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- RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
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Sketchbooks Research & Analysis Ideas for Week 11.
Research and analyse the constructs of market research and identify a need and an audience for a new product or service idea.
To maximise the potential of any creative idea, you need a marketing strategy founded in research that identifies and understands your target audience, competitors, product landscape and testing using the minimum viable product.
Define your target audience
The first step is identifying your target audience, the group of people most likely to purchase your product or service. Start with the problem your product or service solves for a given audience. What are their motivations, goals, desires, psychological behaviours and patterns (Museum Audiences: How do you find yours? 2021)?
How to find and research your target audience, marketplace and landscape
Create a buyers persona or profile of your ideal customer or a person who would benefit from your product.
- Include age, languages, education, hobbies, relationship status, gender, location, nationality and ethnicity.
Surveys – Understand the human part of your audience by asking qualitative questions. You will need to make assumptions about your audience and product on which your questions can be based (Similarweb, 2021).
- Make use of interviews, focus groups and online questionnaires using SurveyMonkey and Typeform applications.
Collect data about your audience.
- Google Analytics allows you to analyse data for your business by providing information, insights and analytics to deliver results (Google Analytics, 2021).
Leverage social analytics to build and understand an audience using various applications.
- Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Insights.
- Use hashtags to allow you to start growing your presence online.
- Later is an all-in-one social marketing platform that allows you to plan, analyse and publish content (Later, 2021).
- HotJar allows you to understand how users behave on your website (Hotjar: Website Heatmaps & Behavior Analytics Tools, 2021).
Social Media Monitoring allows you to find out who says what about you and your competitors using applications like Sprout.
Similarweb is an online application to help analyse your competitors (Similarweb, 2021).-
- Fig. 1: Later, 2021.
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- Fig. 2: Hotjar, 2021.
Learning about competitors
A SWOT analysis gives you insight into your competitors and audience, allowing you to identify areas where you are more successful, refine targeting tactics and see how you stack up against your competitions. SWOT stands for strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths
- What does your product or service do better than anyone else in the market? What are your assets, resources, and prospects?
Weaknesses
- What can you improve on, what should you be avoiding, what are your limitations and restrictions?
Opportunities
- What opportunities, trends, or technology can you capitalise on.
Threats
- What obstacles or challenges are you facing (Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources | Section 14. SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats | Main Section | Community Tool Box, 2021)?
Understanding your marketplace, landscape, target audience, and competitors gives you a holistic view to creating something unique and
hone your value proposition.
Connecting with your audience to test and launch your product
One of the most memorable lines in cinematic history comes from Field of Dreams. A faint whisper tells Ray (played by Kevin Costner)
“If you build it, they will come….(“Field of Dreams” Marketing, 2021)”
This line is a credible approach to marketing to a specific customer base that brings all the audience, competitor and marketplace research to a conclusion. If you build your audience their field of dreams with relevant and engaging content, they will come.
Connect your content to your product and audience.
- Collect feedback by engaging with your audience directly using emails and your website.
- Join relevant online groups, forums and discussions.
Build up a dedicated audience who are interested in your product or service.
Audiences want to see themselves in marketing. How would this make their lives better? How does your product or service relate to their beliefs? If you speak to your audience’s needs and create a landscape they want to be part of, they will come (Museum Audiences: How do you find yours? 2021). Use your audience to test your product or service using a minimum viable product.
IMAGINE
Sketchbook Workshop Challenge ideas for Week 11.
My creative idea, targeted and researched to maximise potential
I am a generally fit and healthy person who takes vitamins as part of my daily health regime. But taking tablets is not a pleasant task, and more often than not, I forget to do so. At one point, I started buying kids multivitamins that came in a sweet or gummy form because they were better tasting, and it felt more like a treat than a chore to take them. This got me thinking, what if I could create a vitamin alternative for adults that came in a healthy gummy form.
Brand Story
Let's be honest, taking tablet-style vitamins isn't pleasant. They're dry as a desert, difficult to swallow, and can leave a vile after taste that lingers even after glugging down two cups of strong coffee. Nobody enjoys choking down these thumb-sized bits of chalk or, worse, garlic. But what if we didn't have to?
Introducing VitaChu, a technologically advanced, trustworthy, nutritious vitamin alternative. Available in a tasty, easy to consume, chewable gummy, VitaChu transforms your experience of taking multivitamins into one of delight and joy. You'll never forget to take a vitamin that tastes this good again.
Research
An analysis of consumer feedback through interviews and an online survey conducted through Surveymonkey revealed the following insights:
o Vitamin tablets are difficult to swallow
o Vitamins are an essential part of nutrition
o Most people forget to take their vitamins
o Common vitamins taken include a multivitamin, probiotics, vitamin C & immune boosters.
o People were enthusiastic about a tasty vitamin alternative in a softshell format.
Target audience
o Men and women age 24 – 45
o Health-conscious individuals, who lead healthy lifestyles and are conscious of what they put into their bodies
o Educated, middle to upper class who earn a decent salary
o Well-read, active online; keep abreast of the latest technological advancements, health, environmental and political topics
o Forward-thinking individuals who frequent LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, Podcasts etc.
o Individuals who lead busy lives and take advantage of technology and online ordering
o Elderly who struggle to chew and swallow
Competitors
Research into competitors and the competitor landscape reveal vitamins in tablet and capsule formats dominate the market, with sugary, artificially flavoured gummies available for children. A small percentage of the market is starting to capitalise on gummies for adults. Still, they are subsidiary brands, perceived to be unhealthy, with minimal product development and branding akin to children's pharmaceutical lines.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
o Great taste
o Easy to consume, chew and swallow
o The design conveys trust and integrity
o The name says what the product is
o The product has appetite appeal and is visible through the packaging
Weaknesses
o Consumers may presume a gelatine product to contain sugar, flavourings and preservatives
o Consumers may presume the product is targeted at children because they are only familiar with gummies in that category
Opportunities
o The majority of competitors have positioned themselves as fun brands more in line with sweets than pharmaceuticals - VitaChu can capitalise on the fact with a brand design that takes nutrition seriously.
o The majority of competitors are primarily targeting women - VitaChu can capitalise on a much broader market.
Threats
o Consumer perception that great tasting vitamins cannot be as healthy
o Targeting the elderly will rely on promotion through family members or physicians and not marketing
Marketing and Engagement
The marketing will follow the Ryan Reynolds philosophy of authentic, charming, witty campaigns that connect with people personally through relatable and humorous stories. The product and packaging are serious, not the marketing.
I need to educate the population on an alternative to the conventional, outdated way of consuming vitamins in tablet form. My campaign is inspired by John Mescalls 'Dumb Ways to Die.' A humorous, simple animation will combine story-telling and a catchy jingle to generate awareness around the outdated practice of consuming vitamin tablets in favour of a tasty, easy to consume, chewable VitaChu gummy.
The animations will show ridiculous ways of dying by trying to consume vitamins in an archaic tablet form – An oversized vitamin gets stuck in a character's mouth, and it dies; A dry vitamin gets stuck in a character's mouth, and it dehydrates to death; A character dies from the terrible taste of tablet vitamin; A character forgets to take its vitamins and dies; A character dies from the monotony and boredom of consuming tablet vitamins. The campaign would use various platforms for communication; YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr for viral effect; Sound-Cloud to make it easier to spread; and radio.
I will use social media as the primary platform from which to launch and market VitaChu.
o Join relevant online groups, forums and discussions around health and wellbeing to get conversations around VitaChu going.
o Piggyback off and get the buy-in of various wellness brands and influencers on Instagram by nurturing relationships through commentary and engagement with their content and target audiences.
o Targeted Instagram and Facebook adverts that are eye-catching with quick, clear communication that easily links to online orders.
I would like to get the backing and endorsement of health care professionals who would then act as ambassadors for promoting the product as a means of free marketing.
o LinkedIn would be an excellent place to find practitioners in the medical field and start-up conversations or publish interesting content that highlights the science behind the product.
o Targeted press releases and mailers to healthcare practitioners.
o Capitalising on my network of friends in the health care industry, including doctors, OT's, physiotherapists and Biokinetisists to collaborate on podcast and blog content.
o Recommendations and word of mouth within the health care industry would fast track sales.
Funding, Manufacturing and Distribution
In line with my business plan, this would form part of my yearly design sponsored project investments. My business would create and invest in all design and marketing communication. I would then partner with an Entrepreneur to handle the product development, manufacturing and distribution. My preferred partner is a current client, SPAR Pharmacy, as I have a relationship with them and Biodelta, who manage their manufacturing and distribution.
Distribution would initially come from online sales and in-store purchases from Pharmacy at SPAR. As the brand gains traction, the online sales through the VitaChu website, platforms like Take-a-lot.com and Amazon would increase, as too would the volume of stores asking VitaChu to stock their product without listing fees.
REFLECTION
As a designer, I have focused primarily on the design and packaging of a product with little thought to the volume of research and insight into a marketing strategy. Yet, understanding and targeting the correct audience is a key factor in success or failure. The design and packaging is only a tiny percentage of the overall process.
Reference: Ctb.ku.edu. 2021. Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources | Section 14. SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats | Main Section | Community Tool Box. [online] Available at: <https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/swot-analysis/main> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: Hotjar. 2021. Hotjar: Website Heatmaps & Behavior Analytics Tools. [online] Available at: <https://www.hotjar.com> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: Later.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://later.com> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: Analytics.google.com. 2021. Redirecting.... [online] Available at: <https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/provision/?authuser=0#/provision> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: MuseumNext. 2021. Museum Audiences: How do you find yours?. [online] Available at: <https://www.museumnext.com/article/museum-audiences-how-do-you-find-yours/> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: https://www.similarweb.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/research/audience-and-brand-building/target-audience-analysis/> [Accessed 13 August 2021].
Reference: Optimized-marketing.com. 2021. “Field of Dreams” Marketing. [online] Available at: <https://optimized-marketing.com/field-of-dreams-marketing/> [Accessed 15 August 2021].
Image 1: Later, 2021. [image] Available at: <https://later.com> [Accessed 15 August 2021].
Image 2: Hotjar, 2021. [image] Available at: <https://www.hotjar.com> [Accessed 15 August 2021].