Creativity is thinking of something new. Innovation is the implementation of something new.
You’ve thought of something new, and you’re ready to implement it — but is your market ready? Market insights are a valuable tool for any product or service hitting the market, but they’re critical for innovations yet to be experienced in the market. Keep reading to find out why:
1. Innovations focus on tomorrow — making them unknown, unproven and uncertain
Innovation is synonymous with “new” — new ideas, methods, devices, solutions — making them by definition, unstable and unpredictable. As with all new things, there is no factual history or data with which to back them — only impressions, trends and hypotheses. This makes innovating all the more thrilling… and risky. Regulations change. Market trends shift in the blink of an eye. How can you know your innovation is market-ready?
Market insight’s value stems from the power of not fact, but perception. Based on what people want now and in the future, insights allow you to perceive needs that aren’t even known yet by the buyer themselves. As they’re not raw data, insights can’t predict the future — but they can enable trend detection by revealing a more complete picture of your market in real time.
2. Market insights reveal your innovation’s true target market — or lack thereof
Key market insights can cause your B2B innovation to take a new, completely unforeseen route. Maybe your investment is a great idea — maybe it’s not. Or, maybe it’s a great idea for a different industry.
An example? A UMI client had an innovative market idea: heating paint. Their plan to use the paint for insulating and heating buildings like hospitals changed when several UMI Market Test respondents suggested its use as an anti-icing system for wind turbines.
The value is twofold: a good market insight reveals not only new and previously unrealized pain points for the consumers in your initial scope, but also possibilities and challenges for new markets you haven’t even considered.
3. Insights no longer take months to produce
When it comes to the constantly-advancing world of B2B innovations, you’ve got to be quick. The production cycle is short — speed and time to market (TTM) are vital to success. You don’t have time to wait for months for traditional market insights. If you’ve got a great idea, you need to know ASAP; if you’ve got a flop, you need to know before wasting more time and money.
The availability of digital automated market research yields quality, global market insights in as little as three weeks — at one-third of the price. When you can make informed market decisions in real time, you can catch the market at the perfect moment — substantially increasing your chances of success.
4. Insights offer a fascinating glimpse into your competition
If you’ve ever launched a B2B innovation, you know the competition is fierce. How well do you understand your competitors — not only their goals, target buyer and flaws, but who they actually are?
You may think your disruptive innovation has little competition, but potential customers may link it to indirect competitors you’ve never even considered. Market insights help you understand what your target market actually thinks (versus what you think) — broadening your realities of competition or solidifying the truth that if you don’t put your B2B innovation to market quickly, someone else will.
5. Insights validate your marketing
Promoting a previously non-existent B2B innovation to an unaware market is far from simple. You need to help your audience quickly and easily understand how your potentially complex innovation will solve their problem and improve their lives. Insightful marketing reveals how your potential customers view your innovation — helping you highlight its unique strengths, translate its technical jargon into effective branding, and more effectively communicate it to a broader market.
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Market insights use acute, subjective analysis to discover relevant, actionable and previously unknown truths about your target market. Whether it’s a lack of time or lack of impartial, objective information, innovation owners often fail to collect and digest this precious information about their market — and the consequences can be dire. Have you considered the advantages of automated market intelligence for your innovation?
