4 Things To Look At When Researching Your Market

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, product, crowdfunding, market, research, competitors, visuals, positioning, launching, campaign, indiegogo, important, success, trends, types, brands, priced, seasonality, crush, pricing

This is the crush crowdfunding podcast, the number one place for people who want to launch on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. My name is Nalin and I invite you to join me for tips, hacks and insights to get you launched and fully funded.

Everyone welcome to another session of The Crush Crowdfunding Podcast. I'm really excited to have you here today to talk to you about crowdfunding and how you can absolutely crush your goals on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

I'm super excited to talk about our topic today because I think it's so important. It's something that people often forget and completely overlook. I mean, they don’t even forget about it but just overlook it because they think it's not important.

That something is...market research!

I know that this is not the sexiest topic. Just saying “market research” itself is unappealing. It's just not a sexy topic, right? It's dry. It's not exciting. It's not enticing. Press and media logos are a bit more exciting. But it's so critical to do market research.

I'm going to talk today about why market research is so important and the four core elements I look at when it comes to market research. The four core things include the positioning, the trends, the pricing, and also the visuals. Those four very key things are what I look at when I start any campaign, project, or basically anything I do in life. I always start off with market research. Those are the four core things I take a look at because, honestly, if you don't do market research you don't know what the competitor has, you don't know how you can be better than the competitor, or how you can succeed.

Let's actually look at a quote. It’s a quote from Sun Tzu from ‘The Art of War:’ “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” I don't know if you heard this quote before or not. I've heard it a million times before I actually associated it with market research. However, once I associated it with market research it was like fireworks started going off in my head because it made so much sense.

In ‘The Art of War’ he talks about the different strategies that you can employ in order to beat other people in battle. Market research is what will help you win in this battle of putting your product to market and making sure that other people want and buy your product rather than those of the competitors. It's what will help make sure that you know the lay of the land. It will help you to strategize in a way that will ensure people spend their funds on your project rather than on other people's. What you want is for people to spend money on your project because if they do then you have a successful launch on crowdfunding and they spend on your project when you're in e commerce or when you're in retail stores. You make more revenue, you make more money, you get more freedom, you attain more time, and you build the life that you want to live. So basically, it all comes down to market research. It's quite simple, really.

Market research is just figuring out what the lay of the land is. It's figuring out what your competitors have or what they’re doing. It’s figuring out what the market is doing- what does the market have, what do people like or not like about things that are already out there? What are people really craving? What are people requesting? What are people despising? What are people doing or not doing that makes me really want to learn more about this product? It's getting the lay of the land of your competitors, understanding them inside and out, and understanding the market. Having a lay of the land will help you know if there are things that you need to sidestep and help you know if there are strategies that you should completely avoid in your own marketing. It’s also important in understanding yourself in how you can position your products in a better way than your competitors or in a more appealing way than your competitors. You will learn how you can better showcase your value in a more effective way than your competitors.You can learn how to make sure that you present your product in a way that the same audience transitions from paying from your competitors product to your product.

This is also incredibly important because it sets the foundation for everything else that you do. It sets the foundation for all your advertising, journalist outreach, landing page visuals and colors, photography, and more. Market research gives you information about what people have done before that has been successful and what has not been so successful. From there you can pick and choose what you would like to model things after. Obviously you want to model after successes, right? You don't want to model after things that aren't successful.

If through your research you find that one product is doing very poorly in the market or one product launched on Kickstarter and completely tanked then knowing exactly what they did in their campaign, social, or outreach will help you sidestep that failure that they did. On the other hand, if you look on Indiegogo and you see a campaign that has thousands of backers and tens of thousands of dollars, then you can try to figure out what they did right and use that in your campaign. Figure out what they did and model things after that because success leaves clues and market research helps you figure out what those cluse are.

That's why I'm so passionate about market research and why I think it is so incredibly important for people to do when it comes to crowdfunding. Research gives you pretty much all the information you need to know to succeed. It tells you exactly what to do and what not to do when it comes to your crowdfunding campaign. So, be sure to not skip market research, guys! This step is really incredibly important and it's one of the first things I tell people to do. If people don't do that, it’s the first thing I put in place. It’s so important to hit the ground running by doing the research so that you are able to best strategize for a successful launch.

Market Research Trends
So now that we've talked about the “why” of market research, the importance of it, and how it can help you navigate to a successful campaign, let's talk about the four different factors to look at when it comes to market research. The first thing I look at is trends: the trends for competitors, the trends for the market, the trends for a season. Basically, I take a look at the wide ranging trends that we see in the market and how people use them. For example, if you're launching a new portable air conditioner you're probably going to have more success launching it during the summer than during the wintertime because during the wintertime people are cold already and don't need an air conditioning unit. On the other hand, during the summer people are hot and sweaty. People are in their shorts and tank tops and they're going to the beach. They're just really hot and sweaty and they want an ice cream bar to cool off. So, lo and behold, if you're advertising a portable air conditioning unit during the summer, they're going to be a lot more interested just because of the fact that it's so relevant to them.
Now there's a seasonality to crowdfunding as well. If you're launching it in the middle of winter when their state is under 10 feet of snow, they're probably not going to want a portable air conditioning unit. They're probably not going to want to support the campaign. So when I think about trends, too, I think about buying trends and also the trends in which products come and go right?

A few years ago drones were huge. Drones were a really big deal in crowdfunding. There was a giant surge of searches for drones but now it's not as big anymore. The drone phase has moved on and people aren't as interested or intrigued in it as they were a few years back. We can also think about phone cases. There was a huge surge in purchases for phone cases in November I believe. The reason - people were thinking more about buying gifts for loved ones for the holidays than they do throughout the rest of the year. So there's seasonality and trends that adjust accordingly and you need to make sure to capture those trends. You need to make sure that you're launching a product at the right time. If I'm launching a drone now there's less people out looking for it, interested in it, excited about it. It’s also important to be looking at those seasonality trends. If you want to launch a product that you need to use for summer - don’t launch it in the winter because no one's going to search for it, no one's going to want it, no one's going to be prepared to say- “I really need this.” People just think about the now, right? They don't think about 5 or 10 years ahead. They think about now. What do they need now? What do they want now? Because of that, trends are the first thing I always look at when I do market research.

Your Position in the Market
The second thing I like to look at is positioning. This is so fascinating. Positioning is basically how you label your product in the world and how this product sits in the mind of the backer. It explains how your product is evoked in the minds of backers. For example, if you're working on a smart cooler or something of the like, it can be the world's toughest cooler, it can be the world's smartest cooler, or it can be the world's only party cooler. There's so many ways to position this product in the minds of backers. Are you going to be selling on the toughness of this product? Are you going to be selling on the fact that this thing is like a party in a box? What is that main concept that you want people to take away from your page and from your campaign after they browse through it? Do you want people to take away that this is the world's toughest iPhone case? Or, do you want people to take away that this is the world's most minimalist iPhone case?
What is it that you want people to take away from your product and your page when they're reading through your materials when they're watching their video when they're looking at your content?

That positioning will determine if they want it or not. That positioning is so important because it helps separate your product from everything else on the market. Think about coolers. There's so many coolers out on the market. There's Orca and Yeti, off brands at Walmart, off-brands at Target, and more. There's so many coolers out there. What makes one stand out from another? It's the positioning! Pelican has positioned their product as something that is military tough/military rugged. All their marketing materials and content is really rugged and militaristic. There's a lot of cammo involved in the clothes of people who are in their videos, for example. On the other hand, a different Walmart cooler probably positioned themselves as the world's cheapest cooler. You can just get something for five bucks and take some drinks out to the beach for the weekend. Super easy. Super simple. Even if it might break in two days- that's fine. You probably don't need it, you just want something cheap and for the time being right.

So, the way you position your product is so important. Equally as important is understanding the way that your competitors position their product. It is important for you to understand because if you know how they position their product, you'll know what people are actually wanting to buy. You’ll be able to see what people want and learn how you can position your product to make sure that you are able to capture a certain portion of the audience. Knowing the competitors positioning will give you the ability to showcase additional value that you bring to the table which, in turn, could help your product do well in the market. All of this comes down to understanding positioning which is why it's so important to figure out the positioning of all your other competitors.

Look at other’s positions on places like Amazon, eBay, or whatever other stores are online. Even knowing your position in crowdfunding on Indiegogo and Kickstarter pages can do this. Simply by typing in keywords to see what everyone else is saying will help you with this. Look at those first sentences in bold at the top of the page - that's the key positioning. How are they positioning their product on an e-commerce website? (Those first few words that you see on the landing page.) That's how they're positioning their product and their brand. How are they doing that and what is enticing about it to people? Why do people want to buy into it? How can you do the same? Or, how can you do it better than that? That's all market research.
Your Pricing
The third thing that I look at when it comes to market research is the pricing. Pricing is so important and there's a ton of research into the psychology of it. However, what we're going to talk about is pretty simple. We're going to discuss whether or not you are pricing in the right range. Are you pricing fairly or adequately for your product category?
For example, if you were selling wireless headphones and you see that every single wireless headphone is priced between the $100 to $300 price range - you can take that as a sign. If every single wireless headphone on the market has the same types of features and offerings and you see that price range is what everyone is selling at - you're probably not going to price your product at $1,000. If you do price it at that high rate something's probably wrong with your cost structure. Chances are you're probably sourcing materials that are way too expensive or you're finding fulfillment partners and manufacturing partners that are way too expensive to make this product feasible. However, if you're able to add that much value to your product to make the $100 to $300 product be priced at $1,000 you have to be able to say - “Okay, this is what my competitors have and this is why they're priced at $100 to $300. But, this is what I have and this is why I'm priced at $1,000.”
You are only able to say that due to market research. By knowing the features, offerings, and benefits of your competitors and their price point you are better able to justify your price or match the price that people are comfortable with. That is your key to success. Otherwise you're saying- “Hey, I have the exact same features as everyone else in the market, but I'm priced three times more than everyone else.” No one is going to buy your product. However, if you do the market research, you'll know exactly what people are looking for, what they like and what they don't like. Maybe you're adding some additional features that people are looking for. So that's pricing.

Marketing Visuals
The last thing I want to talk about is the visuals. The visuals are so important!! The visuals make or break a campaign because visuals create trust and credibility for a campaign. Imagine going to a website on your phone and you're seeing all kinds of gaudy 90s style design and the website isn’t even mobile optimized and it's just like the desktop but shrunk down to a mobile phone. You already lose trust because there's not a good design or aesthetic. The reason is because it doesn't appear like you put any effort or time into creating your site. Creating that experience lets people trust that you're doing something that you will actually deliver.
So, when it comes to visuals, I encourage you to look at everything else that your competitors are doing. What types of images are they taking? What lifestyle images are they using? Where is the location of their lifestyle images and their product images? What are the angles? Are they taking the images themselves? What types of style or design are they implementing? Do they have videos? What do their videos look like? What types of music are they using? What types of gifs are they using to explain their features or explain their benefits? Basically, look at everything that your eyes can see that helps the customer to understand the product from a visual perspective because that will leave clues for what you should be doing as well.
When you look at the most successful campaigns and products in your niche and category there will be patterns. For example, let’s think about leggings from Adidas or Nike. If you look at their product page for leggings, they're all the same. It's going to be product-on-person. If you click in, you'll see products on-person, left view, back view, side view, etc. You’ll also see their sizing chart and the color palette. There's all these different things that are already on there because people want it, people love it, people demand it. It's all the visual stuff that you can see commonly used across all these successful brands.
This happens in every single niche. No matter what you're launching there are core visual elements to it. For example, if you're doing something within the medical realm most hospital logos have a green color to it. It signifies health and vitality. No one's going to use red or bright red because it looks like blood. No one wants to think about blood and death when they think of hospitals. They want to think of health, healing, and vitality. So, if you're researching hospital logos you'll see that there's a lot of green in it rather than red.
It’s the little things like that which will help you to build your brand and find your own value in comparison to your competitors. You have to know exactly what they're doing and what people are demanding so you can do the same. You have to make sure you're looking at all your competitors and other visuals and seeing what's in common, what pops up a lot, what happens a lot, and make sure that you're extracting and modeling after those successful elements. Being able to showcase that additional value by knowing everything else that's out there will bring you to the next level.
So those are the four different things to look at when doing market research. I can't emphasize enough how important market research is! I hope that this has helped you to understand just how incredibly crucial market research is to the success of a campaign. It's really pivotal in helping you understand the lay of the land and know where the path to success is.
Thank you for being with me here today. If you need a crowdfunding expert, feel free to get in touch. You can get started by heading to crushcrowdfunding.com. Lastly, I would be really grateful if you could leave a review for the podcast because it will help others who want to learn about crowdfunding more easily find out about the podcast. Thank you so much for being here with me, and for subscribing to the podcast and continuing to listen and be here with me to go on this journey to crowdfund your product and your idea.

I will see you guys in the next session.

Thanks for listening to the crush crowdfunding podcast at crushcrowdfunding.com. Tune in at the same time next week for more ways to crush your launch