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Conceptual Understanding: Designers must establish clear parameters for a marketing specification in order to create unique and creative solutions to a problem. Designers need to collect valid and useful data from the target market and audience throughout the design cycle to ensure the specification includes certain essential components.
Target markets: When determining the target market, market sectors and segments need to be identified.
The Target Market is the large group of people that you are aiming to sell your product or service to.
Target audiences: It is important to differentiate between the target market and the target audience.
Target Audience is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product or the marketing message of a product is aimed at.
Target markets can be separated by the following aspects:
Geographical
Demographic/socioeconomic segmentation - (gender, age, Income, occupation, education, household size, and stage in the family life cycle)
Psychographic segmentation - (similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles)
Behavioral segmentation - (occasions, degree of loyalty)
Product-related segmentation - (relationship to a product)
When determining the target audience, characteristics of the users should be established.
Think about the following:
Who is most likely to buy this product given its benefits?
How can the organisation tap into the buying power of these consumers?
Where is the target market most likely to find out about the product?
Answering these questions helps you to position your product in the correct marketing and distribution channels.
Market analysis
An appraisal of economic viability of the proposed design from a market perspective and is typically a summary about potential users and the market.
This is all about the people that use your product.
User need: The essential requirements that a product must satisfy in relation to the user.
List some essential requirements for a selected product.
Competition: A thorough analysis of competing designs is required to establish the market need.
Every product you take to market, even ones that are new inventions or improvements on old products, face competition. This is because customers buy products for many different reasons. Some are interested in the innovation of new products, others care more about price point and clever marketing schemes. Your competition will capitalise on these buyer preferences and seek to edge out your product from the market. Identifying the competition in your marketing specification helps the organisation to clarify how it can edge out and respond to the competition.
Research methods
There are many reasons why a variety of research methods need to be considered with a thorough analysis of competing designs to establish the market need.
Purposes of market research.
Gathering information in order to be able to generate new ideas for a product
Evaluating the market potential of products at various stages of development
Developing ideas into products to suit market requirements
Identifying suitable promotional strategies
Gathering information relating to demographics
Gathering information relating to family roles
Collecting data relating to economic trends
Taking into account technological trends and scientific advances
Gathering information about consumers
Considering consumers’ reactions to technology and green design and the subsequent impact on design development and market segmentation
Market research strategies
Understanding that market research is a key element of the design project and you need to select from a range of strategies that will help them find out what the client wants and needs. It is important to note that often, what the client thinks they want and what they need can be very different things.
There are many strategies for the designer to identify the need, which include:
Literature search: Usually performed using authoritative sources such as: academic journals, books, theses, consumer magazines, government agency and industry publications
The use of consumer reports and newspaper items to follow historical development. Useful sources of information could include CD-ROMs, such as encyclopedias and newspapers, or more specific disks, subject-specific magazines and manufacturers’ information.
many sources of information are available
there may be an abundance of data, which can be too time-consuming.
Data can be both qualitative or quantitative
Expert appraisal: Where an expert (chosen on the basis of their knowledge or experience) is asked to give their opinion.
The reliance on the knowledge and skills of an expert in the operation of the product. For example, expert knowledge and advice are gained (compared to a user trial), but the expert may be biased.
Expert knowledge can help decide design direction.
It may also be difficult to locate an expert.
Data is usually qualitative.
User trial: A trial where members of the community who will use the product are observed using the product. This usually happens in a lab environment and participants have set tasks to perform under controlled conditions.
The observation of people using a product and collection of comments from people who have used a product.
The “user” is a non-specialist, which makes trials easier and cost-effective.
However, users may carry out tasks in different ways from those expected and be inexperienced.
Data is usually qualitative.
User research: The questioning of users about their experience using a product. Usually as a questionnaire or focus group.
Obtaining users’ responses through questionnaires/surveys and interviews.
It is cheap and quick to conduct
The data collect if qualitative or statistics can be produced (quantitative)
Performance test: Where the product is tested and data is collected- crash test dummy
Consumers’ reaction
The attitudes of potential customers have subsequent impact on design development and market segmentation. These attitudes will direct the company's products to certain target markets.
To Technology
Technophile: Someone who immediately welcomes a technological change – early adopters.
Technocautious: Someone who needs some convincing before embracing technological change – majority to late majority
Technophobe: Someone who resists all technological change – laggards.
To Green design:
Eco-warriors actively demonstrate on environmental issues
Eco-champions champion environmental issues within organizations
Eco-fans enthusiastically adopt environmentally friendly practices as consumers.
Eco-phobes actively resent talk of environmental protection
Design specifications
All of the requirements, constraints and considerations must be specific, feasible and measurable.
A list of requirements, constraints and considerations that a yet-to-be-designed product must fulfil. The design specification must be developed from the design brief and research and requirements would include:
aesthetic requirements
cost constraints
customer requirements
environmental requirements
size constraints
safety considerations
performance requirements and constraints
materials requirements
manufacturing requirements
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