What products make you stand out?
The goal of any product is to meet the needs of the consumer. The greater the connection between the two, the better the chances of a successful and long-lasting product life. Crucially, brands should complete comprehensive research of their product concepts prior to launch. After all, up to 90% of products fail after their initial launch – the product has not met consumer needs.
When you’re just beginning to come up with an idea of a new product for your brand, it’s important to understand the motivations in your category. To do this, we need to consider the unconscious factors (also known as system 1) behind consumer decision making. In the conscious mind (system 2), we are more likely to make a decision based on the practicalities of the product, or the pricing, or indeed how the product tastes. Whereas, in the unconscious mind, factors like our personalities come into play, for example, wanting to show that a customer is into sports when purchasing a new car or being healthy/indulging when purchasing a new snack. Often, these unconscious factors are overlooked in traditional NPD research.
How do we access the unconscious mind?
As well as our Motivation Deep Dive Interviews, eye-tracking studies can be used to uncover where their unconscious mind is guiding consumers. For example, if you wanted to see how your product stands out on a shelf, the researcher can see what happens at the point of purchase (in other words, the shelf) with the help of eye-tracking. Studies have found that a consumer is 3x more likely to buy your product if they have picked it up. See our case study on package and placement tests for more or find out about our NPD research.
Understand the drivers in your product category
In NPD, it’s essential to understand what is missing from your product category; what can your product do to make sure consumer needs are being met? To do this, we can look into implicit reactions. This can be done via our conjoint analysis, to aid in narrowing down your options in your packaging prototypes. By not asking the questions outright, conjoint techniques allow us to see the unconscious mind/implicit reactions
The Emotional Connection
It's important to understand a consumer’s mindset at point of purchase. By providing an emotional connection to your product or brand, this can increase the likelihood of repeat buys on your website or in store. For example, on Waitrose’s website, recipes are suggested throughout their grocery items to entice potential consumers – something they are emotionally connected to, if they like to cook that is!
Once you have understood the unconscious and conscious drivers associated with your product, Emotional Logic can help to refine your ideas/product concepts. In the next stage, we can screen your ideas via Implicit Sorting exercises and/or qualitative research – our research helps in the whole process.
How Emotional Logic can help:
Here at Emotional Logic we have designed a wide range of qualitative research methods allowing you to explore the unconscious mind. Contact us to find out more about our Behavioural Science techniques, discovering patterns and insights in consumer decision making.
