Fizz from ConsumerPop

The Psycographic Approach

Analysts say software companies like NetBooks and ConnectWise play to the diversity of small businesses by avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach.

Michael Speyer of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., who focuses on information technology issues affecting small businesses, said that many high-tech companies segment potential customers by the number of employees they have, overlooking the concerns of entrepreneurs versus those of corporate managers.

By contrast, NetBooks considers factors like how active the owner is as a manager, how much daily control he or she requires, the owner’s attitude toward using technology and whether a venture capital company has invested money in the business.

“I like the fact that NetBooks has taken a psychographic approach to finding out who their customers are and what they really want,” Mr. Speyer said. “This is really what counts. I think the way they characterize the market is spot-on. Stages of development are really what counts.”

Sonal Gandhi, an analyst with JupiterResearch in New York, said that small businesses were more open to using an application developed by one of their own. “There is certain functionality they crave,” she said.

This New York Times article describes business accounting software developed by small business entrepreneurs for small business entrepreneurs.  It's a classic example of someone solving their own problem and finding out that lots of other folks can use their solution. 

But even if you aren't your own best customer doesn't mean that you can't develop products that start with psychographics of consumers rather than demographics or what your engineers can create.  It can be more difficult, more time consuming and more expensive to take this approach but I believe the potential rewards and long term prospects for your product or service are much, much greater.

Consumer Driven New Product Development

One of the beautiful gifts of blogging is that smart marketers have yet another avenue for free and easily accessible qualitative research.  There is both art and science to research and making this kind of research useful requires some skills in the art department but those are skills well worth cultivating.

Allow me to give you an example.  Blogger Jenifer Hanen coaxes the most extraordinary photographs from her mobile phone.  She might be in the market for a new phone and the iPhone is getting a tremendous amount of hype at the moment but it doesn't quite work for her.  What Ms. Jen wants is simple:

"I don't want an office phone, I want a digital artist's phone."

And if you aren't quite sure what that means mobile phone manufacturers of the world, she provides you with a detailed and comprehensive list and explanation in her blog post.

Whether it is the detailed list of features Ms. Jen seeks specifically or the alternative perspective ("a digital artist's phone") I guarantee that she is not the only consumer who would find value in the features she craves.  I also think that a phone geared to artists would create new markets for the creative class who would find fascinating ways to use the device that perhaps the engineers building it could never imagine.  This is the difference between creating a device to serve existing needs (an office phone, word processing) versus providing tools to create with (a digital artist's phone, blogging platforms).

So marketers of the world, do a little research, let your mind wander through some blogs and see what you can find in the data to inspire you.