Doubling Purchase Intent with Iterative Testing and Validation
A top-selling national brand had developed and was ready to launch a line extension to a new product platform. However, the marketing and sales leadership were concerned because the original product was underperforming even though it had strong retail support.
Fast-Cycle X established and led an 8-week process that achieved the following:
Identified a baseline understanding of initial messaging and product positioning
Gained usage insights from key customers to understand the products perceived key benefits and purchase barriers
Developed ideal product positioning, packaging, and sales materials based on several rounds of iterative qualitative and quantitative testing with the target customer segment
Confirmed changes made an impact by more than doubling weighted purchase intent vs. baseline study.
The top-selling national brand was able to use this information to update its go-to-market strategy and in meetings with key category buyers resulting in distribution that would have been otherwise difficult to secure.
Avoided $2-3M in Lost Sales with Proactive Research
A middle-market company had the #2 battery-powered vehicle for kids at the nation’s top retailer. However, it had been several years since launch and the design team had not updated the product design since launch. The brand, design, and product development team had developed a ready-to-go design to have whenever the category buyer decided an update was needed.
Fast-Cycle X led qualitative and quantitative surveys with parents of kids in the target age group to confirm the updated design would drive increased purchase intent; to understand what aspects of both old and new designs were more popular relative to one another; and to gain insights from competitive products to inform additional design direction.
Surprisingly, the surveys concluded the ideal shoppers actually preferred the current design vs. proposed updates and that changes would lead to lower sales velocity. However, there were a few minor design elements that could be updated to reach an even better solution.
This fast-cycle learning process helped avoid $2-3M dollars in lost sales and capital costs that would have occurred by launching an updated product that was popular with both company executives and the category buyer but would have resulted in a lower sales velocity.