Discovering What People Want Before They Do
Dove knew it. Danone knew it. Mr. Clean and 3M knew it too. These brands knew they needed to go beyond finding new ways to meet consumers’ existing needs. In order to achieve long-term growth they needed to uncover something different: new needs to address.
So, instead of focusing exclusively on developing new flavors and scents and finding ways to improve product effectiveness, these companies looked for unconscious consumer needs that had not yet emerged: latent needs. While marketers continually tap into current drivers of brand choice to maximize their market share, they also need to think about their innovation platforms for tomorrow. One way to do this is to uncover latent needs that consumers cannot easily articulate. The discovery of latent needs is one way marketers can identify insights, which is a critical step during the fuzzy front end of innovation. Marketers who can awaken latent needs among consumers have a strong competitive advantage. They can develop innovation platforms based on benefits that are not yet delivered by any other player in the market. Case in point: the shower gel category in an Asian country in the early 2000s. During that time, the importance of moisturization in driving brand preference in the shower gel category was only 3%. When Dove introduced a shower gel that offered moisturization as its core benefit, importance of moisturization among consumers jumped to over 12% within two years. Moisturization was a latent consumer need on which Dove was able to capitalize. Trying to discover a need that consumers don’t even know they have sounds intimidating. Exactly how do marketers identify these hidden needs and how can they be sure they have hit upon the right ones? The solution comes from observing consumer behavior and knowing the right questions to ask.
