How to test the market before you launch your product or service

How to test the market before you launch your product or service

After you’ve decided on a business idea, there’s a very important step you need to take before launching your product. It’s called market research and it can save you a lot of time and money by guiding you on who to market to, where to market your product, how much people are willing to pay for your product, what they think of its design and packaging and how it works.

You will need to produce a small number of your products, called prototypes, for this step.

Here are the different kinds of research you can you do:

1. Online research: This will give you an idea of the market size, who your competitors are, as well as trends in the market.
2. Field research: This is when you actually interact with potential customers to gather feedback on your product or service. It’s very important to do field research to close the gaps that you weren’t able to achieve through online research. It will also shed light on the specific areas you’re planning on servicing, and current buying patterns. For example, through research, perhaps you discover that your product sells well in Pretoria but not in Johannesburg. And that because of a recession, your product is considered a luxury item so people will struggle to afford it, etc. Field research consists of the following activities:
   1. Surveys: This is when people you’ve identified as your target market fill in a survey that will inform you of what they think about your product. These can be physical surveys or online surveys.
   2. Interviews: This is when you ask your potential target market about your product, following a specific outline so that your research contains some uniform structure but allowing for additional comments that you wouldn’t necessarily get in surveys.
   3. Focus groups: This method brings 8-10 people into the same room and allows them to discuss the product in a far less structured way but with some prompting (but never leading) so that you get all the feedback you need.
   4. Observation: If you can observe people use your product, this is very useful. You’ll be able to see if they struggle with anything in particular or are not using it as you intended, etc.
   5. Sampling: This is when you allow people to try the product and give you feedback on it.
   6. Selling to a small group of your target market: This is a great way to test if your target market will actually buy your product.

By testing your product or service before you launch, you will be able to refine it, improving its chances of success – and yours!