OPPORTUNITY SEEKING: MARKET – PRODUCT FIT

Opportunity Seeking is the process of spotting, evaluating and pursuing

relevant and sustainable revenue and profit generating activities in the
marketplace. There are many ways to spot opportunities. One way is to use
what is called the Voice of Customers (VOC).

Voice of Customers (VOC).

-is a research process used to capture the changing needs of customers.
A key to voice of customers is identifying and understanding pain points,
barriers and its root causes to trigger greater demand in an industry.
Exhibit 4-1: Pain Point Process
• STEP 1 --- PAIN HUNTING
• STEP 2 --- PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION
• STEP 3 --- PAIN POINTS UNDERSTANDING
• STEP 4 --- PAIN POINTS HEALING
⮚ PAIN HUNTING

Entrepreneurs must choose a specific group of people as their target market.

Whether customer or noncustomer group, the group must behave in a
homogenous way like having common traits and seeking common benefits.
The entrepreneur’s company must be capable of serving the group well which
must also be large enough to be profitable for the entrepreneur.

EXHIBIT 4-2: 4 TYPES OF BENEFITS

4 Types of What Is It? Examples
Consumer
Benefits
Functional Benefit related to the
Benefit performance of the product
or service
Economic Benefit related to the price of
Benefit the product or service
Emotional Benefit related to how the
Benefit owner feels when owning or
using the product or service
Social Benefit Benefit related to how other
will perceive the owner of
the product
Mansmith and Fielders Inc.
has propriety training on the
“5 Skills of Master
Strategists”.
Ever Bilena cosmetics are
good quality but cheaper
than imported cosmetics.
“I feel I have high self-worth
when I hold a cup of
Starbucks coffee.”
Seeing entrepreneurs riding
in their BMW, Volvo or
Benz, makes me think they
are financially successful.

⮚PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION

To know consumer pain points, the target market can be asked what they
dislike about a particular brand or product. These dislikes can be plotted on a
moment-of-truth map that captures the consumer buying journey. Note the
best time to ask is when the consumers are conscious of these pain points so
get as close to the customers when they are using the product or encountering
your service.

⮚PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION

To know consumer pain points, the target market can be asked what
they dislike about a particular brand or product. These dislikes can be
plotted on a moment-of-truth map that captures the consumer buying
journey. Note the best time to ask is when the consumers are conscious of
these pain points so get as close to the customers when they are using the
 product or encountering your service.
Exhibit 4-3: Pain Points of Consumers of a Furniture and Appliance
Retailer
During a Purchase After a Purchase
Before a

Purchase
Dislike • Long •Being sold the •Delivery schedule should not
s time display unit with be anytime within morning
to some scratches. (or within afternoon) bu
check •Need to fall in line have a narrower range for
inventor and pay twice: for shorter waiting time.
y level furniture at the •Guard inspects product
available furniture cashier bought.
in-store. and for appliances
cashier.
•Long time to
process payment.
•Something • Coordinated briefing about
Wish ******* interesting to read installation (extra parts to be
or watch while bought different crew
List waiting
for payment to be expected for installation.
processing.
 Some Examples of Pain Points if Suppliers are Unable to be relevant
to the retail channel members are as follows:

• Lack of area coverage

• Unsupervised placement and merchandising
• Sporadic availability of stocks
• Low margin
• Transactional approach, not relational or strategic in account
development
• Unprofessional salespeople

⮚ PAIN POINTS UNDERSTANDING

Not all pain points have the same level of importance. Entrepreneurs
must understand the frequency, and depth then choose the key pain point
priorities that must be solved due to relative higher impact that can be felt
by the customers.

⮚ PAIN HEALING
 It is important for entrepreneurs to have empathy and not just
understand pain points, but also accept that change is needed, and that
speed of change by external factors may leave them obsolete in their
industry. They should not be swivel chair owners, relying on reports that
have already been filtered by their subordinates.

LIFESTYLE TRENDS

Another practical way to spot opportunity via voice of customers is by looking

at lifestyle
trends, in terms of how people live, how people work, how people

play, how people die and

how people inest.

EXHIBIT 4-4: 5 Practical Ways to spot a Business Opportunity Based

on Lifestyle
❖ How People Live
❖ How People Work
❖ How People Play
❖ How People “Die”
❖ How People Invest
Voice of Enterprise (VOE)
- is a process to articulate the needs of the entrepreneur or his/her
company.
Growth Strategy
- is needed not just as part of business expectations but because it can lift the
spirit of the organization. But while entrepreneurs need to be agile and move
fast to be ahead in the industry, growth cannot happen too fast, too soon, and
in different directions, as to risk losing focus and getting drowned in the
opportunity.

EXHIBIT 4-6: OPPORTUNITY-SEEKING PROCESS

IDEATION DISCOVERY INCUBATION

Problem
Identification Or
Opportunity Testing Assumptions Building the Solution

Identification

EXHIBIT 4-7: IDEATION PROCESS OF HYGIENIC FOODS

Ideation Process Case Study: Hygienic Street Foods
1. Recognize a Reymont Choachuy was hospitalized with diarrhea
potential market after eating kikiam and squid ball street food at the
sidewalk of Edsa Muñoz in 2005. Being the
entrepreneur that he is, he recognized the
opportunity to offer hygienic street foods, thus
“Sam’s Everything on Sticks” was born the same
year.
2. Analyze the Street foods are comfort food familiar to the
market need buyers when they were still children, and not an
and customer exotic concept from abroad unfamiliar to them.
requirements The pain point that prevent them from buying or
buying more often is hygiene.
3. Identify the The target market is hygiene-conscious consumer (for
target market those in food courts and supermarkets) and public
transport commuters (for those buying in or near
public terminal bays). They usually have tried eating
fish ball from vendors when they were still studying.

4. Propose value Bring sidewalk food to the highest level by offering

proposition or the most modern technology in food processing
the solutions while utilizing the most stylish innovations ran by
professional and motivated employees.

5. Innovating Aside from hygienic food. Sam’s shall take care

the value of its employees via PMTDR (“People Making
Proposition
The Difference Real” Campaign) program by
investing in trainings, incentives and rewarding
performers with a career path.

6. Define the Take care for the well-being of customers

purpose or vision and employees.
7. Select the Tasty Filipino favorite food items in 3 categories:
best product or local street foods (tokneneng or quail egg coated
service that in orange coating), imported street foods (lobster
will meet the ball, squid ball), dimsum (like kikiam), with
market need unique beef flavored sauces, and crystal-clear
gulaman.
 8. Describe
the unique For end consumers – variety of quick, clean
local
selling
and international version of street foods.
proposition
that For sellers – Daily, monthly, quarterly and
differentiates yearly incentives upon hitting targets.

one’s
product/servic
e from
existing
products/ services

9. Key Given the choice, buyers of street food would

rather pay a bit more than risk being
Assumptions hospitalized, losing money and time in the
process. When given incentives and taken care
of, store employees will pay more attention in
helping the company.
10. Estimate Primarily limited to a fraction of the number
market size of passers-by at each store location.
11. Identify KISS King of Balls was the lead innovator in
primary target the market but they are no longer as focused
after selling KISS to new owners with many
food concepts. Aside from KISS, any food
with a P40
 price tag is considered a competitor since malls
practice non-duplication of tenants having the
same offering.

In the discovery phase, the entrepreneur needs to test the correctness of

three critical assumptions of their ideas that will affect financials and
must pivot accordingly to reduce risk:

▪ The target market

▪ The problem
▪ The solution, including the value proposition (product and price),
whether it is meeting at least the minimum viable product (MVP).
If not, product can still be tweaked as new data come in.