occupy the middle ground ie quotSwing Votersquot Rather than focus on the extremes those highly satisfied or dissatisfied the real potential is in capturing the much larger middle segmentKnowing what is the one vital piece of information you need to move forward is critically important Too often meaningless data overload occurs that only confuses or bores top management Sad to say too many researchers have no feel for the real life implications of their calculations Key business questions need to be the objective of any consumer research For example what one vital piece of information is necessary to move forward The rest of the data may be interesting and sometimes even important but the real benefit occurs by focusing one actionable findingThe question used to be quotHow do I sell more cans of CocaColaquot The question now needs to be quotHow do I meet my customer39s needs better so I can sell them morequot Interpreting data only in terms of your business needs not your customers39 wants accounts for many of the train wrecks that follow new product launches It is important to remember that customer satisfaction isn39t based solely on priceLastly when making longterm decisions it is extremely important to capture ongoing long term survey numbers Weekly sales numbers rise and fall Quarterly sales numbers indicate trends Short term movements while interesting are often misleading Your consumer research needs to be ongoing so that it can be accurately trended over timeSteve39s most recent book You Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to ReInventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King Cathie Black Chuck Townsend and 28 others Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt ampamp Blacker Solutions LLC His web site is blackerreinventionscom and email address is blackersolutionsaolcomRead all Steveamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media ReinventionsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Do You Have A Permission Slip From The Consumer? - Steve Blacker

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