Mirror, mirror…

A top 100 health and beauty company starts an initiative – add a new product to its personal care line. While they can see the financial benefits of extending their product line, they also realize the benefits of substantial due diligence before committing the necessary resources to a new product launch.

OBJECTIVES

Three key objectives are set:

1. Determine if the line extension makes sense.
The company has a well-defined and established brand. Adding a new product to the personal care line is not something to be taken lightly. Answer the questions: Does it fit into the current product line? Is it synergistic with the brand? Will this addition make sense to the consumer? And most importantly, will they buy it?

2. Develop a detailed persona of the target consumer.
Research to uncover the primary consumer for this product. Create a narrative profile that covers her pet peeves, attitudes/beliefs, response to messaging, what she expects from the brand experience, her media habits, and overall how she thinks, acts and makes decisions. Not only how she makes buying decisions today, but also how she will buy in the future.

3. Identify key messages for targeted communication.
During the validation and research process, search for insights that clearly show what messages resonate most with the target consumer. What is it about this new product that communicates with her on a deeply emotional level? And how can those messages be translated into the entire marketing/sales experience?

SERVICES

For this project, the primary service required is:

Concept Validation (link to more info below)

Validation of a new concept or product requires extensive research, typically on multiple levels. First, to determine the segment(s) of the market in which the most profitable and loyal consumers are most likely to be found. Second, to gain a deep and thorough understanding of how they respond to the product, corporate brand, message, and other variables BEFORE the company invests heavily in the venture. A moderate investment in validation research up front often prevents large amounts of wasted capital on failed ideas after the fact.

To determine the target consumer and validate this product, the following methodologies are employed:

METHODOLOGIES

The technology/methodology chosen for this project is:

• In-person Focus Groups
  Initial research is conducted face-to-face with groups of 15-20 women falling within the presumed target consumer group. They are presented with mock-ups of the product, detailed written product benefits, as well as other products in the same personal care line. They are able to see and feel the product and then give feedback as to its appeal – its “fit” within the full product line, what features they like/don’t like, and what would make them buy it. From this research, initial decisions are made on appeal of the product, key messaging and the target audience.
• Quantitative Online Consumer StudyAs a follow-up to the qualitative focus groups, an online quantitative study is conducted using a larger sample size of target audience consumers. This again presents the line extension product and key messaging to the respondents to validate the appeal, “fit” and acceptance of the line extension and provide a demand projection prior to market introduction.

RESULTS

(Due to the confidential nature of research projects and client agreements in force, specific results cannot be shared. Outcomes have been synthesized based on an amalgam of results from similar projects.)

The company learns what they needed to know. The results of both research studies are definitive – with an overwhelming majority of participants feeling that the new product not only fits into the company’s product line, but many of them even say that it “completes” it. The comments received show a very elevated perception of the client’s brand.

Through these studies, the company’s brand team also compiles a solid list of key messages that resonate with the target audience. In fact, the participants practically tell them how to sell it to them. The company and its marketing agency incorporate those messages into the launch campaign.

Finally, the company now has a detailed description of their most loyal and profitable consumers for the line extension. The company knows what she does and doesn’t like when shopping for a personal care product and her emotions toward their brand. This insight is invaluable for the company to use across all other aspects of their sales and marketing efforts.