Innovate and renovate consumer experience pipeline

Customer experience innovation means constant improvement, always seeking improvement

and evaluating what we're doing today to make improvements.

Definition, of key terms

 Innovation- involves deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving
greater or different values from resources. Therefore it is introduction of something new or doing
things differently than in the past.
 Renovation- act of improving a product or service to better sustain needs and what’s of the market.
Also known as remodeling.
 A prototype - These are complex and dynamic artifacts that shape many socialsituations during
product development.

In consumer experience context, customer experience innovation means the creation of new
information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or
different values from resources that drive differentiation and long-term value.

Customer experience innovation differs from typical improvement processes that companies
devote their development efforts to fine-tuning their existing product line rather than coming up
with new products for new markets.
However, innovation does not mean ignoring efficiency or working without a plan. The best
innovations find elegant solutions that improve customer experience, based on settrajectories and
goals while maintaining or even improving efficiency. Throwing
money at an innovation problem is not enough -- innovation is only sustainable when it solves
problems and is also affordable.

How do you know if something is truly innovative?

Innovative solutions solve a problem economically while also delighting customers. We all know
that efficiency and cost-savings are usually mutually exclusive with creating deep and long-lasting
customer delight, but that's why innovation is so hard! Find a company that brings together
efficiency and customer delight, and for sure you are looking at genuine innovation.

Build an Innovation Pipeline that Fuels Growth

 Focus ideation efforts on solving specific customer needs. Ideas that fuel innovation can come from three
audiences (consumers, partners and employees) through programs ranging from expensive corporate accelerators
and agency partnerships to less investment-intensive crowdsourcing platforms and employee hackathons. Each has
its pros and cons, and each has the potential to help drive business growth. To get the most from innovation efforts,
it’s critical to invest in ideation programs and processes to get the best results.

Marketing leaders struggle to identify ideas with real business potential and lack proven practices to drive the
ideation process. For example, deploying a crowdsourcing platform to employees without guardrails or criteria
shows a lack of purpose, confuses users, and undermines platform adoption, engagement and advocacy.

Create a pipeline of ideas that aligns with innovation strategy. Pipelines enable companies to drive innovation
momentum, solve customer-centric problems and engage in a meaningful way. Carefully manage your innovation
program with clearly defined objectives to yield actionable deliverables and expected outcomes.
 Solve customer problems
Align idea generation toward solving a critical customer problem. Create strategies to disrupt your categories and
produce ideas worthy of investment. Identify your customers’ current or future needs, and use customer journey
mapping and voice-of-the-customer data to identify broken steps or areas of opportunity. Ideation programs must
have focus, such as a critical customer problem.
 Create a balanced portfolio
Pursue innovation ideas across various internal and external groups from employees to partners and consumers.

Employee-focused programs can be expensive to manage, but their benefits often transcend idea generation and
strengthen a brand’s culture of innovation.

Partner-led efforts commonly take place with an agency or pure-play innovation shop. They often come with a
high price tag, and savvy marketing leaders see the best results when they explicitly define the scope and evaluate
the output based on its ability to solve for the customer.

Consumer-driven tactics often require fewer resources than other programs but typically yield the least
actionable set of ideas. However, many enterprise companies find success with these programs, especially in the
areas of customer experience and product.

 Design an ideation engine using proven approaches

Proven tactics and program approaches within the employee, partner and consumer audiences each have pros
and cons. Ask questions around cost, control, resource demands and actual output delivered to home in on the
best-fit approaches.

Determine strategic roles for each innovation

The most successful innovators understand the roles different kinds of innovation play in the overall growth
algorithm—and the portfolio composition required to reach growth targets. Portfolio innovation can be grouped
in four categories, each with a distinct role.

 Line extension, a low-risk, close variant of an existing brand that delivers the same essential benefit proposition—
such as vanilla-flavored soy milk

 Innovation expansion, in which a new product in the same category delivers new or more benefits in ways that
fundamentally expand total category potential—such as almond milk in the space of plant-based beverages

 Disruptive innovation, where marketers innovate to enter white space (new categories or business models) to
serve new or unmet needs, reach new opportunities, and engage with consumers in pioneering ways—such as
plant-based beverages as alternatives to dairy milks

 Renovation of an existing brand’s positioning, product, or packaging to deliver improved benefits—such as

cookies without trans fats; this underused approach can benefit growth by delivering meaningful differentiation
to the entire brand in a cost-efficient way

Consumer insights
A consumer insight is an interpretation used by businesses to gain a deeper understanding of how their audience
thinks and feels. Analysing human behaviours allows companies to really understand what their consumers want
and need, and most importantly, why they feel this way.

A consumer insight (or customer insight) is the information about a specific group of buyers and what they want.
This data provides an in-depth look at how the consumers interact with your marketing content, sales team,
support representatives, and product. With this critical knowledge, companies have a strong foundation for
deciding what to pursue as an organization.

Collecting Consumer Insight Data

When consumer insight research is conducted properly, it should improve the effectiveness of how a company
communicates to its customers, which is likely to change consumer behaviour, and therefore increase sales.

But collecting good consumer insights can be challenging, so here is what you need in order to collect and use
consumer insights properly:

1. Good data quality

Data quality is vital to the collection of consumer insights. Without high-quality data, your conclusions or results
might suffer.

2. A dedicated analytics team

The role of your data analytics team is essential in order to understand how your customers think and behave. If
you don’t have the right analytics team, it’s hard to understand what the data is telling you.

3. Consumer research

It’s important to understand and acknowledge consumer behaviour and consumer insights should help you
engage with customers emotionally. In order to do that, it’s essential not to ignore the results of your consumer
research, whether you agree with them or not.

4. Database and segment marketing

Database marketing is a form of marketing using databases of customers to generate personalised

communications. These databases can lead to personas, different sets of audiences or segments. As consumer
insights remain theoretical, database marketing is another essential element to your research when it comes to
testing and learning. Indeed, test actions are necessary if you want to turn insights into facts.

Market research vs consumer insights

Market research can be defined as an effort to gather information about customers or markets. It provides
information about market needs, market sizes, competitors and customers. It is the “what” of customers and
markets.

Market research delivers statistics and knowledge.

Consumer insights deliver the same, but tend to come with recommended actions that will help you amplify the
company’s growth. This means the team in charge of consumer insights will deliver both data and narrative,
allowing you to make use of the data.

Long story short, research tells us what is happening, whereas consumer insights tell us why it’s happening, and
will allow us to make changes to our business in order to improve customer satisfaction, customer retention, and
increase our bottom bottom line.
 Consumer insights;

 Help analyse the competition Whether or not you are the market leader in your industry, looking at how
consumers talk about products and services in your industry can reveal a lot about consumers’ needs,
and what you can implement to improve your own product, service, or business.

Consumer insights help improve the customer journey

.
 Consumer insights can also help companies map their customer journey and identify any gaps where
there might be some, as well as find what works best, and what can be improved for a better user
experience and customer journey, from awareness to purchase and advocacy.
 Consumer insights help personalise your marketing
Mass marketing is a strategy in which a company decides to ignore targeted marketing and speak to a whole
market instead. Today, companies offering a service or product used by many still tend to use mass marketing,
like this toothpaste advert. Indeed, by definition of mass marketing advertising, mass-market products do not
necessarily need to personalise their communications in order to sell more.

But in a world where competition is so tough, personalisation has become a necessity for many retail brands out
there. Targeted and personalised help communicate a better, clearer message, and therefore attract and retain
customers.

That’s why consumer insights can help businesses understand why people buy certain products over other ones
and what’s driving those preferences.

This can help you refine your personas, and determine the best way to speak to your different audience segments.
Here are a couple of examples of personalised marketing.

Very uses personalised messaging based on sign-in information and seasonal weather data to make a more
intimate connection with the site visitor.

Insights are essential to learn about and understand your audience better, as well as find deeper, more actionable
insights to improve the way you market your business.

Getting started with consumer insights

 Establish what you want to learn: before conducting research, make sure you know what (and how) you’ll get
your data.
 Identify your resources: How will you obtain data, who’s going to collect it, who’s going to analyse it? Make sure
you have enough time and employees dedicated to getting and using your consumer insights.
 What’s your collection method?: How you’ll collect data is extremely important. Are you targeting a specific
audience? Existing consumers? Will you use a survey? A focus group?
 How will you use the data? Make sure your efforts are not going to waste. It’s important to plan and think ahead.
Once you have the data, start thinking about what departments, processes, strategies, and initiatives might be
affected and what the plan is for that.

Types of consumer insights

With endless online data streaming in every second of every day, there are an infinite number of angles you can
take when formulating your company’s consumer insights. Mine for consumer data using a multi-faceted strategy
to see the full consumer journey and gain actionable insights.

There are several ways to gather customer insights for your company, but it’s best to start by having conversations
with your buyers across multiple mediums. You can also collect customer interaction data from other
touchpoints. From there, use technology to organize and interpret the datasets.

The most popular types of consumer insight tools and sources include:

 Predictive search: Study how people search for your products and how they conduct research prior to purchase.
What questions do they type or say into the search engine? Figure out what they want to know more about, then
create content and digital ad campaigns centered around answering those consumer questions.
 Shopping insights: Evaluate organic search data to identify which brands and products rank most popular in your
industry and market. See what kind of content makes the top of page 1 — is it a video, business blogs or mostly
related organic news and educational websites? Or, is it a snippet provided to answer the consumer’s question
at a glance? No need to reinvent the wheel when you can learn what works for others and apply those lessons to
your own content strategy.

 Mobile mining: More people search the internet on their smartphones than any other device, often using voice-
assisted technology to ask questions and find information. Pay attention to what mobile users search for and how
they’re phrasing their inquiries so you can better target your digital marketing strategy around those words and,
most importantly, provide the answers they’re looking for online.

 Content analysis: A look at your website’s page-by-page performance will provide insight into your most popular
landing pages and pieces of online content, which you can amplify through the rest of your digital marketing
channels. Which blogs consistently drive the most traffic? Identify keywords you wish to rank for but lack a
sufficient amount of relevant online content to cover that topic.

 Competitive analysis: You know your strengths, but do you also know your weaknesses? Look at the content
produced by your competitors that rank higher for a particular phrase, video topic or search result. Fill those
content gaps to strategically improve online performance and drive more traffic away from the competition and
to your site instead.

Types of consumer insights

Consumer insights come in various forms. Learning about the different types of customer data will help you know
what to look for when it comes time to collect and analyze insights.

1. Firmographic data
 For business to business (B2B) companies, this information describes the attributes of the businesses that
are using your product or service. Firmographic data typically includes details like the size, location, and
industry of the company.
2. Usage information
Usage data indicates consumer behavior, such as how people use your product or service and exactly
what that looks like. These insights might show whether your customers use your product weekly or
whether they use it several times a day, for example.
3. Customer loyalty information
This data reveals how happy people are with your business. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a common way
to measure customer loyalty; it entails sending customers a one-question survey and asking how likely
they are to recommend your product or service to other people.
4. Customer service data
As you might have inferred, this data divulges the quality and the context of customer interactions with
your support team. What are customers saying to your representatives, and what do they want to know?
Is there anything they’re upset by or don’t understand?
5. Competitor data
This information indicates how competitors are running their companies and how you can position
yourself to stand out. You’ll likely need to conduct market research or consumer research to collect
competitor data.

Competitive analysis

What is competitor analysis?

Competitor analysis is the process of evaluating your competitors’ companies, products, and marketing
strategies.

A competitive analysis - also known as a competitor analysis - is a process of evaluating what your current and
potential competitors are up to. It involves looking at what the businesses you compete with are doing, and,
more importantly, deciding on what you can do in response.
Competitor analysis is about understanding your competition by evaluating:
 their products,
 their marketing and sales strategies,
 their customers and audience,
 and their strengths and weaknesses.
So it’s less about just comparing prices and more about understanding the businesses operating in your niche,
and what advantages you might have over them.
Analysing competitors is a crucial step in your business planning process. Ultimately, you’re going head-to-head
with your competition to win the loyalty of the exact same customer base. Competitor analysis is a tool that
reveals critical insights that can help you come out on top in this race.
What is a competitor analysis?
A competitor analysis, also referred to as a competitive analysis, is the process of identifying competitors in your
industry and researching their different marketing strategies. You can use this information as a point of
comparison to identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses relative to each competitor.

You can do a competitor analysis at a high level, or you can dive into one specific aspect of your competitors’
businesses. This article will focus on how to conduct a general competitive analysis, but you’ll want to tailor this
process to match the needs and goals of your business.

Why do a competitor analysis?

More often than not, small business owners find themselves juggling many tasks at once. Even amid a busy
schedule, though, it’s worth taking the time to do a competitor analysis. It can benefit your business by helping
you:

 Identify your business’s strengths and weaknesses.

 Understand your market.
 Spot industry trends.
 Set benchmarks for future growth.

i. Identify your business’s strengths and weaknesses

By studying how your competitors are perceived, you can draw conclusions about your own brand’s strengths
and weaknesses. Knowing your company’s strengths can inform your positioning in the market, or the image of
your product or service that you want members of your target audience to have in their minds. It’s essential to
clearly communicate to potential customers why your product or service is the best choice of all those available.

Being aware of your company’s weaknesses is just as important in helping your business grow. Understanding
where you fall short of your customers’ expectations can help you identify areas where you may want to invest
time and resources.

You might learn that customers prefer your competitors’ customer service, for example. Study your competition
to find out what they’re doing right, and see what you can apply to your business.

ii. Understand your market

While identifying competitors, you may find companies that you didn’t know about or that you didn’t consider
part of your competition before. Knowing who your competitors are is the first step to surpassing them.

Conducting a thorough assessment of what your competitors offer may also help you identify areas where your
market is underserved. If you find gaps between what your competitors offer and what customers want, you can
make the first move and expand your own offerings to satisfy those unmet customer needs.

iii. Spot industry trends

Studying the competition can also help you see which way the industry as a whole is moving. However, you should
never do something just because your competitors are doing it. Copying the competition without really
considering your own place in the market rarely, if ever, leads to success.

If you see your competitors doing something that you’re not, don’t rush to replicate their offering. Instead,
evaluate what your customers’ needs are and how you can create value for them. It’s often better to zag when
everyone else zigs.
 iv. Set benchmarks for future growth
When doing a competitor analysis, you should include companies that are both larger and smaller than your own.
Studying well-established businesses in your industry can give you a model of what success looks like and a
reference point against which to compare your future growth. On the other hand, researching new entrants into
your industry tells you what companies may threaten your market share in the future.

When should you do a competitor analysis?

Conducting a thorough competitive analysis is always a good idea when starting a new business. However, a
competitor analysis isn’t just for startups. It’s a tool that can—and should—be used at every stage of the business
life cycle. Periodically revisiting and updating your competitor analysis, or conducting one from scratch, will help
you identify new trends in the market and maintain a competitive advantage over other companies in your
industry.

How to do a competitor analysis

Figuring out what to focus on when conducting a competitive analysis can be tricky. Below are 6 steps to help you
get started. Before you begin your competitor analysis, consider what you want to get out of it. Add any other
areas of research that align with these goals.

1. Identify your competitors

To create a list of potential competitors, consider where your customers would turn if they didn’t buy from your
company. An easy way to start is to search your product name or category on Google or another search engine
and explore the results. You can also survey or interview existing customers to ask them what alternatives they
considered before deciding on your product or service.
 Direct competitors
Direct competitors sell a similar product or service to a similar target audience. These are likely the companies
that first come to mind when you think of your competition. For example, McDonald’s likely considers other fast
food burger chains like Wendy’s and Burger King to be its direct competitors.
 Indirect competitors
Indirect competitors sell a different product or service in the same category but target an audience similar to
yours.
 Replacement competitors
Replacement competitors exist outside your product category, but they satisfy a similar customer need. For KFC,
replacement competitors could be any solution that consumers turn to when they’re hungry, including products
such as frozen meals. Of the 3 types of competitors, replacement competitors are the hardest to identify.

When conducting a competitor analysis, you should focus most of your attention on direct and indirect
competitors. Still, it’s worth briefly taking stock of potential replacement competitors that could threaten your
business prospects.

2. Create a competitor matrix

Before you dive into your competitor analysis, take a moment to get organized. A competitor matrix, also known
as a competitor grid, is a table or spreadsheet you can use to compile your research. This will make it easier to
compare your findings across competitors and spot larger trends.

Start by devoting one row or column to each competitor that you’ve identified. On the other axis, list data points
or categories of information you’d like to find out about each competitor. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what you
should be looking for at this point. You can also always add more categories as you progress through your
research.
 3. Gather background information
Once you have a list of competitors to research, start learning about their businesses. Look for the most basic
information first, and then build your way up from there. Start by looking at company websites, social media
pages, and any news articles that have been published about them. Here’s some basic information that you may
want to look for.
 Company history
This includes information such as founding date, funding sources, and any mergers or acquisitions they have been
involved with. You can often find this information by reading the “About” section of their website or browsing
past press releases from the company. Studying how your competitors got to where they are today will give you
a more complete understanding of their businesses.
 Location
This will vary greatly based on your industry. If you’re in the e-commerce business, you could be competing
against companies that sell their products worldwide. For traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, your
competition is likely highly localized. Either way, it’s always smart to know where your competition is based and
where they sell.
 Company size
How many people do your competitors employ? LinkedIn and Glassdoor are helpful resources for this kind of
data. You’ll also want to look into how many customers your competitors have and how much revenue they
generate. This information will likely be easily accessible online for larger companies. For smaller and privately
held companies, you might have to make do with rough estimates. Knowing how large your competitors are will
help you better contextualize the rest of the data you collect.

4. Profile your competition’s target customers

A company is nothing without its customers. Getting an idea of who your competitors sell to will tell you a lot
about their businesses. To pinpoint the target customer for any business:

 Read their mission statement.

 Look at what kind of messaging they use.
 Track who they interact with on social media.
 See if they feature any existing customers in their content.

Use this information to construct a profile of who your competitors are trying to reach with their products or
services. These customer profiles will probably resemble your own target customers—these are your
competitors, after all—so make note of even small differences.

5. Focus on the 4 P’s

Now that you’ve identified the target customer for each competitor, it’s time to look into how they go about
reaching that segment of the market. This will require a deep dive into their marketing strategies.

The marketing mix, also known as the 4 P’s—product, price, promotion, and place—covers the must-have
elements when bringing a product to market. As part of your research, ask yourself the following questions for
each competitor you’ve selected.

Product

 What are they selling?

 What features are included in their product or service?
 What is most appealing to customers about the product or service? What are some weak points of the product
or service? (Pro tip: Check out customer reviews.)
 Price

 What kind of pricing model do they use? Is it a one-time purchase or a subscription?

 How much do they charge for their product or service? Do they offer sales or discounts?
 How does their pricing reflect the quality, or perceived quality, of their product or service?

Promotion

 How do they get the word out about their product or service? What advertising channels (social media, email
marketing, print advertisements, etc.) do they use?
 What elements of their product or service do they emphasize? What’s their unique selling proposition?
 What’s their company story? How do they talk about their brand?

Place

 Where do they sell their product? Do they sell online or in brick-and-mortar locations?
 Do they sell to customers directly, or do they partner with retailers or third-party marketplaces?

These questions are meant to be a starting point. Feel free to expand on them and tailor your questions to your
industry and the goals of your research.

You’ll likely find a lot of information. Try to condense your findings into short bullet points that you can easily
reference later. Be sure to include quantitative data where appropriate if you’re able to find it.

6. Analyze strengths and weaknesses—yours and your competitors’

Using the information you’ve collected, consider the strengths and weaknesses of each of your selected
competitors. Ask yourself why consumers choose a particular company’s product or service over the other
available options. Record your conclusions in your spreadsheet.

Last, consider your own company’s strengths and weaknesses. How does your business compare to the
competitors you’ve researched? Knowing what sets your business apart from the competition—and where it falls
short of expectations—can help you better serve your target customers.

What to analyse

1. Business & Company metrics

1.1. Company overview

Your analysis should start with digging up the basic info about your competitors: things like the company’s
founding year, the names of the CEO and other key people, locations of the company’s offices, how many
employees work there, etc.

You’ll usually find bits of this information on competitors’ websites. The company’s LinkedIn profile is
often useful, particularly for employee counts.
Your competitors’ job openings can also be found on their websites, LinkedIn, and job search sites. Knowing
who they are hiring and which teams they are expanding will give you an idea of what steps they’re about
to take, both product- and marketing-wise

1.2. Funding

Knowing when, how much, and from whom your competitors received funding can also be important,
particularly if you plan on raising capital yourself. It will give you a solid idea on how much funding you can
expect to get.

1.3. Revenue & customers

Your competitors’ revenue and number of customers deserve a separate section in your spreadsheet. For
some companies, you’ll be able to find estimates, but those will often be very rough. A Google search for
the name of your competitor combined with the words “revenue,” “customers,” etc. might lead you to
interviews or press releases where the companies share this information (because, well, everyone li kes to
brag).

2. Product

It’s time to evaluate your competitors’ products or services, the actual things they’re selling. What kind of
technology are they using to build it? What is their core selling point? Are there any perks that come with
the product: a freemium version, complementary free tools, or services?

 Product features

Let’s get down to the core of your competitors’ business – their product and its key features. A word of
caution: this will likely be the longest bit of your spreadsheet.

It’s a good idea to divide the features into groups of related ones to keep things organized.

 Pricing

Assessing competitors’ pricing pages is another crucial step in your analysis (if pricing isn’t available on their
website, try reaching out to their sales team).

Here are some questions to consider:

 Can you uncover a segment of the market that doesn’t seem to be fully served by competitors’
plans?

 Say, do they have an affordable plan for startups or small businesses? Discounts for students or
non-profits?

 Are there data-heavy options available for agencies and big brands, with Enterprise features like an
API or white-label options?

Another thing you can draw from competitors’ pricing is great ideas for A/B testing. Do they offer monthly
or annual plans? (If it’s both, what is the default option?) How many packages have they got? Identify the
opportunities for your experiments, and prioritize the ones that are common for several competitors.
  Perks

Dig through your competitors’ websites to see if they offer something c omplimentary with their product.
Do they have a free trial or a freemium version? Are there any “free” tools their customers get access to,
or perhaps a perks program in partnership with other tools?

 Technology

Competitors’ technology is an important aspect to assess for tech companies. On top of that, looking at
competitors’ job postings (yes, again) is a great way to see what kind of technology stack they’re using by
analyzing the skills they require from candidates. To look for job openings, check your competitors’ websites
and job search sites

Just type in the URL, and you’ll be able to see what technology the website runs on, along with any third -
party scripts and plugins it uses, everything from analytics systems, email marketing services, to A/B tes ting
tools, and CRMs.

3. Customers & awareness

Your next big step in analyzing the competition is looking at what their customers have to say about them.
In this section, you’ll look at each brand’s Share of Voice, the sentiment behind their mentions, th e key
topics customers bring up when they talk about your competitors, and more.

 Share of Voice

Ideally, you’d want to measure the market share for each of your competitors. But alas, it’s nearly
impossible. One substitute metric you could use is Share of Voice – the volume of mentions your
competitors get on social media and the web compared to each other.

To measure share of voice, create an alert for each competitor’s brand and see how much each competitor
is talked about on social and the web.

 Sentiment

The caveat of measuring the level of awareness a competitor has is that awareness isn’t always a good
thing. What if there’s been a data scandal one of the competitors is involved in? What if their customer
service is horrible, causing an influx of negative mentions?

That’s not the only reason why measuring the sentiment behind the mentions of your competitors is
important. It will also help you understand what these companies’ customers love and hate about their
product the most.

 Key topics

What do your customers focus on when they mention your competitors’ products?

What do they love and hate the most?

Identifying the key topics within your competitors’ mentions will give quick answers to these questions so
you don’t have to dig through mentions by hand. You can find these topic clouds in a social listening
dashboard. From there, you can click on any topic to explore the mentions in -depth.

Interestingly, these topic clouds can also offer insight into various aspects of your competitors’ business –
and they may help you fill the gaps in other sections in your competitor analysis spreadsheet.

 Geography

Looking at the geography of your competitors’ mentions will let you figure out which markets they are
focusing on the most (and, with any luck, find an area that isn’t too saturated yet).

Try adjusting the date range in the report to see if there’s been any changes in languages/countries recently.
This could mean that your competitors are focusing on a new emerging market – an opportunity you might
be interested to explore.

 Social media platforms

Just like with geography, this one will give you an idea on where your competitors’ audience hangs out so
you can use these findings in your own marketing strategy. On top of that, if you see platforms that appear
to be heavily underused (but do look relevant), those may also be worth experimenting with.

4. Marketing

 SEO

From the SEO perspective, there are two most important things about competition you should focus on:
the keywords they rank for and the backlinks they’ve got. The former will give you a solid idea on what type
of search terms bring them traffic and sales (so you can shape your own keyword strategy), and the latter
will show what authoritative websites in your niche link to them (those will likely be r elevant to your
website too).

 Social media

The next step is analyzing what, when, and how your competitors are doing on social media.

See which social networks they’re active on, how many followers they have, how much engagement their
posts get, etc. Those insights will be handy to benchmark your own strategy against. The tool will also show
you the best times and days of the week to post, based on the engagement competitors’ posts get.

On top of that, it may be a good idea to research if your competitors have a community on social media –
eg. a Facebook group dedicated to their product. How big is the community? Are the users engaged?
  Advertising

Identify the groups advertising strategy. Find out whether the competitor has search ads running, and, if
they do, what their target keywords are.

The Display section below will show you whether a competitor is running any display ads, and, if they are,
which platforms bring them the most traffic.

For Facebook ads, simply open a competitor’s Facebook page and click on Info and ads .

Alternatively, you can use Facebook’s Ad Library to search for your competitors’ ads. Find out how many
ads they’re running, and perhaps get inspiration for your own advertising efforts.

 Influencers and other partners

At this point, we’re interested in exploring the partnerships your competitors have that help spread t he
word about their products. Look at influencers endorsing your competition, publishers they work with, and
media platforms they guest blog on, if any.

This will let you see the most influential posts that mention your competition, including social media posts
and blog articles from around the web. Take note of the influencers or publishers they work with – chances
are they will be happy to work with you as well.

 Content Marketing

If content is part of your competitors’ strategy, it’s important that you analyze their blog and what they
tend to write about. Are the readers engaged? Do the posts get shared around social media a lot? Does the
competitor accept guest posts?

Establish the most shared posts on any blog within the past year, so you can get inspi ration for your own
posts and a better idea of what kind of content resonates with your target audience the best.

 Customer acquisition

Do your competitors have a referral strategy? Do they have an affiliate program? Do they sponsor or exhibit
at industry conferences? Do they acquire customers in any other creative way?

 Sales

If applicable, it’s also important to analyze your competitors’ sales strategy. Do they do product demos?
What does contacting a rep look like? Is there a phone number you can call?

The best thing to do is try and book a demo (or a call) with every company yourself, taking careful note of
every step. Do they require filling out dozens of fields for you to talk to sales? Will they refuse to hold a
demo just because your company is “too small”? Is their time zone convenient? How long does it take them
to reply?

All of this will help you spot strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ sales strategy to help you shape
your own.
  Customer service

Does every competitor offer Customer Support for all customers, or does it start with a particular plan?
What channels do they provide support on: is it email, live chat, phone, social media, or all of the above?
What is their response time? Do they offer Account Management for Enterprise customers?

Analyzing your competitors’ customer service will help you improve your own. The truth is, in large
companies, customer care is often almost non-existent; for a new business in the industry, that’s a great
area to capitalize on. If that’s true in your case, make sure to highlight the quality of your customer service
on your website.

 Unique strengths

Is there anything else that gives a competitor on your list an unfair advantage over everyone else? For
example, is their CEO or somebody else on the team an industry influencer? Does the company publish
amazing books that are also free? Have the founders launched successful products before? Make note of
each competitor’s unique strengths that are hard to emulate.

A step by step guide to conducting a competitor analysis

1. Determine who your competitors are.

2. Determine what products your competitors offer.

3. Research your competitors' sales tactics and results.

4. Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

5. Ensure you're meeting competitive shipping costs.

6. Analyze how your competitors market their products.

7. Take note of your competition's content strategy.

8. Learn what technology stack your competitors' use.

9. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitors' content.

10. Observe how they promote marketing content.

11. Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms.

12. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Analyzing Competitor activity

Step 1: Create a spreadsheet for collecting the data

The first step is the least interesting, but it’s important. You’ll need to be ultra organized when conducting your
analysis, so get a spreadsheet set up. Make sure everyone working on the analysis can access it.
And in terms of the content of the spreadsheet, we’ll leave that for later in this blog, when we present your very
own template for conducting a competitive analysis.

Step 2: Identify your competitors

It’s time to find the competition. Google will be a valuable tool here. But one important point to remember is that
you should always add modifiers to your search terms. These are additional words or phrases that will
dramatically narrow down the number of results for a search, and help you find your direct competitors more
easily.

Step 3 - Define your competitors by type

Once you have a list of competitors, it’s time to organise them a bit. The key categorization is to divide them into
direct competitors and indirect competitors.

Step 4 - Analyse each competitor’s value proposition and positioning

Now things are starting to sound a bit “advertising agency.” But don’t worry, fancy terms like “value proposition”
and “positioning” describe really simple ideas. Here’s what they mean:
 Value proposition - a summary of the main reasons to choose a product or brand.
 Positioning - where a brand fits within the overall market.
Analysing these elements are important, because they give you a lot of information about the company’s product,
service, and audience. And this gives you an opportunity to stand out.

Step 5 - Compile this data in one place

Add all the data you’ve gathered into your spreadsheet. You could create a scoring system to make it easier to
analyse and help you pick out key trends.

Step 6 - Find your competitive advantage

Here comes the toughest part. But this is the whole point of the exercise - to find a way to present yourself that
will give you an advantage over your competitors.
Start with your direct competitors. Look through your data to see if there are any gaps in the market positions.
Are there loads of competitors in the low-end side of your market, but very few in the luxury segment. Or perhaps
everyone is focusing on free shipping, but very little is mentioned about flexible returns policies.
Once you have looked through each competitor, you’ll need to turn the attention onto your e-commerce store.
Ask yourself:
 What are our biggest strengths as a team?
 What do we do badly or find challenging?
 What do we enjoy and value most?
For example, let’s say you realise that you are highly creative but not so great at organisation. Then it would make
sense for you to focus on building a brand people love by being active on social media, rather than thinking about
logistics-intensive benefits like flexible returns.

Customer Satisfaction

Many studies assessing customer satisfaction follow the same pattern, which can broadly sum up as having the
following phases:

1. Definition of the goal of the project and the indicators we want to assess
2. Definition of the survey model and methodology to use for evaluating satisfaction
3. Design, implementation of the survey and collection of data
4. Analysis and interpretation of the results
5. Identification of the critical aspects for improving customer satisfaction
6. Design of the plan of action for improvement

Gap analysis
The last of these phases – the design of the plan of action – is especially important because, if properly
formulated, its implementation will result in the desired improvement in customer satisfaction. However,
defining the actions to take is no mean feat: we must relate the aspects we have identified as priorities for
customer satisfaction to real and specific actions for improvement in the organization. It is not always easy to find
this relationship between internal actions and improved customer satisfaction.

What is gap analysis in customer satisfaction?

Gap analysis is part of Servqual, a very popular methodology for evaluating and managing service quality.
Specifically, gap analysis is an analytical tool proposed by Servqual to find out why customers experience low
quality services.

Although gap analysis was initially limited to the identification and management of service quality, it is an ideal
tool for the management of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is a broader concept that includes
service quality and other aspects related to customer satisfaction with physical products and extended/expanded
products (in the marketing sense).

How does the gap analysis process work?

Essentially, gap analysis is a tool for reflection that:

 Asks us about past causes of customer dissatisfaction

 Leads us to possible answers
In its classic version, gap analysis models customer dissatisfaction through five possible gaps, as shown in the
figure:

Each gap is a possible cause of dissatisfaction:

 Gap 1: Difference between Customer Expectations and Perceptions of needs by Management. Occurs
when the company management does not understand what customers really want.
 Gap 2: Difference between Perception of needs by Management and Specification of the service. Occurs
when Management understand what customers want but this does not translate into correct
specifications and orders to the rest of the company.
 Gap 3: Difference between Specification of the service and the Service produced. Occurs when the people
who “produce” the service are unable, unwilling or do not know how to reach the specified standard.
 Gap 4: Difference between the Service produced and Communication. Occurs when the service
expectations formed by customers based on corporate communication are not met.
 Gap 5: There is no clear consensus on what this gap means. Initially, it meant the difference between
Expectations and Perception of service, which may arise when the customer sees a characteristic of
service quality as something undesirable. But this gap is also now used to identify overall customer
dissatisfaction, which appears as the result of the sum of the other gaps. At Openmet, we prefer the first
of the two versions because it adds to the analysis of the causes of dissatisfaction.
 Over time, other possible gaps have been added (6 and 7) concerning possible errors in the perception
that company employees have of customer expectations.

When a customer satisfaction study identifies a particular problem (for example, dissatisfaction with customer
service at the call center), gap analysis can help us to explore the causes of this problem by asking the following
questions:

 Is this a “Gap 1” problem? Continuing with the call center example, this could happen if the company
management fails to understand the importance and level of response expected by customers from the
call center and does not therefore implement a good solution because of this lack of understanding. In
this case, a good plan of action to solve the problem could be to invest in a good marketing department,
market research or in increasing customer contact and orientation among employees.
 Is it “Gap 2”? This would occur if the company management properly understood the customer service
needs but failed to implement the specifications correctly in order to provide the desired level of
customer service. If this were the case, a possible plan of action to solve the problem would be to
systematize the specifications (e.g. through ISO/EFQM). Another possible plan of action would be the
implementation, use and monitoring by Management of indicators directly related to capacity and
satisfaction with the call center.
 … And so on and so forth with all the gaps.
In the end, what we achieve with this exercise of questions, answers and potential plans of action is a joint
reflection with the company management on the reasons for the dissatisfaction and the best plan of action to
adopt to solve them.

Gap analysis to be a very useful and essential tool for the true “management” of satisfaction. It ensures that the
study and survey of customer satisfaction are not relegated to the back burner but actually generate effective
and relevant change in the company, helping it to improve customer satisfaction and progress towards
excellence.

Process Development and Implementation

When a business is doinf well, an often forgotten ingredient to a well-run business is the development and
implementation of the processes that serve as the backbone for a company. Developing effective business
processes makes your internal activities repeatable and consistent. And the more stable your operation becomes,
the more you can distance your company from the competition.

Times change, and with such change comes the need to reinvent. So regardless of whether you’re trying to
modernize an old business system, or are creating new procedures to improve your business operations, you
need to have an effective new process development. The following steps are critical;

1. Outline the Current and Future States

No matter what process you’re evaluating or what it is you’re trying to achieve, you must first start by defining
the current state. Sit down with stakeholders, talk through the details of how things are done, and capture the
comments.

Key questions you might want to ask when defining the current state include:

 How do we accomplish this task today?

 Why do we go through these steps?
 What is the purpose of each step? Is it necessary? Can it be improved?
 Where are the bottlenecks?
 Why is this process not acceptable / does this need improvement?
 What does a better version of this procedure look like, in general?

Additionally, there are two great tools you can use to help with summarizing the current state and process flow.

 Process Mapping

First, consider drawing out a process map. To create a process map, identify every step in the sequence to
understand how information, data and work flows through your organization. Place Post-It notes on a large
sheet of paper that represent each step and place them in order.

Key information you want to record for each step may include who does the task, what software is used for the
task (if any), how long it takes, what prerequisites there might be, and what the output of the step is. More often
than not, you’ll find a number of opportunities to streamline activities and will uncover plenty of inefficiencies
that can be eliminated.

Once the current state is mapped, begin laying out the new process using similar Post-It notes. When talking
about the future state, think big!
  Spaghetti Diagram

Another great way to define the current state is to get a floor plan (or a virtual plan) and record the “flow” of
activity.

Spaghetti diagrams are particularly useful for revamping physical layouts, such as a factory or office space. Using
a floor plan or diagram of the existing layout, draw lines showing the flow of material or information for each
step. Once all lines are drawn, you can estimate the total distance of travel. From there, you can redo the layout
to minimize the travel as part of the future state.

The key to defining the future state and effective process development is to focus on the details of the current
state. The more effort you put into defining the current set of steps and understanding each piece of
the procedure – no matter how trivial – the better the outcome will be.

2. Establish Benchmarks for the New Process

Benchmarking, in short, is the act of learning how other people and organizations perform a given task, and using
that information to identify opportunities for your own improvement.

For example, if you want to improve your product development process, studying how another organization does
it really well can give you ideas how to improve your own.

The challenge with benchmarking, of course, is that you cannot simply go to your competitor and ask “Hey, what
sort of process do you use to develop new products?” But there are certainly things you CAN do to help you get
some information.

First, you can hire a consultant with expertise in your particular area of interest. Not only will he or she have
insight and knowledge that is particularly useful to you, they will also have seen how other people have done it

A second option is to get some intel via networking. Don’t be afraid to reach out to trusted contacts of yours at
other organizations. You may have a good friend who works for a customer, or a former colleague who works in
another industry that might be able to share some insights with you.

Lastly, ask some simple questions to people you meet at the next conference you attend. We’re not suggest you
go out and steal someone else information… but you never know what you might learn in a simple, high-level
conversation.

Regardless of what option you choose, benchmarking is extremely important because it can give you insight
into what is possible and can prevent missteps when setting up a new business or management process.

One final point: if through the benchmarking process you find out that no one else is trying to do what you’re
doing or doesn’t seem to be doing it well, there may be a reason! You’re either on to something great, or off
course.

3. Focus on Reducing Waste

Everywhere we look these days, we hear about reducing waste. From environmental conservation and recycling
to making businesses less costly, the reduction of waste is an easy concept to understand.

Eliminating waste is so important to business these days that companies spend millions developing efficient,
predictable and optimized processes and systems that will make the enterprise more lean and cost-effective over
the long haul.

Equipped with data you collect from benchmarking and the learning you obtain through activities like process
mapping, identify areas of unnecessary effort, redundancy and downtime. Locate bottlenecks and seek ways to
automate and upgrade business activities. In a factory setting, look at your trash can – what are you throwing
away?
To reduce waste, you might consider modernizing to a single piece of software that does it all for you so you can
apply that human power to bigger challenges.

Ultimately, to develop effective processes, heavy emphasis should be placed on eliminating waste.

4. Battle Test Before Deployment

Developing a future state process requires that it is piloted in a controlled manner to understand the kinks and
bugs that need to be worked out before the process is implemented.

To do this, collect a team of knowledgable people who will have the ability to squeeze out gaps and problems
and to understand the limitations of the new process against the backdrop of the entire area that will be affected.

If you’re developing a new engineering process, for example, but expect it to influence how the Project
Management team works, be sure to get input from Project Management. Avoid developing new processes in a
vacuum.

5. Define Processes as Frameworks

The biggest mistake companies make when developing a process and implementing it into the organization is the
philosophy that the process is protocol. It’s important to distinguish the two because while protocol is a set of
formal checks and balances in how we do business, process is a notional sequencing of activities in order to
achieve a desired output. When the two become merged, it results in unintended bottlenecks and inflexibility.
When developing work or business procedures, it’s important to keep in mind that process is a framework for
how things are to be done, but not necessarily the exact path for getting there.

When developing processes, it’s important to give the users of the process enough latitude to achieve the result
without giving them a script. If the procedure is too tight, you’ll restrict the organization from its optimal
performance.

6. Avoid the One-Size-Fits-All Trap

Particularly in larger organizations, it’s easy to fall into a “one-size-fits-all” trap. That is, there is a desire to use
the exact same processes throughout the organization, regardless of how well they apply to a given business unit.

While streamlining your operation is desirable, as organizations increase in size, there is a need for multiple
systems and processes that can be customized to best serve different aspects of the business.

For example, a process that has been developed or created to help your sales force organize and track leads in a
systematic manner may not be the most effective tool for Finance to organize and track payment status.

The key here is to be disciplined about how you go about deploying a new process into your organization.

While there is merit in making systems common throughout a business as much as possible, there is a counter
argument that would suggest that each business unit, team or function should have the ability to operate in a
manner that best serves their stakeholders.

In short, just because it works in one aspect of your business doesn’t mean it will work everywhere. Don’t force
it.

7. Implementation of New Processes Starts with Communication

Change management is within itself a process. A foundational piece to effective change management is to
communicate to stakeholders so they know what to expect and when. Email used to be a great way of doing it,
but email saturation is hurting communication these days. If it’s important enough, consider training and webcast
sessions.
 Communication should be well ahead of implementation so the organization is ready and able to absorb the
change to minimize the transition has on daily affairs. Process implementation, when thrown into the
organization in an uncoordinated fashion, can be a dangerous affair.

Creating Product Prototype?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a prototype as an “original model on which something is patterned”.

In lay speak, a prototype is a real-life, 3D version of your product idea.

A 3D printed copy of a toy design is a “prototype”, as is a paper-and-glue model of a new tool. If it exists
to demonstrate an idea or study its feasibility, you can call it a prototype.

You can classify prototypes into four broad categories based on their function and complexity:

Visual prototype: The visual prototype is meant to showcase the size and shape of the final product. It doesn’t have
the functionality, materials, or mass of the product. Rather, it simply represents its dimensions.

A block of wood shaped in the form of the final product is a “visual prototype”, as is a digital model made
in a 3D rendering software.

“Proof of concept”: This is a rudimentary model meant to demonstrate the functions and feasibility of the idea,
that is, to prove that the concept can actually work. You’ll usually use materials available at hand to create this
prototype. It doesn’t have to look, feel, or even work as the final result; it simply has to show that the idea is viable.

A great example of a “proof of concept” prototype is the original design for the Super Soaker. Instead of fancy
machined parts, it’s made from PVC pipes and an empty coke bottle.

Presentation prototype: As the name suggests, this is a presentation-ready version of the product. It is functional
and has the same appearance as the product. You can show this prototype to investors, manufacturers,
and prospective customers to give them an idea what the final result will look like. This prototype is usually made
from custom materials and manufacturing techniques.

You can see examples of presentation prototypes in concept cars created by car manufacturers. Since these are
usually meant for demonstration rather than production, these cars often use expensive materials and boutique
manufacturing techniques.

Pre-production prototype: This is a modified version of the presentation prototype. It has the same functionality
but is built using production-ready materials and methods. Manufacturers will often look at the pre-
production prototype to figure out how to mass-produce the product.
 Each of these prototypes builds on the former. You don’t have to go through all four stages, of course. You might
go from a proof of concept built from duct tape and paper to a production-ready prototype.

How to Create Your Product Prototype

If you’re reading this, you likely already have an idea for a product. This might be a simple sketch on the back of a napkin,
a 3D render, or even a fully-fleshed out proof of concept.

Your next step is to turn this rough idea into a functional prototype. We’ll share a process to create your own prototype
below:

1. Create a detailed diagram or sketch

The first step in creating a prototype is to create a detailed concept sketch or diagram. Your objective should be to capture
as many ideas as possible in a visual manner.

Ideally, you should have two concept sketches:

 A design sketch showing how the product might appear upon completion
 A technical sketch showing the product’s dimensions, materials, and working.
You can use software to do this, but pen and paper work better. You can even turn to these pen and paper drawings
when you’re filing a patent. Feel free to experiment and be creative in this step. You’re a long way from manufacturing
at this point; don’t be afraid to try new things.
2. Create a 3D model (optional)

The next (optional) step is to transfer your concept sketches to a 3D modeling software. This will help you (and any third-
parties such as investors or partners) visualize the product better. You can also use this model to create a 3D printed
copy of your prototype.

Another benefit of a 3D model is that you can use augmented reality apps such as Augment.com to visualize it in the real
world. This works particularly well to demonstrate the size, shape, and design of a product idea. It can be expensive
for a small business that hasn’t launched yet, though.

3. Create a “proof of concept”

Now comes the fun part: actually building the product idea.

How you build your first proof of concept will depend on a number of things. If you have a simple product that you’ve
already modeled in a 3D software, you can simply get it 3D printed to create your “proof of concept”.

However, if you have a complex product with a number of mechanical or electronic parts, you’ll have to improvise
harder.

Remember that the proof of concept doesn’t have to look good or even resemble the final product. It simply has to work.
You can even use common household products to create this early-stage model.
 4. Create your first prototype

Your proof of concept shows that your product works. Your 3D model shows what it might look like.

Your next step is to combine the learnings from the proof of concept and 3D model to create your first prototype.

This should be a fairly detailed model that looks like your final product and has the same functions.

It’s not always possible to create this detailed first prototype alone. Depending on the complexity, you might want to get
help from a machinist or a specialized prototype designer.

Since this is just the first prototype, you shouldn’t worry too much about the kind of materials used or even the cost.
Your objective is to get a working model that resembles your final product.

5. Create a production-ready prototype

The final step before you get to manufacturing is to trim the fat off your first prototype and get it to the production-
ready state.

This is essentially a process of cost and feasibility analysis. You have to go through every part of the prototype and figure
out ways to cut costs without compromising functionality.

At the same time, you should look at ways to improve the product’s aesthetics or durability.

For example, you might replace an oft-used plastic part with metal, and a little-used metal part with plastic. This will
help you cut costs while still retaining quality.

It helps to work with a manufacturer and figure out how different components in the prototype might impact its cost
and quality. You should also look at different raw materials and see which ones are more pleasing aesthetically.

Your goal should be to find a balance between cost and quality depending on your target customers. If you’re targeting
luxury buyers, for example, quality will be more important than cost. For budget customers, it will be the opposite.

Once you have a production-ready prototype, you can find a manufacturer and start selling your idea to the world.

Tips to Follow When Creating Your Product Prototype

Prototyping an idea from scratch can be complex, especially for a first-time maker. Following these tips will make
the process much smoother:
1. Create a list of priority features

It’s inevitable that your final product won’t have all the features you envisioned in your original idea. Cost
and material constraints mean that you’ll have to cut down on some expensive features.

Therefore, when you’re designing your first prototype, segregate all the features into three categories:

 Need to have: These are features you absolutely need for the product to work. For example, “portable storage”
would be a need-to-have feature in an iPod.
 Good to have: These are features that would help your product stand out, but aren’t essential for its functioning.
For example, the “click wheel” was a good-to-have feature in the iPod. It made the iPod much easier to use but
wasn’t essential to its running.
 Not needed: These are features that are superfluous to the product and don’t add much in the way of appeal
or utility. Often, these features are too expensive to implement as well. You can safely discard these features
in your design.

Try to have as many need to have features as possible in your final design.

2. Sign NDAs and file patents

You’ll inevitably turn to a prototype designer, machinist, 3D modeler, etc. in the course of developing your
prototype.

If your idea is innovative, soon enough you can discover someone selling it on AliExpress for a much lower price.
Even if they don’t copy the product idea, they might copy a new design or production technique that you developed.

To protect yourself from intellectual property theft, you can take the following steps:

1. File a patent for the product idea and design.

2. Ask all third-parties to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
NOLO has a beginner’s guide on filing your own patent, though ideally, you’ll want to go through a patent attorney.

To create NDAs, refer to this template.

3. Keep costs in mind when designing

One of the biggest challenges in creating a prototype is balancing utility and cost. You want the product to fulfill its
promised functions, but you also want to sell it at a reasonable price. An exceptional product that your customers
can’t afford is bound to fail.

At every stage in the design process, ask yourself two questions:

 Is this part necessary?

 If yes, what is the cheapest material to make it without sacrificing utility?
The cost of materials varies widely, even among materials in the same category (such as “plastic” or “metal”). Keep
this in mind when you’re designing your product.

4. Use standard manufacturing techniques

Another reason for cost overruns between prototype to final product is the use of custom manufacturing
techniques.

Essentially, any factory that builds your product will use some industry standard manufacturing processes (such
as “injection moulding”). If your product can’t be manufactured using them, the factory will have to create
customized techniques and train its staff to use them.

This can add substantially to the production cost, especially if you’re manufacturing in small batches.

Therefore, when you’re designing your prototype, keep a close eye on the kind of manufacturing process each part
will require. If a feature requires a heavily customized production technique, consider removing it. A prototype
designer or machinist should be able to help you figure this out.

Related: What Your Business Plan Should Look Like: Sample

5. Borrow ideas from competitors

Taking apart your competitors’ products can give you a detailed understanding of what works, what doesn’t when
making a product. This can be a massive help in designing your own idea.

Therefore, before you start creating your prototype, take a close look at your competitors’ products. Analyze their
materials, design, and manufacturing techniques. Look for flaws and opportunities.

6. Test your product prototype

Testing a prototype is an essential part of creating a product. It’ll help you identify weak spots in your prototype
and avoid going over a budget: it’s cheaper to fix a prototype than a final product. Not to mention, you’ll get valuable
insights from real people and improve your product to avoid negative feedback after you launch it.

You can test your prototype yourself and ask your friends to participate before you test externally.

When testing your prototype, be sure to:

 Determine what exactly you are going to test. “I want to test my prototype” is too vague. “I want to find out
if people can use my product to transport cakes safely,” — that’ll help you evaluate your prototype’s potential.
 Invite the right audience to test your prototype. Ideally, it should be your target audience. For example, if you’re
creating a product for students, it makes sense to offer them to try it.
  Set a clear task for people. It’s better to offer them a realistic scenario so that they understand what exactly they
need to test. For example: “It’s your birthday party. You’re looking for a board game that has simple rules
and is suitable for all ages. Play this game to see if it suits your requirements.”
Here are possible questions to ask your testers:

 What do you like about this product?

 When would you use this product?
 What would you change about this product?
 Would you recommend it to a friend?
 Would you choose this over similar products that exist on the market? Explain why.

Launching New Process

Product launch stages every business should consider to increase its chances for success:

1. Feasibility study & market research

Carrying out a feasibility study may be one of the most important investments you make in the commercialisation of
your new product. A product demo helps you understand if your product or service can deliver its expectations in the
marketplace.

Conducting both primary and secondary research, decides whether to progress the idea further into the New Product
Development process, cease immediately or delay pending further research.

Who is your target audience?

The first step is to define your target audience. You need to understand what the best way is to reach them. This is crucial
as it will dictate the language, messaging and the ways in which you communicate with them, allowing you to connect
with your customer in a way that resonates with them as a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. Understanding your
target audience allows you to plan, implement and evaluate your marketing process.

Is my product solving a problem?

Now that you have defined your target audience, you need to gather a proper understanding of the problem/challenge
that your product is going to solve for them. Talk to your prospective client and see does it fully solve their problem and
gather any feedback you can. At the stage it is also critical to undertake a Value Proposition Workshop which will allow
you to view your offering from the perspective of your customers. The outcome of this workshop will allow you to craft
your Value Proposition and your key messages.

The buyer journey

Understanding what your target audiences’ pain points are will be the foundation of all your sales and marketing
strategies. It is also important to establish where they get their information and who influences their
decisions/purchases. Each customer will engage with you differently depending on what stage of the buyer journey they
are on.

2. Meeting users’ needs

A good product launch plan should always put consumers’ needs first and satisfy them the best way possible. An effective
way to do this is to survey the market; answer the question, why would someone buy your product? Figure out how your
product could solve a problem, satisfy a desire or improve someone’s quality of life. These are all reasons why people buy
things. What is your product worth to your customers? Not “worth” in the way of monetary value, but how it adds value
to their general state of living. Understanding how your customers justify buying your product is how you can begin a
promotion strategy.

3. Know your competition

What sets your company and your product apart from a similar brand or product? Why should consumers choose your
product over the competition? What is it about Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee that people prefer over Starbucks’? The brand?
The flavor? The price? Identify your company’s unique advantages. How can you grab the attention of your audience so
they trust that your product will fulfill what other companies can’t?

4. Make a prototype and test it

To avoid the risk of investing in a product that is defective before it hits the market, hire beta testers to try it so they can
offer feedback on how to improve it, if necessary. This will help your business dodge undesirable customer reviews that
may damage your credibility in the industry, causing partners and investors to do damage control in having to justify their
involvement with your brand.

5. Reconfigure your product

Once you start testing your product and gain feedback from testers, friends, family, colleagues, anyone who can help
eliminate the kinks, it’s imperative to adjust accordingly. Making subtle changes here and there can mean a world of
difference in the product’s quality. Some of your friends may ask about a feature that you’ve never considered adding, or
point out that something isn’t quite working that you can eliminate. Ultimately, your product should “spark joy” and
interest; it should be something consumers not just need, but want.

6. Run the numbers

It’s wise to establish your profit margins as one of your product launch phases. Look at your existing products’
performance, if applicable, and determine the number of products sold, total revenue generated, break-even sales
volume and net profit earned. Then, work backward to figure out what numerical goals make the most sense. You need
to decide what to establish as a reasonable website conversion rate and then figure out how much traffic you’d need to
reach that goal. According to Campaign Monitor, on average, ecommerce sites convert 2% to 3% of their overall traffic.
Just something to keep in mind.

7. Create a schedule

A master schedule of each step in your product launch with specific dates and times must be established and agreed
upon by the team. This includes the responsibilities of each employee and department. The entire company should be
unified across all channels, whether it’s go-to-market, marketing, launch messaging or customer support. Create brand
guidelines for your brand’s voice and tone. Don’t enter the market without knowing how you want to interact with the
world and that consistency across all channels is key!

 Build anticipation by pre-marketing

A successful product launch plan is only as good as the work your marketing department put into it. If you try to build
anticipation among your audience by promoting the product prior to launch, the awareness will be more prevalent,
helping drive more sales on a new product.

A few clever ways to initiate a new product promo involves:

 Create a landing page about the new product on your website

  Create an email campaign that encourages signups to learn more about the product with a CTA
 Reach out to bloggers, journalists, and industry influencers that can help create content that will tease the
product
 Reach out to PR reps to create an embargoed press release that will have all media outlets talking about your
product at the same time when it launches
 Depending on your budget, you should advertise in as many appropriate places as possible that receive enough
traffic to generate interest
 Create the content early so you have perfected ad copy and images that you can use when your product is ready
to be presented

8. Build a solid supply chain

It’s important for business owners to take inventory of their products and ensure they have enough to meet demand.
The best way to do this is to establish a manageable supply chain. Work closely with your vendors and ask them what
their maximum capacity is for how many units they can provide at one time. Then, collaborate on how to scale
production in the event that your product launch yields more demand over supply.

9. Network and share your product

It’s time to launch! Once you’ve set a launch date, stick to it. This will mitigate having to update the media, customers,
vendors, anyone involved, of any changes.

When it’s time, promote the new product on your landing page, your email campaigns, and social media, and encourage
your contacts to spread the news as well. Don’t hold back, make sure you get the public’s attention on every platform
available. And if necessary, repost and share reminders in the subsequent days of launching.

10. Reach out to the press post-launch

Once you’ve launched your product, and good reviews and feedback start rolling in, reach out to the PR firms and media
outlets that covered your story pre-launch and ask them to share an update. Take your audience on a journey from
inception, to production, to commerce. People love to hear the origin of a great product, especially if they started out
as accidents. According to Mental Floss, Corn Flakes, the Slinky, Silly Putty, Post-It Notes and others were made
unintentionally. Does your company have a great product story? If so, we’d love to hear about it–feel free to post your
story on any of our social media channels including Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

11. Consider public feedback post-launch

Now that the product is available, brace yourself for customer reviews. Yelp, Google and other sites made for customer
feedback are the modern-day consumer reports. No matter how successfully you’ve introduced your product to the
world via a comprehensive product launch plan, public perception of your brand can be brutal if your organization
overpromised and underdelivered.

If you receive a negative review, be empathetic and always respond with a positive greeting and provide a short-term
solution to address the consumer’s immediate concerns and a long-term solution to ensure future customers won’t
encounter the same issues. Addressing reviews and feedback whenever possible demonstrates how invested you are in
your product and your customers’ happiness, which, in the end, will result in more loyalty and devotion to your brand.

12. Define your measurements of success

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurements to test the success of your product launch. This allows you to
improve marketing effectiveness and efficiency. To see where your product launch is faltering or succeeding, you must
have measurements for success in place.
Additional Insights

Pick the Right Team

Choosing the right development team is critical in launching a new product successfully. Obviously, having the technical
muscle on the team is important. Equally essential is representation from the company leadership team, project
managers, product users, marketing, public relations, sales and QA.
Why involve every department? Because product launch success depends on buy-in and collaboration.

Company leadership must communicate the value and importance of the project and create accountability for meeting
deadlines and milestones. Project managers and product users will be able to provide valuable information and feedback
on workflow. Marketing will help develop the launch timelines and will gain a deep understanding of the product’s
features and benefits that will translate into the marketing campaign. Sales will be able to provide insight into pricing,
customer requirements and product features, and will gain the intimate working knowledge of the product needed to
effectively communicate with prospects.

Timing Is Everything
Set milestones and establish a firm production schedule and new product launch process. For example:

Creating accountability by adhering to a schedule helps keep your costs in check and allows the marketing team to build
a marketing campaign based on the product launch date. Really think about the timing. When you launch a product can
heavily influence the success of the release. Timing a launch around a trade show or other event can help to generate
buzz and can serve as a terrific jump-start for the marketing campaign. Making sure key team members are available
during launch is absolutely crucial for troubleshooting unexpected system glitches and hiccoughs.