Forging New Product Categories
Energems was recently accepted as a member at the Council for Responsible Nutrition paving the way for a totally new product category: supplemented chocolates. We hear a lot about “disruption” of existing categories, but defining a whole new product category is equally innovative and requires a firm grasp on consumer attitudes and behavior to be successful.
As part of their R & D process, Energems enlisted SayWhat to conduct qualitative research to help them better understand consumer attitudes and behavior about energy supplements. We launched an online discussion forum (aka MROC – Market Research Online Community) to explore response to the concept, current behaviors around supplements, and to gauge consumer reactions to prototype messaging describing Energems. Our goal was to provide the product team with actionable insights around Energems’ positioning and marketing ideas.
The role our research played in Energem’s path to market a new product AND category was to:
• Guide the team in the best practices to determine the appropriate length of the study
• Provide expertise in ensuring qualified respondents were recruited
• Help the team articulate the learning objectives and design appropriate methods to gather objective feedback to those ends
• Ensure that product concepts were presented in a clear, unbiased way
• Identify the important themes that emerged from the discussion among consumers
If you have a new brand, product or are creating a new category and you need qualitative data on your audience, contact us. An online community is just one of the approaches we can use to bring you closer to your target consumer.
