Doing your own market research on a regular basis is essential for keeping up with current market trends and maintaining a competitive edge.

We make decisions based on our experience and knowledge, and 90% of the time miss out on bigger opportunities!

For example, the founders of a brilliant product idea for indoor air purification were sure that the relevant market context for their planning purposes was the indoor air purifier market. Accordingly, they spent 3 years developing a business plan in the context of the needs of that air purifier market but completely failed to notice the larger and more relevant new market opportunity for ‘smart home automation’ that was developing.

Option 1: Direct market: 20 players | $29B value size | +2% growth
Option 2: Non - direct market: 4 players | $130B value size | +17% growth
Completely different business possibilities in terms of competition, demand & business growth!

Tactic 2# Segment your users

User segmentation is not only important, but vital, in order to optimize your marketing strategies, maximize a user's value to your business, and improve user experience and satisfaction.

For example, the founders of photo editing software for Mac computers wanted to understand why their marketing communications weren’t working well with their users.

They were sure that their users were photographers, but when they visualized the photographers' context behavior, they found that only 30% had a Mac computer. They also needed to make 5 decisions before purchasing.

The level of demand for the software among these users dropped to between 1.5%-30%.

Instead of fixing the barrier and adapting the software to work with more computers, they looked again at the behavior roadmap and found another potential user that only needed to make 3 decisions before purchasing.

The level of demand for these users increased from 40%-100%! 

By building a user decision roadmap, they discovered a NEW user, which was a “game-changer” for product demand!

Tactic 3# Be inspired

A solid product concept helps you know that your product is on the right track. It lets you streamline your goals to build a product that adequately provides for your users' needs.

For example, In 1983, a 4-year-old girl kept asking her mother: When will we arrive? How much longer? How much longer? How much longer? 

Her mother, Jen, tried to answer and explain in any way possible, but the girl was not satisfied with the explanations given to her. Jen searched the library and shops for every possible way to show her child the sense of time passing, but the only thing she could find was a sand clock.

She looked at the sand clock and decided to translate its action onto the analog clock – this is how Time Timer was created, an analog clock that creates a visualization of time passing.

Today, the clock can be found in kindergartens and elementary schools all over the world.

Tactic 4# Maximize your product's features

As a product creator, you want your product to offer maximum value! Features should be evaluated based on quantifiable outcomes that will add value to the end-users.

For example, In 2007, Microsoft decided to launch a premium operating software named Vista, at an investment of $500 million. The public and media had high expectations of this launch, with a forecast of at least 50% of existing Microsoft users choosing to use it within two years.

Microsoft was so sure that the new technology would motivate existing and new users to use the software that they simply didn’t think about whether it was worth examining all the product features before programming. When the launch moment came, there were not many users. In analyzing the software version failure, they found that there were steps in the software that were too complex to understand – even among existing Microsoft users.

Good branding is based on how end-users think, feel and make decisions. Great branding also demonstrates the product value based on those end-user insights.

For example, one of Israel's most prominent entrepreneurs sent me a summary of a branding proposition for a new gambling app, along with a web design that his developers had prepared. The business idea had interesting potential, but I defined a low chance of success for it.

I gave it a low chance of success due to the failure to implement accurate branding.

The branding value opportunity for this application was to emphasize “moderate gambler” users. Moderate gamblers play poker games and slot machines, but in the web design, the developers demonstrated roulette and blackjack games – games that are more often played by heavy gamblers.

Thanks to creating the web design as a simulation, the developers could quickly correct the mistake without spending time and money.

Tactic 6# Validate your intuition

Jacob Nielsen, a product usability researcher, published a qualitative study in 1993 detailing why feedback from just 5 users is effective in running quick validation of a product. 5 users can identify up to 85% of possible product failures/problems, so there is no need to spend time and resources on more comprehensive testing for the remaining 15%.

In 2004, Coca-Cola identified a product opportunity among a new audience of 20-40-year-olds who liked the taste of cola but wanted fewer calories and sugar. They knew this audience liked the fact that Diet Coke had fewer calories – but not the taste. So that year Coca-Cola decided to come up with a new product called C2, which would meet that opportunity – 1⁄2 calories with the same taste as classic Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, they didn’t think about testing the product with users before launching. To their big surprise, the product failed.

A poll of their KEY users revealed that they didn’t want to reduce calories or sugar. They wanted 0 calories and a maximum taste. A year later, Coca-Cola already knew what their KEY users wanted, and came out with a zero-calorie Coke with maximum taste.

Tactic 7# Plan Bigger 

The goals you set for yourself will guide you toward your destination. Your final destination will depend on HOW you perceive your product's value.

15 years ago, during a semester break, I chose to fly to New York to do summer work at a mall kiosk. The first 2 days were a nightmare because I was finding it really hard to sell to Americans. They were always in a hurry and they were constantly being attacked by different kinds of salesmen, so they really didn’t have the patience to listen. I was very frustrated. My self-confidence was low and I felt helpless. There is nothing more frustrating than chasing after potential customers.

During one of my breaks, I noticed that the people who shopped in the mall were about 50% locals and 50% foreign, but no one tried to sell to the foreigners. They were almost like “Invisible People”. I decided to spend my time learning how to approach them. I started to ask workers in the mall who spoke their language, how to say a few Spanish words. Soon I composed myself a sales speech in Spanish. When I started to sell in Spanish, the foreigners were so impressed that someone spoke their language, that they called their friends over to listen. So, instead of making a 1:1 sales pitch, I was pitching to 4 or 5 people at a time. The enthusiasm was great and the sales were amazing! Every pitch led to sales for several people at the same time. In a few weeks over the summer, I managed to sell the same volume of sales as during their Christmas period! 

I identified a new position, that "game change" my business sales!

Tactic 8# Focus on how to motivate not sell

The purpose of successful marketing is not to focus on how many customers can get to know the product, but rather how many products can get to know the customers.

In their 2013 survey, Netflix discovered 3 important insights:

- Viewers prefer streaming channels according to which series they like.

- Viewers enjoy sequential binge viewing.

- To like a new series, viewers need to see more than the first episode.

Netflix examined how to impact buying motivation- releasing all episodes at once. By doing that, they created a new behavior "bing", which "game-changed" the streaming market.