Mirio E. D. de Rosa

The industry sector you deal with may lead to different suggestions. In general, however, “product research” may suggest you are working on a new product launch or re-staging. In such cases, begin with the framework, consider the research tools, and then move to the operating part of the research.

The framework may be the:

- Product Strategy, for products bought for what they do (like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering, and others)

and/or the

- Copy Strategy, for products characterized by how they look, work, taste, or smell (like most consumer goods, washing products, cosmetics, etc.)

The framework influences the tools used to conduct the study. The king research tool of business decision-makers is marketing research. Marketing research, however, is expensive and poses technical challenges in order to deliver sound information.

My suggestion is, in both cases, to begin with dissecting the Product Strategy, which describes three brands elements:

- Technical performance. What the product does.

- Product design. How the product looks and works.

- Customer acceptance. How strongly customers (eventually both buyers and users) prefer the product.

The latter element requires sampling customers and gathering information with marketing research, which implies substantial investments of knowledge, time, and money. If you are not knowledgeable of this tool, ask for expert help. Do not improvise. And, do not rely on salespeople, they are biased (although they could supply useful ideas to state research hypotheses).

The former two elements are less knowledge-intensive and can be approached in a pragmatic way. Collect pieces of communication material used by your competitors, like advertisements, promotional material, product packages, product samples, and the like.

If it is a technological product begin with the Technical performance. Compare the major claims of each competing brand, and you will begin noticing differences. For instance, one brand may claim to remove tough spots, another cleans cleaner, another is price convenient, one is delicate, and so on.

If it is a hardly differentiated product begin with the Product design: How the product looks and works. Some are fast, others are safe, smaller, colored, smelling better, healthier, and so on.

At this point, add sales data to your analysis (if unavailable, replace it with customer preference data from marketing research by brand), and you’ll begin to see clusters of consumption preference, which brings you closer to answer the part of your question concerning how your tech stacks up in the market.

For more, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Good luck with your endeavors,

Mirio E.D. de Rosa

Prove that the Product Strategy delivers what it promises.

Some multinational companies build the Product Strategy on three elements:

- Product technical performance, what the product does at work. When the performance is weak against competitors there is room for improvement (eg, like removing spots for heavy-duty detergents).

- Product design, how the product looks and works. When the design is weak against competitors there is room for improvement (eg, like for the boxes of Baby Diapers to be used with a single hand).

- Customer acceptance, hence the appreciation of consumers for the other two elements of the PS

If it is all good, turn to the Copy Strategy, which is built on:

- Product benefit, what the customer gets

- Support to the benefit, it makes the benefit believable

- Tone of the communication, like speaking to modern as opposed to traditional people

Although I do not like the term product marketing, there is a lot you can do to prove your value to product management. 

Just, begin from strategies.

“Product Roadmap” sounds to me synonymous with Product Strategy (PS).

In order to support the statements of a PS, marketing research explores its three pivotal elements: Technical performance, Design, and Acceptance.

Technical performance is what the product does. It is typically tested in comparison to direct competitors and it aims to support product superiority or equality.

Design is how the product looks and works.

The Acceptance is measured to confirm the selected customer is willing to try, buy, or rebuy the product.

I synthesized in a few words a broad and multifaceted topic. Read also this article to get a better grasp of what a Product Strategy is, how it is created, and how it integrates with the other strategies: https://www.marketingstat.com/how-to-create-a-marketing-strategy/

Once the brand strategic pattern is set and validated, it will be much easier to answer operative questions that, without a solid strategy deck, may sound complex and challenging.

More about brand strategies can be read at: https://www.marketingstat.com/10-key-elements-brand-strategy-plan-tree/

To align executives and stakeholders, and receive their buy-in, you have to tell them where your brand is going before you say how to get there.

Concerning your question, you need a solid Communication Strategy, which is made of two parts:

• Copy Strategy and
• Media Strategy.

The former states, in strategic terms, what Benefit your brand offers, the Reason Why the benefit is what customers want, and the Acceptance of customers of your copy strategy.

The latter details how to bring the copy to the target (customers).

Given that marketing without numbers is just fiction, every strategic statement is backed up with solid evidence, mainly from marketing research studies.

It is the strategy formulation that may make the difference. If you have a chance to see how P&G brand teams formulate strategies you will immediately realize that strong strategies are short and to the point: One quarter of a page for the strategic statement and 1-2 pages of supporting evidence.

These documents guide the execution of communication activities and make sure your activities contribute to reaching the overall marketing objective. There is no room for I-Thinkers in strategy.

Good luck

Testing your message, aka advertising test, is done with quantitative marketing research.

Show a copy of the advertisement, be it a storyboard or the real ad, to a representative sample of the public supposed to be exposed to the message, and test 3 elements: Comprehension, Reaction, and Memorization.

Comprehension of the message meaning as you are supposed to transfer it. Reaction to the message coherent with the goal of the campaign (Trial? Repurchase? What else?) Memorization of the message, long enough to remember to buy the product the next time.

This is how to test a message. Comprehension, Reaction, and Memorization.

Also this on "How to judge an advertisement" is worth reading https://www.marketingstat.com/how-to-judge-ad-copy-strategy/