"Preventing product flops early on"

MARKET RESEARCH Robert Lobmaier from Senso Plus, a business unit of Service Management Partners AG, on the use of different market research methods in product development. BY DENISE WEISFLOGMK Which methods are in vogue when it comes to the question "Who will buy my product?" in market research?Robert Lobmaier A product goes through various stages from the product idea to its launch on the market. At all these stages, it is important to know the market and to be able to forecast it using suitable methods. Classic market research does not always provide the appropriate tools for this. After the search for ideas and the preliminary selection, the product concept is used to determine at an early stage what the product will look like in terms of the combination of its product features - core product, formal product, extended product.MK What's next?Robert Lobmaier Once the concept has been defined, product development follows, in which the focus is on optimizing individual product features. In this phase, classic market research methods are recommended to determine the importance of individual product features or their acceptance by consumers. However, as soon as the product has been developed to the point where it is defined as a whole, a change in approach becomes necessary when assessing the product.MK What does it mean?Robert Lobmaier Instead of asking "How is product characteristic XY rated by my product?" you need to know "Who would buy my product with all its product characteristics for sure?" and "What changes would increase the buyer group?". This is where conventional market research methods often fail. Even with action standards, which decide on the basis of average values of individual product characteristics whether a product should be introduced or not, only uncertain predictions can be made.MK Which methods are more efficient?Robert Lobmaier Methods based on binary analysis help to answer the important questions mentioned above. This involves investigating which consumers would really buy the product and which would not. It is no longer about individual product features, but about the product as a whole. In contrast to the previous methods, the proportion of buyers on the total market and the expected sales can be calculated much more accurately. By analyzing the arguments of non-buyers, conclusions can be drawn about possible optimizations that effectively increase the buyer group.MK At what point can such analyses be applied?Robert Lobmaier Binary analyses, such as the Chance method, can also be used in earlier phases of product development. By rethinking from seemingly reliable averages to clear yes / no answers, many product flops can be prevented early on.