Uncover the underlying needs of your market that aren’t being satisfied so you can address them with your product.
At this point, you should have your target market all figured out. The next step is to figure out who they really are – like Facebook stalking, but more professional. Afterward, competitive analysis can help you find out what kind of products and services exist and how you can stand out. The best way to do this is through the following four methods, which we’ll explain below:
- Analyzing Consumer Data
- Competitive Analysis
- Polling, Interviewing, & Prelaunch
- Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats Visualization
Analyze Consumer Data
The best way to start is to look at what people are searching for on Google Trends. Following our glasses box, let’s look at the search for “prescription glasses.”
We see that people who search for eyeglasses also search for fashion designers! We can follow the searches in this way and see what kinds of things our target market is searching for.
If you would like to do more in-depth research, you could order a consumer research report from market research companies like Mintel, Simmons, or Statista. These reports will provide detailed numbers on the percentage of people from specific demographics (age, sex, race, income level, etc.) and their answers to extremely specific questions on social media, shopping behaviors, and buying motivations within a specific industry ranging from beauty products to cars. While this is one of the best ways to collect information, however, reports are not cheap and can cost upwards of $300.
If you aren’t able to find good data, the best thing to do is to go down the Google rabbit hole. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Search for the queries you find in Google Trends and see where it leads you. Do you end up at blogs? YouTube pages? Retailers? Facebook groups? Subreddits? Do you find yourself looking at ads for specific products? All of this can give you a good idea of what kind of consumer bubble your target market lives in and how to reach them.
Competitive Analysis
Search for products in your category. Look on marketplaces like Cratejoy, Etsy, or Amazon. If you find a product or subscription box that already exists in your product category, don’t let that stop you! The primary goal is to uncover the underlying needs of your market that aren’t being satisfied so you can address them with your product. One of our sellers, Southern Scholar, addressed how he started a sock subscription box in a saturated market in his Merchant Spotlight.
Here are three ways you can gather information on your competition:
Order their product:
You can identify what you did or didn’t like about your competitor’s product and design yours accordingly.
Read reviews:
This will help you get a good idea of what people enjoy or don’t enjoy about your competitors. You’ll understand how to structure your business so you can hop in where the competition fell short.
Look for influencers:
If there is a specific blogger, YouTube, or other social media authority in a certain industry, learn about them! Look at the people who follow them, see what they did to get popular, and reach out to see if they’ll review your product!