Utvärdering

Experiences & Capabilities

At the heart of a given product is the solution it offers to the users, the experiences it gives. It is not uncommon for the product developers to center their attention on this, creating or improving the core component that solves the given product. It is important to think about the experiences and capabilities surrounding a given product or service; thinking through all the point of interaction to ensure that what is developed is an exceptional product or service experience. During the product development process, it is important to define all the requirements. These requirements need to be included early in the process. To understand the processes and requirements, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive assessment.

Identify a Target Market

To come up with a product that meets customer and business needs it is important to identify the typical market and tailor its development towards this end. Having a well-defined target market ensures that you come up with a product that addresses the needs as well as solves the current and future problems. As a business which is interested in succeeding in a competitive environment, it should not be about targeting anyone interested in your services or products. This is one big mistake that most of the business do, as a business which is focused, you need to be sure whom you are targeting, a specific market and then build your products around this.

Identification of your target involves looking at what your product offers and thinking around who may be interested in such a solution. Sometimes this may involve talking to several people, finding out how they go about solving a given problem. From such an engagement, you will get an insight into what they want in a given product. This kind of information will help you design the product in such a way that it will address their needs effectively.

To come up with a product that will appeal to the majority of the targeted or potential customers, the first thing is to understand that the overall market has consumers with different characteristics. These characteristics include geography, demographics, benefits, lifestyles, loyalty among others. When you talk of demographics, this refers to statistical parameters such as income, age, level of educations that define the market segment. This is information that can be easily accessed in most country’s census cites. Geography refers to customer location or where the product will be used. Lifestyles can be identified as beliefs, attitudes, behavior social-economic characteristics, leisure habits, technological capacity, religious practices among others. Benefits refer to the gains that the product in question may offer to a customer. A product may be designed to offer affordability, ease of use, reliability, some segment of the market may be interested in other benefits which the same product can offer. Loyalty refers to affinity to a given product or brand.

The fact that you are targeting a specific market does not mean you are excluding others who do not fit your criteria; rather this allows you to focus your resources in building a brand for a market that is more likely to patronize your product rather than buying from other markets. It is much more effective, efficient and affordable way of reaching the potential customer and generate business value. For instance, a design firm could choose its target market as people interested in owning a home with ages between 30 and 60 years and have incomes of $ 150,000 in a given geographical location. The firm could further define its market as customers who are interested in traditional styles and further breaking it down to new parents, retirees among others. When they have clearly defined their target audience, it becomes much easy for the business to determine where their potential customers are and also devise ways through which they can reach them. At Noah Matrix, we help our customers get this right, clearly identify their target market, using the right information and going ahead in identifying ways through which they can be reached. This also comes in handy when developing digital tools, as they will be designed in such a way that they can address the needs of targeted customers as well as assist in meeting the business needs.

Differentiation

For any business, product knowledge is an important skill; it allows the presentation of their benefits persuasively and accurately. Customers normally respond to those who are enthusiastic and passionate about their services or product and are keen at sharing with them the benefits they can derive from the product. Also, customers are highly likely to trust those who show confidence in their product; all this is built through increasing your knowledge of the products and services that you offer. It involves knowing all the features of your product and how it compares with others in the market. It involves a thorough understanding of what makes the product different. It is out of that knowledge that you will be in a position to present it as different and above all convince the customer that it will provide a superior experience that what the competition can offer.

To know what makes your product different involves looking at what the competitor is offering and comparing it with your own. You need to study the competitive environment to understand how they carry out their business intending to discover the differences. Once you understand where the difference lies, get to know about the performance of the alternative product. This will help you gauge your performance and undertake measures that will address the shortcomings if there are any.

A product or a service is supposed to address specific customer needs, if it performs this function effectively, chances of it beating the competition are very high. Any business out there should strive to meet the customer needs always. If there are any shortcomings in this, a business should take all the measures to ensure that corrective processes are undertaken. Noah Matrix will be at the heart of this, helping businesses discover their weaknesses and strengthens and together come up with strategies which will capitalize on strengths and work on the weaknesses.

Research the Competition

In every business there will be others offering the same products, these are the entities whom you are sharing the available market. The competition also involves those who are providing an alternative product. For every business, success comes with control of a relatively larger market share compared to others offering the same product or service. Knowing who you are competing with in terms of market share allows you to carry out business operations in a manner that makes your product stand out. It will also allow setting the prices competitively and also assist in responding to rival marketing strategies with own effective initiatives.

Knowledge of your competitors helps you come up with strategies that take of your competition weakness and greatly improve your enterprise performance. When you discover areas that your competition is not doing right, you will come up with plans on how you can use this information to your advantage. It will also be a good chance to assess of any threats that may be posed by any new entrants to the markets as well as the current competition, this knowledge to a large extent will help in coming with realistic plans, those that will guarantee the success of your enterprise.

Who are your competitors?

• It could be a new business which is offering similar or substitute product, something that may make your product redundant.
• It can be another service or product which is in the development process.

You can get information or clues about other businesses offering similar or substitute products through the following channels :

Local business directories or yellow pages

Looking at the business directories in your country or region will give you a list of businesses operating in an area and also the kind of activities that they engage in. You will be able to identify those that engage in similar activities, where they are located and even the owners of the enterprises. With this information, you can conduct further research to understand how they operate and if they do things differently.

The chamber of commerce operating in your region

Chamber of commerce has a list of all the members operating in an area and the activities which they operate in. Most likely you will also be a member of the same business organization, so this kind of information will not be hard to get. You can also engage with the same businesses owners during the important activities organized by the organization. Here you will get a deeper insight into how they operate, areas you can collaborate and also what they think about you as a competitor.

From the advertisement in different media

Advertisements, whether in television, radio, newspapers, magazine, billboards or any other media aim at informing the customers of a given product and services that are offered by an enterprise as well as how they can access it. A lot of information can be obtained from these advertisements that can help you learn more about the competition. You will also learn how these products compete with yours. While it is important to note that some of them may be exaggerated, the fact that they give details which are aimed at capturing the customer attention should not be lost in the analysis. Use them cautiously, with an understanding that they are dynamic and are designed to address a current perception about a product.

Newspaper reports

Press reports will give you information about businesses, more so when they are launching products or holding other functions. Businesses see this as an avenue where they can inform the public on their operations.

Exhibitions and trade fairs

Trade fairs and exhibitions are platforms where businesses showcase their products. In these forums, you even get a chance to meet with your competition, seek to understand how their products address customer needs among other information.

Internet search

A search on the internet where you use the product or service that you offer as the search word or phrase.

Information from the customers

Customers can give you an experience with a rival product, they will tell you of the areas where it performs better or poorly relative to your product. Pay keen attention to customer feedback, it can help you understand your competition better. Customer feedback and reviews play a great role in helping you understand how your product is performing with others in the market. It is from your interactions with the customers that can help you know other products in the market some of which you may not have known because their produces use nonconventional marketing methods, those that target the customer directly instead of mass advertisements.

Patent list search

You may use the patent lists to know existing patented products which are similar to what you offer.

What to know about the competition :

1. Produkten de hanterar och de metoder de använder för att nå till sina kunder
2. Prisintervallet de tar ut för sina produkter eller tjänster
3. Hur de levererar och distribuerar sina produkter
4. De typer av enheter de använder för att förbättra kundlojaliteten och säkerhetskopieringstjänsterna de erbjuder
5. Varumärken och designvärden
6. Deras personalantal och vilken typ av personal de lockar
7. Deras anställning av informationsteknologi och vilken typ av system de använder
8. Vem är ägare till företaget och vilken typ av personer de är
9. Deras medieaktiviteter, vilken typ av plattformar de använder.

För att du ska få all denna information måste du genomföra en intensiv aktivitet som kan vara tidskrävande. Men den typ av information som du kommer att samla in i denna övning är mycket användbar, det kommer att leda till sunt beslutsfattande, du kommer med strategier som hjälper dig att fånga en betydande del av marknaden.

Agera på konkurrenssinformation

Du måste utvärdera den information du samlar in om konkurrensen. Det borde vara i stånd att säga om det finns luckor på marknaden som kan utnyttjas. Det bör också visa om marknaden är mättad, en information som kan hjälpa dig att identifiera de områden som ska fokusera på oss.

Ta fram en lista med allt du har upptäckt om konkurrensen, oavsett hur liten den kan vara. Det är en viktig information som kan hjälpa dig att avgöra hur du ska driva ditt företag framgångsrikt. Denna information kan delas in i tre kategorier :

• Vad kan man lära av det och vad som kan göras bättre
• Var presterar de sämre än dig
• Vilka områden gör de samma sak som du

Vad kan du lära dig och bli bättre på ?

Om du inte är säker på de områden där det går bättre för konkurrensen än ditt företag, måste du svara och komma med några konkreta förändringar. Det kan handla om förbättring av kundsupporten, bedöma prisnivåerna eller uppdatera produkterna, ändra dina marknadsföringsstrategier, omklassificera produkten och webbplatsen. Medan det inte imiterar eftersom detta kan studsa tillbaka och bränna alla ansträngningar och tid som du har spenderat på att få information om konkurrensen. Konkurrensen kan ha rättigheter på idén du försöker sträva efter. Därför bör man vara försiktig för att undvika en situation där du anklagas för att kränka dessa rättigheter.

Vilka områden presterar de sämre än du ?

Det är nu dags att utnyttja de luckor som du har identifierat i din forskning. De kan variera från produktutbudet, marknadsföringsstrategier, distribution eller till och med på det sätt som du gör för att rekrytera och behålla dina anställda. Förnya dina ansträngningar inom områden som du identifierar för att göra bättre än konkurrensen, utnyttja dem samtidigt som du vidtar åtgärder för att förbättra de områden du identifierar som låga vad gäller prestanda jämfört med konkurrenterna. Du får inte vara självgivande mot dina styrkor eftersom konkurrensen kan ha utfört en liknande övning och det är bara en tidsfråga innan de blir bättre än dig.

Vilka områden matchar du vad gäller prestanda ?

Lär dig varför de gör samma saker som du, du kanske inte blir imponerad men det kanske är för bådas bästa att ändra detta. Gör en analys av detta och se om du kan få det rätt. Vet att din konkurrens kanske planerar ungefär samma sak, så du måste vara försiktig, gå snabbt och i rätt riktning så att du inte förlorar den.

Gör en finansiell genomförbarhetsstudie

När ett företag har en idé om en ny produkt måste de göra en genomförbarhetsstudie för att fastställa om idén är livskraftig. En omfattande genomförbarhetsstudie undersöker marknaden, analyserar de tekniska frågorna och produktionsfrågorna, bedömer de ekonomiska faktorerna som innebär att genomföra en finansiell genomförbarhetsstudie. En ekonomisk genomförbarhetsstudie är en viktig del av genomförbarheten, som borde genomföras för alla projekt. Finansiella långivare insisterar på denna studie för att vara säker på att projektet de tänker finansiera kommer att leva upp till dess förväntade resultat. Det är genom denna process som kassaflöden bedöms och en produkts allmänna lönsamhet uppskattas. Denna studie fokuserar på den ekonomiska aspekten av produkten, bedömer dess ekonomiska livskraft genom utvärdering av startkostnader, driftskostnader, kassaflöde och prognos för framtida resultat.

Identifiering av startkostnader

Detta är det första steget i utarbetandet av den finansiella genomförbarhetsanalysen, bland de typiska kostnaderna ingår :

Inköp av tillgångar som mark och byggnad som kan krävas för företaget. Det är viktigt att notera att detta beror på vilken typ av produkt som utvecklas. Vissa produkter kanske inte kräver utrymme men det finns definitivt vissa tillgångskrav.

Förvärv av utrustningar som kommer att behövas i processen för produktutveckling

• Eventuella licenser och tillstånd som kan krävas; Det som måste beaktas här är kostnaderna för att få dessa godkännanden
• Eventuella insättningar som måste göras avseende hyresavtal
• Startkostnader för inköp av material som kommer att behövas under produktutvecklingen
• Juridiska och redovisningsavgifter som kommer att komma upp i processen
• Eventuella kostnader som uppkommer under marknadsundersökningar
• Anställdas löner
• Kostnader relaterade till reklam och andra viktiga tjänster under produktutvecklingen
• Kostnad för verktyg förknippade med företagets produktutvecklingsprocess

De flesta av dessa kostnader uppstår en gång men de kräver finansiering på förhand innan verksamheten startar verksamheten.

Förberedelse av kassaflöde och vinstprognoser

Nästa steg innebär framskrivning av kassaflöden och vinst som förväntas genereras. Dessa prognoser består av försäljning, produktionskostnad och driftskostnader som bör klassificeras som rörliga eller fasta kostnader. De bör också inkludera de medel som krävs för uppstarten.

Andra processer involverade i finansiell genomförbarhetsanalys inkluderar bestämning av avkastningen på investeringar med hjälp av verktyg som intern avkastningskurs, nuvärdet, återbetalningsperiod och lönsamhetsindex med mera. I dessa analyser är företaget intresserat av att bedöma produktens attraktivitet för aktieinvesteringar och företagets allmänna ekonomiska avkastning.