Getting the most from new product research

Editor’s note: Steve Mamarchev is senior vice president of Research Dimensions International, Cam-bridge, Mass.

The first rule of computers is "Garbage in, garbage out," indicating that the quality of output from any effort is only as good as the quality put into it. In like fashion, the results of research depend not only on the quality of effort put into the project by the researcher, but often more critically on the quality of information given to the researcher before the project begins.

When doing new product research, the dialogue between the client and researcher at the project’s inception is key to properly establishing research needs, fully understanding research feasibility and arriving at a research solution. This pre-research stage is when to ask certain questions to provide the researcher with the information needed to develop the final consumer questions.

Therefore, any new product research project must begin by researching the client long before the consumer is asked a question. Each series of research questions is based on the 10 most common consumer questions that are addressed from concept generation and product development and refinement to evaluation and finally to tracking:

Client question #1: Where do we get new product ideas?

Before going to consumers, a researcher will want to ask a set of questions of the client, such as:

• Where are your company strengths?
• What opportunities are there for us to take advantage of?
• What gaps exist (or can be created) within the market, within the category, or within related categories?
• What fits with your company’s image, marketing goals, financial goals, and long range capacity?

The researcher must ask at least these questions because, while consumers can help generate new product ideas, they are least able to do so working from a vacuum. Consumers need starting points. These researcher-to-client questions are designed to find that new product idea starting point.

For example, a manufacturer had an extensive distribution network through newspaper stands and variety stores. It also had an excellent sales force to service this retail distribution network. This gave the researcher a starting point. We began by asking consumers "What do you buy in these outlets? When? What do you not buy in these stores?" Gradually we built a picture of what was appropriate to the store. From there it was a simple task for consumers to suggest viable new products that they felt comfortable buying in these stores. Consumers were further directed along lines dictated by the manufacturer’s production capability. The new product ideas were thus determined by what consumers need and what they expect. But the ideas were also generated in the direction of the company’s strengths.

New product research which does not take into account a manufacturer’s distribution system can be seriously misleading.

Access to new technology is another company strength that can provide a researcher with an important starting point. For example, one company had access to a new packaging process. The research objective was to first determine the perceived benefits of the new package, and then to determine which products gained a marketing advantage by having this benefit. Consumers can tell us what is most suitable for a bubble pack, or an Alu-pack or a plastic pouch, but first we must know where we are heading.

In one enviable situation, a manufacturer had resource capital (spare cash) and was prepared to try virtually anything. In his briefing, he said "Assume everything is technically possible, everything is affordable, and we are prepared to try anything."

We asked the client:

• What areas are most profitable for you?
• What opportunities are there for us to take advantage of? What kinds of raw materials (including people) are most readily available to you?
• What personally seems the most fun to you?

In this particular project, the last question was key. Commitment is highest when interest is high. And staff commitment can be the difference between new product success and new product failure. How many times have you thought about "fun" in a research briefing? Perhaps that’s correlated with the number of dull products on the market. "Fun" is the best starting point of all.

Client question #2: Which idea has the best potential?

Because some new product criteria are standard, some new product questions hardly need to be asked. Simple curiosity is often a critical factor in determining the eventual success of a new product idea. Degree of perceived newness is a related factor. Perceived value, perceived efficacy (where appropriate), or perceived nutritional value (in many food products), are a few of the many common factors that research can examine when investigating new product ideas, and determining which has the best potential. You can, therefore, expect all of these issues to be raised in the dialogue between the researcher and the client.

But determining potential means more than simply asking the first 200 respondents whether or not they are interested in trying your new product. A researcher needs a tight definition of the target group and, more important, a real understanding of your company goals. You can expect at least the following questions from your researcher:

• What is the purchase pattern of competitive products within the category?
• Are consumers brand loyal?
• Do consumers purchase from a short list of several acceptable products?
• Do consumers tend to purchase any brand that is on special?
• Do you have to overcome strong brand loyalty, or is this a category in which a proportion of consumers are adventuresome?
• What is the elasticity of your company’s name? (i.e., is this product suitable, in consumers’ perceptions, to your company’s existing brand name?)
• Do you want to provide a product that fits comfortably within your company’s family of products, or do you want to extend your company’s range?
• What is your company actually best capable of producing and marketing?

In another example, a manufacturer of snack foods decided not to bring out a health food product, one similar to a health food packaged cake. Research respondents loved the product. They understood the product. They knew when to buy it, how to use it, and to whom it would appeal. Had the product been launched, however, it would have failed because the company sales force and the retailers associate this company’s products so strongly with snack foods that they would have refused to shelve the new product with health foods. Knowing this, the critical research question was not "How good is this product compared to existing health food products?" but "How good is this compared with less healthy snack food products?" The product did not measure up when confronted with this important question. This excellent product had little potential until the company was willing to alter the perceptions of the consumers, retailers and, especially, its own sales force, which it is now doing.

In this situation, the most important question that the researcher had to ask was "Where will the product be shelved?" Forgetting this question can yield research that is reliable and valid but useless.

Client question #3: Which prototype product is best?

This question requires the researcher to ask the client in return:

• What does "best" mean in terms of product attributes or benefits? In terms of client image? In terms of market potential?
  
  If there is no knowledge in advance of which attributes or benefits constitute superiority, the researcher should ask such questions as:
• Is sweetness an important product variable?
• Is texture an important product variable?
• Are durability, reliability, style, crunchiness, lightness, calories, efficacy, color, etc., important to consumers?

We can easily investigate response to a product. Respondents can tell us if the product is sweet enough, if the texture is too thick or too thin, if the color is too light or too dark. But some questions are not quite so obvious. For example, if you have a dairy and you want to produce hot chocolate, should your product be the most chocolatey or the creamiest? If you are a food processor, should your complete meal-in-a-package be the most convenient or the most nutritious? One of the questions often neglected is "Should your product appeal to the buyer or to the end user?"

A product can never be "best" in a vacuum. It must be "best" relative to specific needs. Determining or deciding what the real consumer needs are, before researching "best," is the key to a successful research project. The marketplace is littered with the bones of products that were "best" in the wrong ways.

Client question #4: What should we name the product?

Each product has its own special criteria and demands its own special questions that the researcher must ask. However, the researcher will, most likely, ask the following types of questions of the client:

• Should the name have literal meaning?
• Should the name have literal meaning in both English and Spanish?
• Should the name be easy to pronounce?
• What image do you want to convey with this name?
• Should the name be memorable?
• Should the brand name emphasize or deemphasize your company name? How should it relate to your other products?

Client question #5: Is the packaging any good?

Normally three areas must be looked at when researching packaging: its intrusiveness, its memorability, the image it projects.

Your packaging is part of your advertising. It should be noticed, remembered, and should convey the correct information. A few of the questions you can expect include:

• What is the image that the packaging is meant to convey?
• What are the priorities between these several packaging objectives?
• What is the competitive environment?
• What are the marketing and retailing factors that will influence the success or failure of the product?

A package with a stark design will probably be noticed more quickly on a shelf or a billboard than a package with a soft pastoral scene. But the image of these two packages will undoubtedly differ. If a product is to be placed on a shelf in the middle of several brands, and, if the product must prove itself quickly or be delisted, then intrusiveness is probably the key factor. In this situation, the package must have impact, even if image must be sacrificed to achieve it. Thus, a researcher must understand the competitive environment, and any other marketing and retailing factors that are likely to influence the product’s performance.

In one situation, a manufacturer who was a market leader used consistent graphics on its products and shelved them together in one display unit. This gave strong impact and maintained an image of market dominance. A problem, however, arose whenever a new product was launched. It disappeared into the general display. A short-term solution would have been to give each new product its own distinct packaging. But the long-term effect of this "best" solution would be disastrous. In this example, the best solution was compromise. The manufacturer used short-term tags and overwraps, but left the general packaging consistent with the line.

Client question #6: Where should we position the product?

This question demands more advance information about the entire market than any other question. At the minimum, the researcher needs to know:

• What are the behavior patterns and attitudes of the potential user? Of the potential buyer?
• What is the expected usage pattern?
• What is the seasonality of product consumption?
• What is the regionality of product consumption?
• What have the market patterns been during the past several years?
• What are the available (and options) distribution channels?
• What are the current and past advertising strategies of competitive products?
• What are the potential benefits and positive attributes of the new product?

When a manufacturer decides in advance where to position a product, the most important question the researcher can ask the client becomes "Why do you want to position the product there?"

Client question #7: What advertising concept should we explore?

Client question #8: Which advertising concept is best?

Client question #9: How good is the finished advertising?

These three questions deal with advertising research, the area where research has probably been most misused. Much advertising research is conducted with little understanding of the strategic demands or of the reasons underlying the advertising strategies. And, worse, much research is carried out with little understanding and empathy for the creative process and input. There isn’t enough room to list here the many research questions related to advertising that have been neglected. It is clear, however, that to be of any help, the researcher must know in advance this history of the company, the product, the competition, and the advertising. And, the researcher must know the anticipated results of the new advertising before deciding what research would be of greatest value.

A mini-survey of creative and account personnel at selected advertising agencies was conducted recently by Research Dimensions to determine what they want from advertising research and what they dislike about existing advertising research. The biggest complaint was that the research often "does not define the problem well and clearly enough" in advance. It is not flexible enough to measure the "ability of an execution to fulfill a strategic direction." And the creative staff complained that research often ignores the creative aspect of advertising. In other words, the complaint is not asking enough questions of the advertising agency before conducting the research.

Research is used least well when it is brought in after the fact to perform a limited function or to answer a limited question. Regardless of the stage in the development of new products, research will perform its task best if researchers know in detail who uses the product and related products; what the frequency and incidence of use is; why the product is purchased; what the advertising is trying to accomplish; why and how.

Client question #10: How well is the product performing on the market?

In providing an answer to this question, the researcher is likely to continue the dialogue with the client through the following questions:

• What are your sales/volume projections?
• What benchmarks in the category do you have to measure your new product against?
• What is the time period over which success is judged?

Determining action standards in advance from realistic objectives and experience provides the basis for more solid decision making in the marketplace.

To go back to the example of the manufacturer with the visibility problem, the objective was to increase line sales through the new product. Had the new product’s objective been to sell a certain dollar volume on its own, the situation and degree of success would have had to be different.

In summary, when carrying out new product research, expect your research company to ask everything about the potential new market and your plans before approaching the consumer. Open and honest dialogue is the key to success.