The Advivo Innovation and Commercialisation Partners (Advivo ICP) Product Launch Process changes the way to enter the market, using data science to develop succinct market intelligence and enter with a disruptive strategy.
Stage 1 – Immersion
When approached by a medium size company who had been building an internal system over the ten previous years, Advivo ICP was asked to “evaluate the potential commercialisation of their system”. This system had been a catalyst in their growth from a team of around forty people to one hundred people, while only adding one further administration staff member.
For any medium size business to achieve this growth and only add one more administration person certainly grabbed our attention. Our process begins with a low cost ‘conceptual workshop’. In this workshop, our objective is to identify whether the innovative technology ‘warrants’ the investment into using higher investment cost data science that provides us with deep market intelligence. Initially, as we understood this technology, simple desktop research informed us that in essence the solution would involve competing with many competitors; in most cases, this may kill a project from proceeding further. However, as we began to dig deeper and by focusing on the ‘Job To Be Done’ (JTBD) by the product, we discovered that in fact many businesses with characteristics similar to our clients were completing this job through multiple inefficient, independent systems. Could this be an opportunity that the larger number of incumbents (competitors) in this solution marketplace have missed?
Stage 2 – Opportunity Mining
Stage 2 of the process is where we bring our data science partner, Attractor Network (Linda Ginger) into the picture. The Opportunity Mine process enables us to gather from the entire Value Chain (adding value throughout the supply chain) the ‘Bases of Competition’ in which our client’s innovative product will compete. It provides us with statistical representation of what percentage of the market is influenced by each individual basis of competition, resulting in a ranking.
Hypothetical Example:
The basis of competition for Fast Food may be something like (these are hypothetical only and not actual);
Accessibility to stores (i.e. they are in most roadhouse stops) – influences 96.5% of the market
Fast delivery of ordered products – influences 94.8% of the market
Temperature of food on delivery – influences 93.7 % of the market
Packaging and presentation – influences 88.4% of the market …and so on.
Through a refined focus group discussion with representatives of the entire supply chain, this process can often obtain 40, 50 or even 60 individual Basis of Competition. Of course, to WIN and with unlimited resources, we may decide to compete on every basis, but for new market entrants this is unrealistic. We focus on the top 15 – 25% and then analyse the competitor market to understand which of these the competitors are already WINNING!
Think about this; would you, as a young, fragile, often under resourced new market entrant (even if your core business is big and strong) go head-to-head with the powerful competitor? Of course not; that is simply inviting them to kill you in one foul swoop.
No, instead we focus on the basis on competition that we know statistically influences a very high percentage of the market where the competitors ARE NOT winning on that basis. In fact, in many cases there will be basis of competition that the incumbents, due to their power and often arrogance, are not even aware that the market wants, needs and desires that meets a very simple Job To Be Done (JTBD).
The identification of this ‘GAP’ in the market becomes our market entry point, our Whitespace Opportunity.
In our client’s case, this whitespace opportunity led to even deeper research.
Using Data Science to Map the Industry – Literally
Our data science tools provided by Attractor Network enable us to ‘map’ the entire industry, globally. Yes, that’s right; not only do we get a 3D representation of the entire industry, a clear understanding of the competitive landscape and identification of partner/channel opportunities, but we also gain a complete list of all companies in the landscape, providing us with immense specific data for further analysis.
Our data tool set also enables us to research the target market’s search phrases; that is, we gain further rankings of the top phrases being searched for by people looking for a solution related to the Job To Be Done (JTBD) that has been identified and defined through the Advivo ICP process. We identify the top performing competitors and scientifically produce a graphical representation of their growth. Through more use of partner Attractor Network’s data science tools, we can develop a very clear understanding of how those growth companies are winning with even more sophistication.
The Results
- We have a clear understanding of the JOB that target market customers need DONE
- We have statistically identified the gaps in how competitors are competing, leaving our client with a ‘whitespace’ opportunity to now enter the market and own that space with less risk of the incumbents responding with an attack (as they WILL do if you take them on directly)
- We know and have validated what the target market are searching for right now to solve the problem they have
- We are able to triangulate the key points of data that then inform, quite specifically, the absolute necessary features of the product or service that the customers want, need and value, that are ‘good enough’ to do the specific job very well
- This in turn informs the development team what they must build as a minimum viable product, so that we can get to market at the lowest cost possible to then further learn in real life testing environments with early adopter programs, reducing investment risk
- Also, for our market entry, the above informs the key market messages we must focus on to attract the defined segment of the market (usually the low end customers who just want to pay for the JTBD and nothing else and are therefore ready to jump from the high cost competitor they are currently using), enabling us to gain adoption early in our product launch – a crucial component that many new product launches fail to recognise.
Providing Direction and Clarity Backed by Science
In the conceptual Stage 1 process with our client, we had defined the target market quite broadly. Their full product suite, developed over 10 years, was very all-encompassing. This carries risks in assuming the target market will want all these features and can make it difficult to narrow the market.
Stage 2 of the process has enabled us to pivot the market entry strategy by a) refining the target market down into very specific sectors – a much tighter market entry, and b) refining the ‘initial’ product offering down into specific features that DOES the JOB very well. This is enabling us to conduct deep dive qualitative research and recruit early adopters. The result is that we enter the market with relatively low investment cost while gaining adoption, increasing the probability of success and mitigating risk for our client.
Advivo ICP has recognised that many businesses have a job to be done in initially identifying their probability of success of a new product launch. Therefore, we have constructed a ‘Product Launch Diagnostic Tool’, still in a minimum viable product stage, that is ready to be introduced to your business.
If you would like to be a part of our early adopter program and receive a free diagnostic tool consultation, please register below and we will contact you to arrange a 30 min video call to complete the diagnosis and assess your idea’s probability of success.
