Most people think that business is as simple as coming up with an idea, bringing it to life and selling it on to consumers for profit. If only things were really this straightforward! Sure, large companies may make things look easy peasy, but don’t let them fool you. Especially if you’re looking at taking to the realm of commerce yourself. This is their job. They need to make everything look seamless in order to maintain a trustworthy and reliable image. To mimic their success, you’re going to have to mimic this laissez-faire facade. This is the easy part. Now for the tough bit: getting down to the nitty gritty of making things work well behind the scenes. But not to worry. We’re here to help! A great place to start is understanding the marketplace that you’re operating within. Here’s everything you need to know to get you started in the right direction.
What is the Consumer Market?
The consumer market is a term that refers to a vast area of commerce. It is the system itself that helps us to offer our goods to people and for them, in turn, to find exactly what it is that they want to buy. Needless to say, there are endless goods, products and services out there waiting to be snapped up. So you don’t need to be familiar with absolutely every aspect of the consumer market. This would be nigh on impossible, astoundingly time consuming, and most importantly, unnecessary. However, it does help to focus in on the part of the market that you and your company are going to be engaging with.
Market Research and Marketing
To achieve this focus, you will need to undertake market research. You can use the Kano Model for your research – see a Kano Model Excel Example here. The Kano Model is used to analyse consumer preferences for different features and group features into multiple categories. This helps product managers to prioritise development efforts. Make sure you sit down and consider what exactly it is that you have to offer.
Engaging with Feedback
Once your goods are out there, it’s time to start raking in some feedback from the marketplace. This will help you to see what you’re doing right and where you can improve. It’s important that you don’t become complacent as soon as you start making sales, as they can quickly dip if you don’t keep up with contemporary market trends.
By understanding the marketplace, you’ll have a huge advantage when it comes to making profit. After all, you need to understand people in order to sell to them!