Richard Washington on July 18, 2013
Market research is an essential cog in every corporate strategy. Knowing everything possible about your climate is the only way to enter the market and stay relevant. Much like baking a cake, a successful business wholly depends on the successful merging of all the ingredients.
"The African American male is the most imitated person on earth." Such is the infamous assertion of comedian and social critic Paul Mooney. You'll have to pardon Paul's hyperbole, but there's always a grain of truth in the best observational humor, and indeed African American males have been long regarded as trendsetters in the consumer retail sector.
Focus groups and surveys are core pieces of a strategic marketing plan and market research, particularly during the post-market phase of starting your business and taking your product to market. Managing your product during the post-market phase is just as important as every other step in the process of starting a new business.
In our case study, a proposed launch of a consumer culinary device called the Dynamic Ingredients Dispenser (DID), we discussed the benefits of drawing upon Market Research reports and methods to help with taking a product to market.
Richard Washington on July 11, 2013
Obtaining quality market research is a very difficult task. It is even more complicated if your livelihood is completely attached to the business for which you are researching. Whether you are a small business owner or a founder of a growing start-up, there is always sentiment attached to your business. They are like a child to most owners. Regularly, this connection is why a business flourishes. Like a child, owners want the absolute best for their business.
Social media is creating better opportunities to engage and share expertise, family photos, and self-aggrandizing quotes (ok, maybe I'm just talking about myself, but you get the point.) Specifically, Twitter has empowered us to drop pint size knowledge in under 140 characters. Its popularity is increasing with each tweet. According to eBiz, Twitter is the 9th most visited website on the Internet. From teenagers to corporations, Twitters' penetration makes it an attractive option to conduct market research.
You made the determination that a demand exists for your new product idea. The financing to get your business off the ground is in the bag; and you are certain that you have a great product to take to the market. However, here's a question that you must ask yourself. Does the consumer know how great your product is?
Richard Washington on June 30, 2013
Congratulations! You have made it over the first few hurdles in the process of taking your new product idea to the market. Now comes a big and important challenge -- raising the financing for your business.
As outlined in earlier posts, we're highlighting the important ways that market research can inform your strategic business planning and decision-making. Knowing how to skillfully use market intelligence will provide a solid foundation for your product's success.
Children have long held sway in regards to purchases made by the average American household--especially in regards to food and beverage products. Recent years, however, have seen moms' purchasing decisions increasingly influenced more by the internet and social media and less by the mouths of babes. According to market research publisher Packaged Facts, U.S. moms and the $200 billion they spend annually on food alone for their households are now so tuned into blogs and mobile apps when making purchasing decisions that marketers have had to significantly change how they engage moms as shoppers.
Richard Washington on June 23, 2013
After you have determined whether your new product idea or service is viable for starting a new business, the next step is to figure out what consumer segment is most suitable for taking a product to market. Your market research process is a major contributor to starting a new business.
In the instance of our case study product, the Dynamic Ingredients Dispenser (DID), we already have a clear sales strategy: the home consumer market. As a result, the next step is to get more granular and figure out whom the real target in the market is.
The recent Supreme Court ruling on the Myriad Genetics patent dispute was monumental for the IVD market. Its 17-year monopoly on BRCA testing for genetic risk for breast, ovarian cancer was brought to an end. According to Kalorama Information, this decision couldn't have come any sooner. In my opinion, they're right.
In plain terms, the Supreme Court ruled that a company can't patent genes that naturally exist. On the other hand, genes that are developed by a company in a lab comfortably fall under intellectual property protection. This is good news for the sake of innovation and progress in the Cancer Diagnostics market. Human genes can't be patented. It should be common sense, but we all know that common sense isn’t always common.
