Blog 10
In this last blog, I am going to talk about our final group project. We focused our attention on parents who have recently had a baby. As it is known, when a baby is about to come in the picture, parents must change their lifestyle so as to adapt it to the baby care. The room we were given was the bedroom. Thus, to create and design a product prototype for our target, we needed to approach them in order to gain their insights.
In spite of having serious difficulties in the very beginning, we finally found the required sample to make a good analysis of our target. With the analysis I have been able to practice all what we had learned at class and although there are several issues I would like to highlight in this last blog, the two main ideas from this course that I believe I have understood better as a result of working on this project are:
When I first knew that the room for our target was the bedroom, I immediately thought that the product prototype should be something related to the baby’s entertainment. Assuming that parents work all day long and when they are at home what they want is to get relax, a product for the baby’s entertainment fit exactly with my own conception. Nevertheless, while doing our approaches, I realized that bedrooms were less adapted to the baby care than what I had expected. In the great majority of bedrooms, everything was organized as if the baby wasn’t in the picture, except for the cradle and some other items. Therefore, more than being the place to take care of the baby, bedroom was still the place for parents to get relax (first) and then being with the baby.
In other words, if we hadn’t taken into account issues such as the uses of the bedroom or the changes now that a baby is in the picture, we wouldn’t have been able to find out the real needs we had to cover. Moreover, the kind of items we expected to see in the parents rooms were also very different from what we had thought because we realized that there were no toys for the baby in the room but a lot of small electronic items for the entertainment of the parents and also for the baby care.
Summarizing, we hadn’t met the real needs of our target if we wouldn’t have checked our initial assumptions. And to do so, we used two different kinds of approaches –online surveys and pictures of the bedroom-. Online surveys helped us realize our target’s concerns, expectations and other issues related to the bedroom and the link between the bedroom and the baby and the pictures of the bedrooms helped us figure out other issues more difficult to discover trough any other approach such as the type of items in the room, the organization of the space, the items for the entertainment of the parents or the items for the baby care. So, to finally design our product prototype we assured that we know not only what our target did but also why they did it.
Once we gain our target’s insights, we were able to design our product prototype. In fact, this was the easiest part of the group project because we knew exactly which needs we had to cover and the only thing we had to do is imagine how to do it. As we are “marketing minds”, imagination and creativity flew so easily that in a few minutes we had the main idea of our prototype.
As I have mentioned before, the information gathered in our approaches was very useful to design our prototype. Particularly, our research findings showed us that:
- In the bedroom there were small electronic items
- Parents were mostly worried about the baby care
- Bedroom was not the place to entertain the baby
- In the bedroom there were items for the entertainment of the parents
With these findings we thought about a product which could let parents take care of the baby while at the same time they could be relax and unstressed. So, more than trying to find the perfect innovation, we adapt the usual baby monitor to create “THE HINT”.
The Hint is a small electronic item which identify when the baby is crying or is making some loud noise to then send a message to the parents. THE HINT is oval, so it can’t hurt the baby and it allows parents to calm down the baby through the voice –like a phone call-. The key point for developing this product was that it allows parents to be constantly “next to the baby” wherever they are. Therefore, without “almost any effort” we find the ideal product: THE HINT was a small electronic item, easy to carry and easy to have in the bedroom; it allows parents to get relax while at the same time they can control the baby wherever they are.
Summarizing, we did it simple and we succeed; and we succeed because we had worked very hard to identify the most relevant part of our group project: our target’s insights.
In this last blog, I am going to talk about our final group project. We focused our attention on parents who have recently had a baby. As it is known, when a baby is about to come in the picture, parents must change their lifestyle so as to adapt it to the baby care. The room we were given was the bedroom. Thus, to create and design a product prototype for our target, we needed to approach them in order to gain their insights.
In spite of having serious difficulties in the very beginning, we finally found the required sample to make a good analysis of our target. With the analysis I have been able to practice all what we had learned at class and although there are several issues I would like to highlight in this last blog, the two main ideas from this course that I believe I have understood better as a result of working on this project are:
Before assuming that you know your customers, you must understand not only what they do but also why they do it. Check your assumptions before going on your analysis
When I first knew that the room for our target was the bedroom, I immediately thought that the product prototype should be something related to the baby’s entertainment. Assuming that parents work all day long and when they are at home what they want is to get relax, a product for the baby’s entertainment fit exactly with my own conception. Nevertheless, while doing our approaches, I realized that bedrooms were less adapted to the baby care than what I had expected. In the great majority of bedrooms, everything was organized as if the baby wasn’t in the picture, except for the cradle and some other items. Therefore, more than being the place to take care of the baby, bedroom was still the place for parents to get relax (first) and then being with the baby.
In other words, if we hadn’t taken into account issues such as the uses of the bedroom or the changes now that a baby is in the picture, we wouldn’t have been able to find out the real needs we had to cover. Moreover, the kind of items we expected to see in the parents rooms were also very different from what we had thought because we realized that there were no toys for the baby in the room but a lot of small electronic items for the entertainment of the parents and also for the baby care.
Summarizing, we hadn’t met the real needs of our target if we wouldn’t have checked our initial assumptions. And to do so, we used two different kinds of approaches –online surveys and pictures of the bedroom-. Online surveys helped us realize our target’s concerns, expectations and other issues related to the bedroom and the link between the bedroom and the baby and the pictures of the bedrooms helped us figure out other issues more difficult to discover trough any other approach such as the type of items in the room, the organization of the space, the items for the entertainment of the parents or the items for the baby care. So, to finally design our product prototype we assured that we know not only what our target did but also why they did it.
Sometimes you can satisfy your target’s needs only by adapting an existing product. Therefore, more than thinking about the product features, marketers must analyze their target because once the analysis is done properly, the product comes immediately. Simplicity is the key
Once we gain our target’s insights, we were able to design our product prototype. In fact, this was the easiest part of the group project because we knew exactly which needs we had to cover and the only thing we had to do is imagine how to do it. As we are “marketing minds”, imagination and creativity flew so easily that in a few minutes we had the main idea of our prototype.
As I have mentioned before, the information gathered in our approaches was very useful to design our prototype. Particularly, our research findings showed us that:
- In the bedroom there were small electronic items
- Parents were mostly worried about the baby care
- Bedroom was not the place to entertain the baby
- In the bedroom there were items for the entertainment of the parents
With these findings we thought about a product which could let parents take care of the baby while at the same time they could be relax and unstressed. So, more than trying to find the perfect innovation, we adapt the usual baby monitor to create “THE HINT”.
The Hint is a small electronic item which identify when the baby is crying or is making some loud noise to then send a message to the parents. THE HINT is oval, so it can’t hurt the baby and it allows parents to calm down the baby through the voice –like a phone call-. The key point for developing this product was that it allows parents to be constantly “next to the baby” wherever they are. Therefore, without “almost any effort” we find the ideal product: THE HINT was a small electronic item, easy to carry and easy to have in the bedroom; it allows parents to get relax while at the same time they can control the baby wherever they are.
Summarizing, we did it simple and we succeed; and we succeed because we had worked very hard to identify the most relevant part of our group project: our target’s insights.
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