#2 Product Management-Market Research
Competitor Analysis and Customer Research
How does a Product Manager know “what products customers need”, “the problems customers experience”, “the right solution to solve customer problems” and “how to make customers prefer to use our products over other products to solve their problems” ???
Why do customers use your product and even buy it? The simple answer is that they have a problem to solve and your product has a solution for it 🔥
However, to create a product that can solve customer problems, market research and analysis of customer problems are required. In the previous article on “Discover Initial Problems for the Product”, we talked about “how to discover initial problems”. In this article, I will explain about Market Research to identify customer needs and preferences in depth.
A. Market Research
Market research is a systematic way to collect, analyze and understand information about the market. This includes information about the products or services being sold, as well as about the people who buy those products or services. The purpose of market research is to help businesses understand their market, discover opportunities and threats and make better decisions based on accurate data.
How to do Market Research ❓❔
1. Competitor type analysis
Competitor analysis helps you understand your competitors in the same industry. It involves researching the products or services they offer, their marketing strategies, their strengths and weaknesses and their position in the market. Understanding your competitors allows you to identify opportunities and threats and plan a more effective strategy.
There are 3 types of competitors, namely:
- Direct Competitor: Direct competitors are companies or products that offer goods or services that are very similar to what you offer and target the same customers.
Examples : Tokopedia & Shoopee, Traveloka & Tiket.com, Coca-Cola and Pepsi and so on. - Indirect Competitors: Indirect competitors are companies or products that offer different goods or services but can fulfill the same needs or solve the same problems for consumers.
Examples : Udemy vs Duolinggo, Coca-Cola and Starbucks and so on. - Replacement Competitor: A replacement competitor is a different product or service that can replace your product or service because it fulfills the same need in a different way.
Example : Conventional Taxi and Ridesharing Apps (like Uber)
2. SWOT analysis
After finding the types of competitors for our product, proceed to analyze the SWOT of each competitor. SWOT analysis is a tool used to understand the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats faced by an organization, project or business. This analysis helps in formulating effective strategies by understanding the internal and external factors that influence success.
3. Doing one type of market research
There are different types of market research you can do, depending on your needs and objectives. The main purpose of market research is to gather information about the market, products or services and consumers to help you make better business decisions.
Types of market research include:
- Exploratory Research: Initial research used to identify problems or opportunities that are not yet clear.
- Competitive Analysis: Analysis to understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and their position in the market.
- User Insight: Research to understand the needs, preferences, and behavior of users or consumers.
- Beta Testing: Testing a new product with a small group of users to get feedback before the official launch.
You can choose the type of market research that best suits your preferences and business needs.
4. Customer research
Customer research is a part of market research that focuses on understanding customers’ needs, preferences, behaviors and views on your products or services. By understanding your customers better, you can improve customer satisfaction, design more suitable products or services, and build better relationships with them.
Customer Research can be done by:
- Creating a Persona: A persona is a fictitious representation of an ideal customer created based on data and insights gained from research. Persona can include:
- Create a Customer Journey Map: A customer journey map that describes the customer experience from start to finish when interacting with your product or service. The Customer Journey Map to be created is based on the problems that have been analyzed at the beginning (read on the link) so that the customer journey map does not widen and focus on the problem. The contents of the Customer Journey Map are :
Activities 1, 2 and so on can be filled based on the preference of the feature being analyzed. The activities are stages that will be passed to achieve the goal of a feature. From the persona and Customer Journey Map, we will see the pain points felt by users.
After conducting market research, the next step is to validate the data. Data validation is essential to ensure that the information that has been collected is accurate, relevant, and reliable before it is used for business decision-making. In the next article, we will discuss the detailed steps in the data validation process, including the methods used, tools that can be used, and practical examples to facilitate understanding.
Thank you for reading! I hope this article is useful and adds to your knowledge. See you in the next article! 🔜🔜
