How can consumer behavior research identify market gaps?

1 Define your market and objectives

The first step in identifying market gaps is to define your market and your objectives. Your market is the group of potential customers who share similar characteristics, needs, and behaviors that are relevant to your product or service. Your objectives are the goals or outcomes you want to achieve by filling the market gap, such as increasing sales, market share, customer loyalty, or brand awareness. To define your market and objectives, you need to conduct a market analysis, which involves collecting and analyzing information about the size, growth, trends, segments, and dynamics of your market. You can use secondary data sources, such as industry reports, trade publications, census data, or online databases, or primary data sources, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, or observations.

2 Identify customer pain points and unmet needs

The next step in identifying market gaps is to identify customer pain points and unmet needs. Pain points are the problems, frustrations, or challenges that customers face when using existing products or services or when trying to achieve a desired outcome. Unmet needs are the needs or wants that customers have but are not satisfied by the current offerings in the market. To identify customer pain points and unmet needs, you need to conduct customer research, which involves collecting and analyzing information about the behavior, attitudes, preferences, and satisfaction of your target customers. You can use qualitative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, ethnography, or customer journey mapping, or quantitative methods, such as surveys, experiments, or analytics.

3 Analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses

The third step in identifying market gaps is to analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses. Competitors are the other businesses that offer similar or substitute products or services to your target customers. By analyzing competitor strengths and weaknesses, you can identify the areas where you can differentiate yourself from them and offer something better, unique, or more valuable to your customers. To analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, you need to conduct a competitive analysis, which involves collecting and evaluating information about the products, prices, features, benefits, quality, performance, reputation, and marketing strategies of your competitors. You can use sources such as websites, reviews, social media, or mystery shopping.

4 Find the gap and evaluate its potential

The final step in identifying market gaps is to find the gap and evaluate its potential. A market gap is the difference between what customers need or want and what competitors offer. To find the gap, you need to compare your customer research and competitive analysis results and look for the pain points and unmet needs that are not addressed by the existing products or services in the market. To evaluate the potential of the gap, you need to estimate the size, growth, profitability, and feasibility of the market segment or niche that would benefit from your solution. You can use methods such as market segmentation, market sizing, SWOT analysis, or feasibility analysis.

By using consumer behavior research to identify market gaps, you can discover new opportunities for creating or improving products and services that can satisfy your customers better than your competitors and achieve your marketing objectives.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?