product marketing - Cornelius Creative

Is market research necessary for product development?

Written by Lucy on February 9, 2023. Posted in Innovation, Marketing.

At the beginning of any new product development project we always conduct market research, and some of our clients have asked us: is market research always necessary in product development?

Let’s take a typical scenario. Imagine you are a product manager.

A member of your company’s sales team comes to you and says they need a product that meets a certain requirement. For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll assume your company makes bathroom taps, and the salesperson wants a tap with a 120mm spout projection because one of their customers (a high street showroom) has asked for it. Your current portfolio features a 105mm and a 135mm tap.

So, you develop or source a 120mm tap and you sell 2,000 units. The original salesperson sells a certain amount into their customer, and perhaps one or two other customers show some interest, but the return on investment into the product development is low.

Now, let’s change the scenario slightly.

After the salesperson comes to you with the original request you conduct some market research. You set up focus groups with your top ten retail customers. You send a survey to some end users (homeowners), and perhaps even some home developers.

Through a series of structured questions, you gain some valuable insights into what the market really wants, and the research reveals that what is really in demand is a 115mm tap. What’s more, after speaking to them, the original customer would be quite happy with a 115mm tap.

Armed with these intelligent insights you can build the business case around developing a 115mm tap. And although conducting the research has added to the overall development costs, the result is that you sell 20,000 units instead of 2,000, so a much healthier ROI.

This is a simple example, but hopefully you get the idea.

It’s often said that 80% of new products will fail, but the reality is that it’s probably much lower and varies from industry to industry. Nevertheless, a lot of new products do fail for many reasons. It’s why our company mission is to:

Turn creative ideas into commercially successful products
Cornelius Creative

Our goal is to ensure that only products that will be successful are taken forward. But, how do you know which products will be successful? Well one way is by asking the market, of course!

So, what exactly is market research?

Market research involves listening to and understanding what is happening in the market. It aims to make your target customer happier by looking at opportunities and giving them exactly what they want and need to solve an issue in their life. It is a continuous process that can be conducted at any time.

Market research requires us to step outside of our organisation and remove all internal bias to really understand the needs of our customers, rather than what we think they want.

It comes in many forms, from online questionnaires and surveys (quantitative research) to in-depth focus groups with a select number of people (qualitative research). It’s also possible to use industry reports, competitor research, as well as online forums to discover customers’ thoughts.

And it’s a growing industry reportedly worth around £7 billion in the UK alone.

Why conduct market research?

New products, and modifications to existing products, don’t just happen by chance. Market research plays an important role in determining what opportunities exist in the market. It can uncover unmet needs, that customers are even unaware of themselves. Good market research will provide a comprehensive understanding of your product’s sales environment.

Here are some of the key benefits of market research:

It opens communication channels with existing and potential customers to understand their needs and desires.
It uncovers opportunities and emerging trends in the marketplace.
It identifies potential threats.
It can determine your brand’s positioning and messaging relative to competitors.
It validates ideas using data to ensure products are received positively by customers.

So, we’ve looked at what market research is and what the main benefits are, but what are the key stages when undertaking market research for a new product development (NPD)?

Key stages in market research for NPD

The type of research conducted will depend upon which stage of development is currently in play.

1. Exploratory research: defining the problem

Occurring before the concept stage, exploratory research involves gathering secondary data (i.e., data that already exists like surveys, journal articles or Government publications). This data will help determine any emerging trends and/or gaps in the market, but there will be a lot of irrelevant content to sift through. At this stage it will be useful to conduct some competitor analysis and a SWOT analysis to help with strategic planning of the project.

It is also important to speak to your customers to find out how satisfied they are with your existing products and what needs are not being met. This will provide direction on new products that are developed. Depending on the type of product you are developing, you may want to ask questions such as:

Are you satisfied with our current product? What’s missing?
What feature(s) would you make your life easier?

2. New product concepts and prototyping: initial feedback

The point of the exploratory research is to identify a market need that hasn’t yet been met. Once the initial research has been conducted the product concepts can start to be developed and tested with the target market. Initial prototypes can also be made to ensure the concept will work in real life. Examples of research carried out at this stage include:

Focus groups
In-depth interviews
Observational research
Surveys

This stage of the process can be repeated through test and learn, where concepts are amended to reflect initial feedback.

3. User testing: real life scenarios

The only way to get true and accurate feedback about a new product is to allow people to test and use it in real-life situations. Concepts on paper don’t always turn out the same way in real life and it’s only by touching, feeling and using a product will you really appreciate how it works.

It will validate assumptions made in your earlier research, yes, but it will yield much more accurate data, because only by using the product in its intended way will the customer understand the value they can get from it.

The feedback they provide will tell you if they would buy it, and if not, why not. You’ll also ascertain how much they would be prepared to pay for the product.

User testing is understandably an expensive way to gain insights, and for that reason, it can be hard to get buy in, especially from senior management.

There are different types of prototypes that can be produced, so there are ways to keep costs down.

And it will bring your team together – seeing your product in real life, and all the hard work realised.

Of course, real life testing isn’t always feasible, in which case, it is down to the research company to interpret the research, combined with other market intelligence, to make an informed decision about whether there is an opportunity to develop the product.

Additionally, user testing can be conducted post-launch to gain initial insights once the product is on the market. This can provide customer reviews that can be used in marketing materials. Many companies choose to use influencers with large social media followings to gain some early feedback and spread awareness of the product quickly.

If you’re reading this with a product in development that has had no market research, don’t panic! As we mention above, market research can (and should) be carried out along any point of the development process, so it’s never too late to gain some feedback.

Are there any drawbacks to market research?

If conducted properly market research can generate essential insights, but it isn’t representative of 100% of the market. There will always be variables and external factors that can impact demand.

Market research is essentially trial and error, and it doesn’t always provide an immediate result. The data is only as good as the research itself; results can be skewed by asking the wrong questions or by analysing the data incorrectly.

A focus group may not understand the concept of a brand-new innovation. Imagining themselves buying or using a product that requires a shift in their typical lifestyle may result in them stating they wouldn’t be interested. Asking people to imagine using a product they’ve never considered before is likely to bring some hesitancy, particularly if the group is mostly “late majority” individuals who tend to be sceptical of innovations at first.

Asking a room full of innovators, or even early adopters, may bring completely different results to the majority.

Innovation Adoption Curve (Rogers)

Steve Jobs famously didn’t believe in market research, which is ironic considering he was obsessed with getting inside his customers’ heads. But he had an ability to be a few steps ahead, and believed that customers would buy what he told them to, even if they didn’t know what the product was.
And yes, sometimes it worked.

“Customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them”
Steve Jobs

But, sadly, we don’t all have the brand power and extreme customer loyalty that Apple has. So for most of us, we need market research to find out more about our customers.

Market research for existing products

As well as its uses in the development of brand-new products, market research is also valuable for assessing and optimising existing products. It can help a company keep up with competitors and entice customers to continue coming back.

Reading online reviews of your own and competitor products can give insights too. You can find out what actual customer love (and hate) about your and competitor products, and what features they feel are missing.

Key takeaways

Market research is about listening to and understanding your target customers’ needs and desires.

Once you are aware of those needs and desires, you can develop products to satisfy them.

Customer feedback can come in many forms; from coordinated quantitative or qualitative research through to data gathering by reading online reviews, forums, competitor research and industry reports.

Market research can (and should) be conducted at all stages of product development – from pre-concept right through to user testing. Post-launch feedback is essential to continue optimising a product to ensure it continues to meet the customer needs.

Market research is not a silver bullet and requires considered analysis to determine an organisation’s next steps.

If you’d like to find out more about how market research can guide your next product development, please get in touch with our research experts.

How to showcase a product before launch

Written by Lucy on November 24, 2022. Posted in CGI.

Marketplaces are typically flooded with products from your competitors.

Consumers today are bombarded with marketing messages from every angle, so it’s never been more important to stand out from the crowd and make sure your product’s value benefits are seen and understood as much as possible.

But, if your product is still in production, how do you whet the appetite of potential customers, and get those all-important pre-sales locked in?

Well, the good news is, you have many options for promoting your product so let’s dive into some here:

Product prototypes

As a product-based business, building prototypes will add to your resource of marketing tools. You can use prototypes for photography, websites, social channels, brochures (digital and paper), direct mail, and even for presenting to investors, if needed.

If you have a physical location, such as a shop, putting a prototype on display for customers to feel and test will help to encourage sales. Something to note, however, if the prototype has flaws or isn’t 100% perfect it could negatively affect the perception of your brand and products.

There are different types of prototypes that can be produced, such as fully functioning or purely visual, and our team of prototyping specialists can help you determine what type of prototype your business needs.

Computer Generated Images

Using computer generated images before your product is created is an excellent way for customers to visualise it before photos are available.

Computer generated images can be used on digital channels such as websites, social media, PDFs and e-brochures really effectively. But CGI can also be used on traditional marketing channels such as direct mail, leaflets and paper brochures.

What’s more, CGI can be animated into videos to add another dimension to your presell campaign. When customers see a product animated and being used it instils more confidence to buy; it’s why video is such a powerful tool.

Use all available channels for promotion

Whether you’re able to photograph/video a prototype, or use CGI, you should use all available channels to push the promotion. This includes your social channels and email database to alert customers and subscribers about upcoming launches and pre-sales. The traditional channels, such as direct mail and brochures, still have their place for many businesses, so you may want to explore those too, along with launch events, trade shows and exhibitions.

If you’re interested in exploring CGI or prototyping for your business, get in touch and we’ll set up a call.

Five essential marketing trends you need to consider in a post-COVID world

Written by 33A5f3aF on February 8, 2022. Posted in Business, Marketing.

As the world starts to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, businesses will need to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and work to a marketing roadmap that’s considerably different from what they’d intended.

The businesses that will be successful are already starting to adjust to a post-COVID economy, where agility and innovation will be key to reaping rewards.

We’ve predicted five marketing trends for a post-COVID world and what your business will need to do to keep up.

1. Invest in an online purchasing journey

Businesses who plan to or have already invested in an online purchasing system via their website or app will start to see the pay-off as more customers choose to shop virtually in the wake of the pandemic.

This means that now more than ever a seamless online customer experience is vital. The path to customer purchase has changed significantly and brands need to put user experience at the heart of their online marketing activities.

Product-based retailers will need to effectively highlight their products features and benefits in order to build trust with customers who may be new to online shopping. Customer generated content, such as images and videos, of the products in use will create confidence, as will reviews and feedback from current customers.

2. Voice-activation will grow and evolve

The way we use the internet to search for products and services is evolving. Voice search is growing—especially with the younger generation, with 55% of teenagers already using voice search daily. Mobile devices now come with voice activation (Apple Siri and Google Assistant). But it’s not just phones, voice activated home devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming much more common, and are providing a new way to explore the internet, do shopping, and connect with loved ones.

Consumers are more comfortable with voice-activated products and companies need to consider including smart features like voice activation when developing new products. Imagine a fridge that tells you which food items you’re running low on, or a kettle that can boil itself when asked. Consumers want speed and convenience when interacting with products; and speaking is one of the most convenient ways to make commands.

3. Embrace user-generated content

In an uncertain world, consumers have reverted to brands that have excellent customer service values. Building trust with your audience is key to gaining their custom, and user-generated content is a valuable vehicle for fostering that ‘feel-good factor’ in your brand.

Peer-generated content is deemed 92% more trustworthy than traditional advertising and increases engagement and time spent on a social media platform or website. Ask your potential customers for their input by creating a company hashtag for competitions or offer a reward in exchange for a video review. We’re share our lives online more than ever, and we’re more than happy to share our thoughts and images of products that we love with our connections. Savvy brands will use this desire to share to their advantage.

4. The agile brand catches the worm

During the height of the pandemic things could change on an almost daily basis. Successful brands were able to jump on these changes and use them to their advantage to produce content and campaigns quickly. It meant adapting to a new culture, speeding up creative processes, reducing bureaucracy, and maybe hardest of all, learning how to conduct meetings via Zoom!

Businesses that are agile in this emerging new reality will be able steal market share from less-agile competitors. But it will be important not to be too hasty to ensure that any decisions made align with business goals. Tesco’s “little helps” TV advert was both practical for the climate but stayed true to the brand.

5. Diversification could make or break businesses

When lockdown hit many businesses were either completely unable to trade or had severely reduced trading capabilities. For the most part retailers were able to trade online, which helped them to weather the storm. But many businesses were also able to diversify their products and services which gave them an entirely new customer base. Dyson for example, rising to the UK Government’s challenge, were able to develop an entirely new ventilator in just 30 days, and countless brands jumped on the huge increase in demand for Personal Protective Equipment, such as face masks (Gap) or hand sanitiser (Brew Dog).

Turns your plans into reality

The world has changed and business owners have learned that success can’t be taken for granted. Our team specialise in product marketing tactics that align with your organisational goals. From initial consultation and branding strategies, to go-to-market ideas and methods to turn customers into brand advocates, we offer the full turnkey solution.

If you’re seeking to evolve your product marketing in a post-COVID landscape, call our team on 01474 368654 or send us a note with your aims for 2022 and beyond.

Guide to using CGI for Ecommerce websites

Written by 33A5f3aF on January 25, 2022. Posted in CGI.

Discover our best-practice advice when it comes to selecting images for an ecommerce website from our CGI experts.

This post will cover all aspects of ecommerce CGI images from: what is CGI, to why CGI can be a good option for ecommerce sites, to how to be efficient when using CGI, as well as pros and cons vs using traditional photography for ecommerce product websites.

What is CGI?

CGI stands for Computer Generated Images, which essentially means what it says on the tin: they’re images generated using a computer. We use professional CGI software called KeyShot to create our images – it’s one of the most powerful and accurate CGI software programmes available.

You’ll probably have heard of CGI being used in video gaming, movies and advertising.

But many product images are now CGI because companies have recognised that there are many benefits to choosing CGI over photography. It is also common for retailers to use a hybrid of CGI and photography.

What defines an ecommerce website?

Ecommerce (electronic commerce) websites are exactly that: websites that allow customers to buy (and sell) goods and services via the internet, rather than at a physical location. A business can use an ecommerce website to process orders, accept payments via different methods, manage shipping and provide customer service. Some social media platforms have now become ecommerce platforms too, adding ecommerce functionality for their users to buy and sell. Today, it is expected that most retailers should have an online store presence of some description, whether it is their own ecommerce website or via a social network.

Buying and selling is not new, of course, but ecommerce has made it easier and a preferred way to shop for many customers. In fact, the total ecommerce revenue generated in the UK in 2019 was £693 billion, a massive 40% increase since 2015, and ecommerce now accounts for 16.5% of total business turnover.

Websites are no longer a “nice to have” for businesses. In 2019, 81.4% of businesses with 10-49 employees had a website, while 96.9% of businesses with 1000 of more employees had a website (seriously, what are the remaining 3.1% doing?)

So, it’s clear that customers love to shop online, buying everything from clothes to garden equipment, their weekly food shop, sofas, cars and even holidays. The home buying market has even started to move fully online (yes, really), with virtual tours boosted by the pandemic.

Consumer confidence in buying online has increased massively in recent years, again drive recently by the pandemic, as well as the increase in smart devices including mobile phones and home devices such as Amazon Alexa.

And yes, while we love to buy online, retailers need to make sure the products they are selling best address their target audience’s needs and challenges; something that only be achieved through comprehensive market research.

And once they’ve made sure they have the perfect products to sell, it’s important for website developers to continue to come up with solutions to improve their customers’ shopping experiences.

There are certain best practices when it comes to selling products online.

One of the essential elements to a good ecommerce website is images. You simply cannot sell a product without good quality images. Images bring a product to life.

Images help a user decide whether a product is suitable or not, for example – do they like the look of it? Does it suit their style? How do they feel when they look at it? Does it complement other products they own?

Product images need to be high quality (without slowing the website down) and show the product from different angles.

There are different types of images that can be used to showcase a product online:

Cut out images – showing the product on a plain background to emphasis the product and its features
Lifestyle images – showing the product against a background setting, such as a home interior shot or outdoors landscape
Action images – showing the product being used in some way
360 spin images – a more recent edition to online images, which allow the customer to rotate the product 360 degrees to see the entire product.
Videos – not technically an image, but the use of video, showing a product working or being used, is becoming a prerequisite for online shopping.
Customisation options – if the product is available in different colours or materials, for example, the user can select from swatch buttons to change the customisation options of the product displayed.
Augmented Reality (AR) – the next evolution in ecommerce imagery. An innovative way to show the product in a real-life setting, such as your home (e.g. imagine being able to see a fridge in your actual kitchen before buying it, or check whether a pushchair will fit in the boot of your car).
User Generated Content – many e-retailers now encourage customers to upload images of a product they’ve purchased being used. Not only does this increase engagement and loyalty with current customers, but also instils trust for new customers who are more likely to buy after seeing others with the same product.

How can CGI be used to enhance ecommerce websites?

So, how can CGI be used by retailers wanting to sell online, and is it a good option?

Some of the image types described above, such as 360 spin and AR, can only be created using CGI, but for cut out, lifestyle and action shots, retailers can choose between CGI and photography. So we need to compare CGI and photography to address the pros and cons of each.

While CGI will never completely replace photography, the capabilities of CGI software have advanced enormously over recent years, meaning that images are now incredibly photorealistic and a very credible source of product imagery.

CGI also tends to be quicker and more cost efficient that photography. It can be time consuming and expensive to set up photoshoots.

Where CGI really comes into its own is with customisation. If a product is available in 20 colours, for example, photographing 20 different versions may take a long time. Multiple this by a few different products and the costs will quickly escalate. Whereas with CGI, once the first scene has been set up it is very quick to replicate for different colours.

It is also easier to create unusual angles with CGI, whereas a photographer will need jigs to hold the product in place and will then require more time in post-editing.

So, CGI can be much more efficient, producing more images in a shorter space of time.

This is very important for ecommerce websites which may have thousands of different products, each available in various options.

Remember what we said earlier: to give customers the best possible shopping experience, a website should show all different options. Only showing some of the available colours or materials for example, will cause frustration for some customers, negatively impact their experience.

We also mentioned hybrid CGI earlier – this is a blend of photography and CGI. So for example, using CGI of a product placed within a real photograph. This gives the effect of a “real” photograph but circumnavigates any logistics or cost issues presented by taking the photography on location.

Pre-order: the beauty of CGI: One area that CGI excels at is using it for products that are not yet manufactured. Being able to create an image of a product that doesn’t currently exist means that pre-orders can be generated before manufacture, generating revenue before the product has even been launched.

Are there any downsides to CGI?

One area that can be problematic is colour matching, however, this can be an issue whether the image is a photograph or CGI – it can depend on a customer’s device as well as the settings.

For large amount purchases, such as a sofa, many retailers allow customers to order physical swatches to be mailed out – so this gets around any colour discrepancies.

One of the biggest drawbacks of online shopping is not being able to touch, feel and try a product, and while this is an issue for both photography and CGI, there are ways that sellers can try to circumnavigate this issue:

It’s important to increase customer confidence in the product before buying – 51% of shoppers believe the biggest drawback of online shopping is not being able to touch a product before buying. Customer reviews, tutorials and demonstrations, faith in the brand, excellent customer services and reassurance when it comes to returns and refunds will all help provide trust.
But good images, and specifically 360 spin images, AR images, user generated content all help to foster trust with customers. Although these images don’t allow customers to touch and feel the product, they enable them to view the entire product, interact with it online and see it in their home before purchasing.
AR technology is still evolving, but it is becoming more commonplace with ecommerce retailers and it’s estimated there will be 1.7 billion AR users by 2024. One way that make up brands are using AR is by enabling customers to “try on” their make up using virtual try-on technology.

Key takeaways

The evolution of the partnership between CGI and ecommerce websites is exciting, and the possibilities for product imagery are endless.

Consumer confidence in buying online is growing, but good quality images can help to win trust.
No longer are standard cut out images enough on their own – customers expect 3D spin images, user generated content as well as video and even augmented reality.
Nothing can replace a real photograph, but CGI is a suitable option for companies that want photorealistic images at a fraction of the cost.
CGI is an effective tool for pre-orders campaigns, generating revenue before a product has even been manufactured.
Customisation is an area where retailers can save costs by using CGI.
The most important thing is to enhance the shopping experience for the customer. Anything that doesn’t improve their experience shouldn’t be implemented.

If you’re excited about exploring the idea of CGI on an ecommerce website please get in touch with our CGI experts.

What is a product roadmap (and do you need one)?

Written by 33A5f3aF on August 13, 2021. Posted in Business, Marketing.

If you’re developing a product, you’ve probably heard the term ‘product roadmap’ floating around.

But what does it mean, and do you need one?

What is a product roadmap?

Simply put, a product roadmap is a vision of your company’s evolving products. It is a strategic document that outlines plans and allows visibility on which direction the company is heading. The roadmap is usually rolling or agile over a specific time period, which when developing physical products is usually 3 – 5 years. It tells you which products will be delivered, and by when.

Essentially it’s the road your company will be travelling on and what products will be launched along the way. Like an actual road, there may be some bends and twists along the way, and even a few diversions!

Photo credit: Unsplash

Who is responsible for the product roadmap?

The product manager is ultimately responsible for creating and owning the product roadmap, however, there will normally be other stakeholders around the business. The following departments will usually have at least one nominated stakeholder:

Executive board
Product team
Design and Engineering
Sales
Marketing
Customer Service

Depending on your organisation, you may also have some external stakeholders.

It’s vital that the product manager updates stakeholders on a regular basis. They’ll need to arrange meetings to communicate updates and collate feedback, but ultimately it’s the product manager who owns the roadmap and is responsible for keeping things moving. If there are delays that will impact the agreed strategic vision then these need to be communicated to stakeholders. The roadmap will help to manage and align the stakeholders’ expectations.

Why do you need a product roadmap?

As outlined above, the roadmap is the organisation’s strategic vision for the future. It’s an essential document for the business. Without it, you won’t have clarity of which products are being launched.

It communicates the product vision clearly and aligns product goals with overall business goals. The ultimate objective being to launch commercially successful products with a healthy return on investment.

The roadmap translates “technical” jargon into concise language that all stakeholders can understand.

It allows priorities to be communicated easily, which is particularly useful when difficult decisions need to be made (such as which features can we afford to include in the development, and which need to be scrapped).

The roadmap facilitates different departments to work together, resulting in a smoother development process with the outcome being a better product for your target audience.

Simon Cornelius, MD of Cornelius Creative says:

“A long-term strategic product roadmap gives businesses a great foundation for future product launches and exposes the maximum potential from existing product ranges.

A well thought out roadmap identifies potential gaps in a product portfolio as well as gaps in the marketplace. It allows businesses to control their product lifecycles, ensuring that outdated or poor performing products are superseded by new product developments before it is too late. This ensures a continuous revenue stream, as well as helping to plan new product launches, by giving a firm indication of deadlines to complete the development and hit significant selling milestones, be it a trade show, or seasonal time of the year to maximise the product’s initial uptake.”

What should be included in a product roadmap?

The content of your roadmap depends on your organisation, and your audience. The size and structure of your company will determine the complexity of the roadmap, but there are certain aspects that should be included:

The overall vision for the product(s)
Requirements (what you need to get where you want to be)
Project timeline, complete with timed goals
Metrics, how things will be measured

Best practice tips for a killer product roadmap

Make sure the company’s vision is clear: it will be the overall guide for the roadmap.
Don’t overload the detail: keep it top level with your audience in mind.
Make it accessible to all stakeholders: and keep communication regular.
Review and update regularly: make changes when necessary – it should be flexible.

Next steps:

Are you looking to create your next product roadmap? Our team of experienced product managers can help.

Key Product Marketing Trends for 2021 (after Covid-19)

Written by 33A5f3aF on November 3, 2020. Posted in Business, Marketing.

We recently published our latest video detailing our predictions for product marketing trends after the Coronavirus pandemic is over (if that day will ever come!)

You can watch the video below, or alternatively scroll down for a transcript. What do you think businesses will need to focus on to survive in a post-Covid world? Have you started to implement any of these marketing suggestions already?

Video transcription

Do you want to know the key marketing trends for 2021 and beyond? Want to know what’s likely to happen after COVID? I’ll be taking you through our top five marketing trends. So keep watching. Hi, I’m Lucy from Cornelius Creative. We’re a product design and marketing consultancy based in the south east of the UK. We help businesses and people like you to create and market amazing products. We post videos regularly on product design, marketing, and 3d printing too. So if that’s the sort of thing that you’re interested in, we’d love to have you as a subscriber. In today’s video, I’m going to be taking you through the top five marketing trends that we predict will happen after COVID. So we’re just over six months into the pandemic and it looks like Coronavirus is going to be with us for a while. It’s affected all businesses. Some have been completely unable to trade, whereas others have seen a massive boost in sales. It’s changed the way that we search and buy products. And it’s changed the type of products that we’re buying too. Now while no one has a crystal ball and knows for definite what’s going to happen in the future, we can look at what’s happened so far and make predictions. So without further ado, let’s get into our five key predictions for what’s likely to happen after the coronavirus pandemic.

1.) Invest in an online purchasing journey.

At the start of the pandemic Primark saw their sales go from £650million in March to £0 in April. And that’s because they don’t have an e-commerce platform on their website. They’ve said for years it doesn’t suit their business model, but they probably didn’t see a global pandemic coming that would stop all of their sales. So whether this will now encourage them to revisit that and add some e-commerce functionality to their website, I don’t know. Obviously when the shops did reopen in June, there were queues around the streets for people desperate to get back into Primark. So it probably didn’t affect their sales for too long, but for the rest of us that don’t have the pulling power of Primark, we need to invest in an online purchasing journey for our customers. If you’re selling products, you need to be selling them online. It’s not enough now to just be in the high street. In the wake of the pandemic, more and more customers are shopping virtually. Online sales have been around for years and businesses that have invested in an online journey for their customers will have seen the payoff during the pandemic as more and more people choose to shop virtually. This means that now more than ever, a seamless online journey for your customers is vital. Brands need to put user experience at the heart of their online marketing activity. It’s not enough for retailers to just highlight their products’ features and benefits. You need to build trust with your customers, some of which may be new to online shopping. So whether that’s using user generated content, such as videos and images, showing your products in use, or displaying reviews and feedback from past customers, both of which will create confidence with your new customer base.

2.) Voice activation will grow and evolve

The way that we use the internet to search for products and services is changing and voice search is becoming much more common, especially amongst the younger generation. 55% of teenagers use voice search on a daily basis, and mobile devices now all come with voice activation inbuilt. But it’s not just mobile devices. There are so many voice activated home devices now available to buy; think of the Amazon Echo or Google Home. People are becoming much more comfortable with using voice search to explore the internet, do shopping and connect with loved ones as well. So businesses that are developing products need to bear this in mind and consider adding smart features like voice activation when they’re developing new products. Think of a fridge that can tell you when your milk is running out or a kettle that can boil itself when asked. These are the sorts of products that are going to be developed over the next few years.

3.) Embrace user generated content

It’s an uncertain world that we’re living in, so customers have reverted to brands that have excellent customer service values. Building trust with your audience is key to gaining their custom and a great way to build trust with your audience is to provide user-generated content. So that could be videos and images of your products being used. Peer generated content is deemed to be 92% more trustworthy than traditional advertising. And it increases the engagement and time spent on your social media platform and website. We share our lives online now more than ever. It helps us to stay connected to our loved ones. And we’re more than happy to provide recommendations for products that we love. Think about how many times you’ve posted about a product that you really love, and you’ve shared it with your loved ones. So businesses can use this to their advantage, whether it’s creating a hashtag for your customers to use, or perhaps running a competition for them to enter if they post a video of your product being used.

4.) Brands will need to learn to become more agile

During the height of the pandemic it seemed like things changed on an almost daily basis. And the brands that were successful were the ones that were able to jump on these changes and use them to their advantage, to create content and campaigns quickly. It meant adapting to a new culture, potentially reducing the amount of approvals that were needed for campaigns, and being able to create content very, very quickly. With a lot of people working from home, it meant hosting meetings via zoom became the norm, which was quite out of the comfort zone for a lot of us. There were many TV adverts that were broadcast at the height of the pandemic and they would have had the slots booked for many months previously. So they would have had to have adapted their content, because perhaps the campaigns that they were running previously weren’t relevant anymore. A lot of these brands utilised user generated content. So people filming themselves from their homes, where everyone was staying at home. And a lot of the themes changed to be around community and looking out for each other, the sort of new priorities that were important to us at the time. One of the adverts that stood out to me was the Tesco ‘little helps’ advert. It was a practical insight into the new user experience of their supermarket. So they actually filmed what it would be like to go around the supermarket at the markings on the floor, the perspex screens at the checkout, sanitising trolleys, perhaps having to queue at busy times. this was a really practical advert for Tesco to run, but it also reassured their customers into what was quite a scary experience for a lot of people.

5.) Diversification could make or break businesses

When the national lockdown hit, many businesses were completely unable to trade. Some businesses were able to move their trading online as I mentioned previously, to weather the storm, but others weren’t able to do that. So they had to diversify their products and services. Dyson, for example, rising to the UK government’s challenge, were able to develop an entirely new ventilator in just 30 days. And countless other brands jumped on the increase in demand for PPE. So whether that was Gap producing face masks or BrewDog producing hand sanitiser. So there you have our predictions for the five key marketing trends post COVID: online purchasing, voice activation, user-generated content, agility, and diversification. I really hope you found this video. Interesting. If you have, please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our channel. We’d love to have you as a viewer. Until next time. See you soon.

Tag: product marketing

Is market research necessary for product development?

So, what exactly is market research?

Why conduct market research?

Key stages in market research for NPD

1. Exploratory research: defining the problem

2. New product concepts and prototyping: initial feedback

3. User testing: real life scenarios

Are there any drawbacks to market research?

Market research for existing products

Key takeaways

How to showcase a product before launch

Product prototypes

Computer Generated Images

Use all available channels for promotion

Five essential marketing trends you need to consider in a post-COVID world

As the world starts to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, businesses will need to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and work to a marketing roadmap that’s considerably different from what they’d intended.

1. Invest in an online purchasing journey

2. Voice-activation will grow and evolve

3. Embrace user-generated content

4. The agile brand catches the worm

5. Diversification could make or break businesses

Turns your plans into reality

Guide to using CGI for Ecommerce websites

Discover our best-practice advice when it comes to selecting images for an ecommerce website from our CGI experts.

What is CGI?

What defines an ecommerce website?

There are certain best practices when it comes to selling products online.

There are different types of images that can be used to showcase a product online:

How can CGI be used to enhance ecommerce websites?

Are there any downsides to CGI?

Key takeaways

What is a product roadmap (and do you need one)?

If you’re developing a product, you’ve probably heard the term ‘product roadmap’ floating around.

What is a product roadmap?

Who is responsible for the product roadmap?

Why do you need a product roadmap?

What should be included in a product roadmap?

Best practice tips for a killer product roadmap

Next steps:

Key Product Marketing Trends for 2021 (after Covid-19)

We recently published our latest video detailing our predictions for product marketing trends after the Coronavirus pandemic is over (if that day will ever come!)

Video transcription

1.) Invest in an online purchasing journey.

2.) Voice activation will grow and evolve

3.) Embrace user generated content

4.) Brands will need to learn to become more agile

5.) Diversification could make or break businesses

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