What is the biggest Challenge hindering your Product Development?

Most R&D and development teams that I speak to have no shortage of ideas for potential improvements or even new product possibilities. New technologies, novel ingredients and flavours, different combinations or features, all providing a multitude of opportunities and novelty.

It is, however, not the ideas that they need help with, but a greater understanding of the problem that they need to solve.

Grasp the Problem Before Crafting a Solution.

The problem is so often defined around emotional or consumer requirements but not linked directly to the functional properties of the product itself.

“Reduce the cost” or “it needs to be more indulgent”. Very laudable goals, but not very helpful to the development team.

It is easy to reduce the cost of a product, but what changes in the taste or performance will be acceptable to consumers?

You can improve the performance of your product, but the benefits of such improvements are always subjective. Which improvements will drive greater liking among consumers and how significant an improvement must be made for it to be noticed and have any affect upon sales performance.

The closer you are to the product – and who is closer than those that develop it? – the harder it is to understand how consumers will respond to anything you do to change it.

Is Consumer Research Truly Effective?

So, consumer research is the answer. Except consumer research keeps coming back with recommendations such as “the product needs to be more exciting” or “…easier to use”. It tells you consumers like the colour or the aroma of a competitor or that your product lacks functionality that you know they won’t pay for and that none of your competitors have either.

It is an old adage, but still all to relevant today: “Don’t ask the consumer what they want because they can’t tell you”. This is especially true when they don’t know – as you do – what might be possible.

Can Consumer Psychology Provide Solutions?

However, Consumer Psychology can track consumers’ emotional responses to their product experience and understand what elements in your products performance prompt specific responses and why. When you do this your research can be much more informative and useful.

Instead of telling you what consumers say about your product, psychological tracking will show which aspects of your product are scoring well and why. Which aspects are not so good and how you can improve them.

Research that instead of telling you that there is a problem with your product performance, gives you a distinct definition of what the problem is, why it is a problem, and clear guidelines on how it can be fixed.

In my experience product development teams do a fantastic job when they are clear about the problem, they are tasked with solving and can relate it directly to the functional aspects of the product.

When the brief is too vague, when it talks about consumer emotions but does not relate these directly to the functions or features of the product itself, development teams are more likely to struggle.

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Chris Lukehurst is a Consumer Psychologist and a Director at The Marketing Clinic:

Providing Clarity on the Psychological relationships between consumers and brands

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