Light Bulb Moments

New market opportunities can be hard to spot. One way to find them is to look at the internet and social media and see how people are employing ‘hacks’ when using particular products or services. This can highlight pain points for consumers and show you how they have circumvented the issue and found a solution that works. You can then consider offering these improvisations to make your offering more useful as well as exploring different scenarios where your product or service can be used.

Chinese Consumer Preferences

China Skinny always have their fingers on the Chinese consumer's pulse. In one their recent newsletters, they highlighted 5 things to remember about the Chinese marketplace.

1. Find out where Chinese consumers shop, why they do so, and what strategies have other businesses used that have either worked or failed. Consumer preferences vary widely and are becoming more sophisticated. Also be aware that the Chinese government wants to build a stable internal economy, so will be encouraging the rise of domestic brands and protection of their IP.

2. Be bold with marketing - on and offline.

3. Obviously look at the Tier 1 and 2 cities, but don't forget about the potential of smaller cities. The most landlocked province in China was the number one seller of bikinis online per capita!

4. Have a flexible, long-term strategy in China. Keep informed about what is going on and adapt quickly.

5. Be true to your product and brand. Understand your market, the available opportunities, and how your products or services best fit into that market.

Consumer Shopping Behaviours

Nielsen report that more Australian consumers shopped online in 2013 than those who did online banking. They also say that nine in 10 (89%) of consumers purchased a product online last year. Some products have higher purchasing rates online than others. Online research on printed books, clothing and digital music have high online purchasing rates, whereas online-to-offline sales are the best for grocery shopping, liquor, restaurant, clothing and pharmacy items. By using a smartphone, consumers can be in a bricks 'n' mortar store but online as well, doing research. More than one in 10 online Australian shoppers use their smartphone to make a purchase and the same proportion purchase via tablet (13%).

Use Research for Success

Graham McGregor's column in the New Zealand Herald describes how facts can be used to build compelling sales propositions. He gave an example of a company who used their industry knowledge to build their brand, and were consequently seen as a market leader. It's not hard to get good facts to support how your product or service can help customers. Just make sure that the information is up-to-date and comes from an authoritative source. Don't make your customers question the statistics from a dodgy source - it's just going to make them doubt you and the solution you are trying to sell.