Question

Do you believe that the markets could be developed to receive a new gadget or should the new gadget be developed to meet markets needs? How do you know what are the needs if the gadget is not in the hand of the consumer yet?  

Answer 1

Both developing a market need and meeting the market need are good strategies for new product development. The former is a PULL strategy while the latter is a PUSH strategy.

Market needs can be analyzed in two ways:

1) Direct- Interviewing the end consumer

In this technique, needs can be analyzed via market research like questionnaires, interviews, feedback, reviews etc. received directly from the consumer. This is mostly suitable when there is already a market need for the gadget and the company needs information for trials and prototyping.

2) Indirect- Sensing the current product inefficiences

This technique answers the second part of the question. In case a market needs to be developed to receive a new gadget, the company should sense inefficiencies or unsatisfactory experiences with a current product serving the same need. For example, when Amazon came up with Kindle, it was to replace the hassles with carrying traditional books and providing a central repository for storage for e-books. Kindle replaces the traditional book in every way, with the unique touch and feel of the gadget along with some additional features. Users quickly adapted to the Kindle instead of reading e-books on tablets or mobile phones, due to its ability to integrate a traditional book reading experience along with the convenience of carrying e-books.