Five Reasons Why a Product is Likely to Succeed - Tips From an Industrial Design Company

 

Launching a new product can be tricky. After all, there is virtually no guarantee of the degree of success it will encounter. This can be further exacerbated if your business has little to no knowledge of product development. However, in our experience as an industrial design company, we have learned that there are several qualifications a product must meet in order to stand a chance of being well received on the market. Interested in learning more?

 

Here are five signs that can signal the potential profitability of a new product: 

 

1) Does your product fulfill its promises?

It’s no secret that customers are drawn to making purchases with promises. No matter what the claims may be in your own case, it’s integral that your product follows through, or else you risk disappointing the user. This is key to creating happy customers who would consider repurchasing from your business, as well as writing positive reviews and recommending the product to their friends, thus building up your momentum on the market. 

 

2) Did you conduct thorough market research? 

Market research is the first step in product development. This is where your business will need to complete an investigation on market trends, consumer habits, rival companies, materials, pricing, and more through surveys and data collections. Market research is imperative, as it reveals invaluable information about product design and what exactly it would take to develop a product that customers would be willing to purchase. In other words, it directly tells you how to sell in your given market, meaning this certainly is not an area you should neglect. 

 

3) Does your product solve a new problem? 

Most often, customers are influenced to make a purchase when they have a problem that needs to be solved. If you wish to outsell your competition, your business will need to find what problems exist within the market that your competitors simply aren’t addressing. In doing so, you can develop something that only your business can provide to its users, thus securing a dependable and loyal customer base. On the flip side, if your product isn’t much different from other similar options and brings nothing new or inventive to the market, there’s a good chance your business will be overlooked by customers. 

 

4) Is your product of high quality? 

It goes without saying that the quality of your product can certainly affect its reception on the market, but why is that? Customers are able to discern when a product is made of high quality versus low-quality materials. The concern here is that quality can convey certain messages about your business practices and ethos, whether they’re true or not. A product made of low-quality materials may imply that your business is only concerned about making a profit rather than satisfying the customer. On the flip side, high-quality products suggest that your business is truly passionate about its mission and improving the lives of its users. Of course, it’s quite easy to determine which of the two most customers will prefer to purchase from. 

 

5) Did you test different prototypes? 

Prototyping is crucial in product development. Here, you can learn what features and functions of the design are or are not working. The objective here is to uncover any issues with the product before drafting production documents and sending them to be mass-produced. Essentially, this is the test stage, so it’s best to take your time and test many different prototypes in order to find what works best for your vision. If not, you run the risk of releasing a subpar product on the market. 

 

Industrial design companies design with these questions in mind

There’s no doubt that building a successful product can prove challenging. Product development is a niche process that requires plenty of knowledge, creativity, innovation, and, above all, experience. The above tips may lead you in the right direction, but if you still feel unsure about your own or your in-house team’s ability to execute a functional and popular product, then it may be in your business’s best interest to outsource this work to one of the many reputable industrial design companies in California, like Design Stein Studios. Equipped with combined decades worth of design experience, we create products specifically with these 5 questions in mind on top of our insider perspective, knowledge, and honed skills. This is all to say, an industrial design company knows exactly what it takes to make a good product fit for the market and increase your business’s chance of reaching success. 

Understanding Market Research And How an Industrial Design Company Can Assist With The Process

 

When it comes to industrial design, every stage is integral for creating a successful product. However, many business owners are quick to undervalue the importance of market research. In these cases, some may opt to not conduct proper research. In actuality, this is a grave error as market research can quite literally determine the performance of the product’s final design. Is your team putting enough effort into this essential step? Here, we’ll discuss what market research entails, how exactly it can elevate your business to the next level, and why you should outsource to an industrial design company to take on this significant task. 

 

Defining market research

Market research is a vast stage in product development. Simply put, it’s the phase in which designers analyze every detail there is pertaining to market trends, pricing, potential competition, the target audience’s habits and needs, and much more. Here, you’ll need to investigate the whys, hows, what ifs, whens, and wheres through qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This includes focus groups, customer satisfaction studies, online surveys, customer reviews, and focus groups. The objective is to get as much information as possible because these details will then be used to guide the ideation, 3D CAD modeling, and prototyping processes. For example, market research helps to deduce what price the product should be sold at, what materials should be used, how the product should look visually, what features should be incorporated or omitted, how the product should be constructed, and much more. Overall, this step singularly paves the way for the rest of the product development process. 

 

How market research can elevate your products 

As previously stated, market research is essential because of the information it unveils and how it influences the final product design. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what market research can do for you. That’s to say, there are two major benefits that come with thorough research that can exceedingly improve your product and sales. First, this step reveals what exactly the market’s demands are. Undoubtedly, customers aren’t interested in purchasing a product they do not need or want. By carefully investigating the behavior of the market and the desires of the customers, designers are able to avoid this. Instead, you can manufacture a product that is most suitable to the needs of the market, leading to a greater chance of a successful business. Second, market research can boost your sales by enabling you to dominate a certain market segment. Specifically, research allows designers to uncover the gaps in the market. These gaps represent the unmet needs of the customers, meaning there is a niche in the market that your competitors simply aren’t fulfilling. This information can then be considered while designing to assemble a one-of-a-kind innovation, one that will capture the attention of customers with problems that only your product can resolve, thus giving your business control over that specific market segment. Ultimately, if you want a product that performs well on the market, then research should not be overlooked. 

 

How industrial design companies can help with market research

At this point, it’s no secret that good market research is involved and exhaustive. For this reason, it may be in your business’s best interest to skip handling this work in-house and instead outsource research to an industrial design company like Design Stein Studios. This way, your business will get qualified and credible designers who have years worth of experience in market research working on your project. Of course, this means that these designers have the correct knowledge to execute a successful research campaign, but what exactly does that translate to? 

 

Market research is a delicate process. Bias is prevalent, both in questions and data, which can truly distort your results and hinder your chances of developing a successful product. It takes a certain skill set to be able to know how to pose the right questions, choose the right methodology, interpret the information, and determine what is and is not helpful. Luckily, industrial design companies in California know precisely how to do this. Not only that but these professionals are also assisted by their expertise in product design as a whole. This means they possess exclusive insight in regards to translating information yielded by market research into product design that an in-house team may not be able to replicate. For example, at Design Stein our focus is on using creativity and forward-thinking to develop products that are innovative, dependable, and one step ahead of the competition. With this objective in mind, we know how to incorporate data into our design process to develop a product that encompasses this description exactly, on top of corresponding with market trends. In the end, contracting a third-party design firm to assume this responsibility, as well as the entire design development process, is a wise decision for turning your working ideas into tangible products that sell.