Question #1: Inclusive market research for product or service development

[Meg Buckley, ACDI/VOCA]

This is a question for everyone to respond to, including experts and participants:

How can market research be used to better develop products or services for customer or client segments, such as women, youth, or other traditionally excluded groups?

Looking forward to the conversation!

[kvh...@googlemail.com]

Hey Meg,

Thank you for the question - sharing thoughts from the Business Fights Poverty community - our key learning is to ensure the people you’re trying to reach are part of the market research design process, and actively and equally part of each step of your research process not just data collection. If you are using a market research company - make sure they also employ a diverse set of recruits too.

[Gloria Enwema]

Hi Meg, thanks for kicking off with this question! I quite agree with Katie and to buttress on her point;

Conducting market research helps create products or services better suited for the customer or client segments (such as women, youth, or other traditionally excluded groups) which results to a high product acceptance rate when launched into the market.

Market research is one of the greatest approaches that many organizations apply during a product or service development stage. From my experience working in the private sector (ReelFruit), we deploy multiple strategies during our market research to ensure that our target audience can engage with the products positively.

Some of these market research strategies include:-

1. Identifying customer needs: During our market research, we realized that customers have different needs and preferences. So, when we were developing a healthy snack product targeted for kids to support working moms, we, through design approach, directly engaged targeted women and learnt about the unique challenges and barriers faced by these women and what factors influenced their decisions around what they offered their kids for snacks. Some of these factors included the convenience, the health benefit and most importantly, the price. This research helped us create a product that immediately got a higher entrant into the market than we had initially anticipated.
2. Developing customer personas: Creating customer personas can help to develop a better understanding of the needs and preferences of different customer segments especially for products that caters to diverse types and categories of customers. These personas can help to guide product development, marketing strategies, and customer engagement approaches.
3. Testing product concepts: Market research can be used to test product concepts with different customer segments. This can help to identify potential issues or barriers that may affect product adoption and provide insights into how products can be improved to meet customer needs. This applies to services as well.

I'm looking forward to reading others' experiences and insights.

[Getaneh Gobezie]

I appreciate the in-depth analysis of Gloria!! Market research is a key intervention to develop products and services that meet the needs and interests of potential customers. 

*This would help to not only to expand market size, but also to ensure impactful products and services -- this ensuring a win-win for both suppliers as well as final beneficiaries.

*I would also like to emphasize the need for a continuous market research 9rather than occasional, or a one-off type) to be able to continue to refine products and services, and thus to maintain ''competitive advantage'' of companies in the market. While deploying consultants for market research is often valued, we have also learned (especially in Access to Finance) that frontline staff --who have regular contacts with clients and potential clients -- could also be key entry points for ideas on refining products and developing brand new products. Systems should be there in institutions to establish a feed-back loop to continuously gather and analyze such valued infos. An additional note here (as we have recently discussed at FinDev/FinEquity, see below, COMMENT Section) such frontline staff often have lower voices, or participation in decisions on product developments. 

https://www.findevgateway.org/finequity/blog/2023/02/driving-formal-savings-what-works-for-low-income-women#comment-16196

I look forward to read more!

Thanks and Regards, Getaneh

[eddah mwampagama]

Hi Meg

Market research can be a valuable tool for understanding the needs and preferences of specific customer or client segments, including traditionally excluded groups such as women, youth, and other marginalized communities. Here are some ways in which market research can be used to develop products or services for these groups better:

Conducting surveys, Surveys can be used to gather feedback from customers or clients in specific segments. For example, a company could conduct a survey of women to understand their needs and preferences better when it comes to a particular product or service. The survey could ask questions about features, price, branding, and other factors that are important to women.

Focus groups, Focus groups can provide an opportunity to gather in-depth feedback from a specific customer or client segment. For example, a company could organize a focus group of young people to get their opinions on a new product or service. The focus group could be used to gather feedback on features, design, branding, and other factors that are important to young people.

Social media monitoring, Social media can be a valuable source of information about customer or client segments. By monitoring social media conversations, a company can gain insights into the needs and preferences of specific groups. For example, a company could monitor social media conversations among young people to gain insights into their preferences for a particular product or service.

All in all market research can be used to gain valuable insights into the needs and preferences of specific customer or client segments. By using these insights to inform product or service development, companies can better meet the needs of these groups and improve customer satisfaction.