What Unconventional Market Analysis Methods Have Provided Valuable Insights?
B2C Brief
What Unconventional Market Analysis Methods Have Provided Valuable Insights?
In the quest for innovative strategies in market analysis, we've gathered insights from Business Development leaders who have stepped outside the conventional toolbox. From flipping assumptions to conducting direct consumer feedback surveys, discover the unique methods employed by an Executive Strategy Consultant and Founders in our compilation of four cutting-edge market analysis techniques.
- Flip Assumptions for New Insights
- Extract Insights from Unprompted Discussions
- Employ Diverse Market Analysis Tactics
- Conduct Direct Consumer Feedback Surveys
Flip Assumptions for New Insights
When building a brand, it's essential you seek to stand out against competitors. This means being unusual.
With that in mind, I often find one interesting exercise is to get a multi-disciplined group together who know the market well and get them to list out all of the typical things they would expect customers to experience, see, and feel.
Next, get them to "flip" these assumptions - what would the opposite of having that type of experience look like?
Finally, review the outcomes and see if there is any untapped value that you could lean into in order to build your presence and get noticed.
Extract Insights from Unprompted Discussions
We stepped outside our own echo chamber to get information from online forums or niche blogs where potential users talked about their problems without being prompted by a survey question.
By extrapolating a customer’s journey from these conversations, we identified specific pain points and drivers of satisfaction that would never be captured using a standard market research methodology.
This enabled us to target our solutions and services more precisely, offering higher net value to our customers. This approach allowed us to more effectively differentiate our market analysis, enhance our product development strategies, and even revolutionize our customer-service operations.
Employ Diverse Market Analysis Tactics
Here are some unconventional market analysis methods I've found valuable:
Social listening: Monitor online conversations. This reveals customer pain points and unmet needs and provides the direct voice of the customer.
Competitor hiring trends: Look at job postings to see where competitors are investing. This uncovers their strategic priorities and growth areas.
Unconventional KOLs: Don't just look at obvious industry influencers. Find niche experts and industry-adjacent thought leaders. They offer unique perspectives that competitors may miss.
"Day in the life" research: Shadow target customers to observe their actual behaviors and workarounds. This identifies innovation opportunities.
Extreme user analysis: Study "power users" and those who hate your product. This amplifies unmet needs and pushes you to reimagine solutions.
Conduct Direct Consumer Feedback Surveys
The one unconventional method we used was directly questioning our consumers about our products, getting their feedback, and understanding their needs. While working for a company, our team conducted on-the-ground public surveys, where we asked the audience about their experiences and feedback on our product. We also asked non-users about their reasons for not using our products. The process gave us deeper insights into our product and areas to work on. Hence, we tailored our products according to consumer feedback and saw a significant increase in sales.
