Three ways to make sure your new concepts will win in the marketplace…
If you want your new idea or product to win in the marketplace it will really help to design and test it against these three criteria
1. Is it easy?
Will consumers find it easy to adopt? Is it going to be easy to find? Will they be able to work out what it is? Do they have to make any effort at all to get your product going? And critically does it make the consumer’s life easier? If you can say ‘yes’ to ‘easy’ then you are more likely to be onto a winner because psychologists’ experiments show us time and time again that people tend to take the easiest route possible in life (because we are cognitive misers). The success of ‘easy’ is all around us…technology successes are built on easy, as are financial innovations (cash machines, credit cards, on-line banking). The world runs on easy.
2. Will it be popular?
Products and ideas that succeed are by their nature often popular – it’s almost a tautology to say you need to be popular to succeed. But… the obvious is still worth considering. By asking yourself about popularity you’ll get an idea of your potential brand equity as well as your ability to shift units. And in research asking respondents how popular you think this idea will be taps into theories of ‘social proof’ – that we think and behave based on how others think and behave…So if research demonstrates that respondents think NPD will be popular, it gives you a strong sense that this will ‘play’ well in the market.
3. Is it original?
Another obvious question to ask, so perhaps it’s a bit silly to point it out. But then again, so many new ideas and products are just versions of something else. Game changers are original, so you should view your NPD in this context and be realistic about how well you can do if you lack originality. And… if you lack originality in your NPD it is always possible to explore ways to build it in, if not via product, then via brand personality, physical execution, pricing strategy… what are you going to do differently?
