Before launching a new product in the market it is crucial to determine whether it has the right ‘Product-Market Fit’. Skip this part, & you risk creating irrelevant products & an unscalable and non-sustainable business.
Most F&B brands find the product market after launch and rely on consumers to help them find the same. This is risky and unreliable.
Frankly, figuring out your PMF post-launch is a repositioning activity. Your PMF journey must begin at the idea phase which is critical to help you save time, effort & money.
And, this is how we at D2P Consultancy carry out the Product Market Fit exercise that ensures our clients successfully launch in the market:
▶️ 1. Business Audit: We first do a complete business audit for brands already launched which covers:
– Why was it launched?
– What problem is it trying to solve?
– What is the vision & mission?
– What is the short to long-term product pipeline?
– What is the brand architecture?
– Who is the target audience?
– What is the go-to-market plan?
– What is the marketing plan
▶️2. 4Cs Analysis: For the brands that aren’t launched, we directly jump to this step which includes:
⏭ Category Insights- Here, we cover the lengths & depths of the category. It’s history, evolution, adoption, and changing trends.
We then arrive at relevant category codes that drive the category currently and in years to come. Your RTBs (reason to buy/believe) can be derived from category drivers to build relevancy.
⏭ Competition Landscaping- Here we dissect all the brands and players in the category. Their product portfolio, RTBs, USPs, packaging, positioning, marketing campaigns, manufacturing, channel strategy, GTM, and their strengths and weaknesses.
We also look at global trends and players and how they are building in those markets to identify “white spaces”.
⏭ Channels of Business: This is where preliminary GTM is thought about. Which geographies are relevant during the launch/expansion stage? No one can go omnichannel or Pan India at the launch stage so we figure out the low-hanging fruits (channels) to do business.
This is where we decide whether to go offline or online heavy or both. Or focus on B2B or exports.
⏭ Consumer Insights: To support the above, it’s imperative to cover and validate secondary research with primary research. For this, we define a rough Target Audience and speak to relevant cohorts about the idea, brand, positioning, etc.
If the product is ready then we either taste-test it (sensory & functionality) or test it against the competition. For this, we use our Tasting Officer community, to fasten the process of objective-driven primary research.
To conclude, PMF is an extensive process that takes between 3- 5 months. It helps entrepreneurs be confident about their product strategy not only at the launch stage but also for pivoting at the growth stage.