According to research from Harvard Business School, nearly 30,000 new products are introduced each year, and yet from that number, roughly 95% fail. Wow. That’s a lot of products trying to get consumers’ attention and gain their trust. And, that’s a lot of marketing expertise working to launch products that consumers truly want and need.
One way to make sure a product has an edge is to conduct research to compare and analyze competing products. Of course this is best done in a testing and evaluation stage, but no matter the stage, the importance of a positive review can’t be understated.
Research shows that consumers are strongly influenced by reviews – either from current users or independent testers. Positive reviews are likely to influence sales and build trust. But even negative reviews have something to offer marketers as these can identify problem areas that need to be quickly rectified.
There are many product testing reviewers out there, including work done by Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, Good Housekeeping, and Wirecutter (part of the New York Times). According to Wirecutter, they test and review thousands of products to save consumers the time and stress of shopping – whether it’s for gifts or personal use.
A valuable tool used for testing – the humble spreadsheet to measure strengths and weaknesses of products. Good gets colored green, mediocre is colored yellow, and failing attribute gets colored red.
Try it out and test a group of products. What should marketing say about it?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: How much do they depend on product reviews? From friends? From other sources?
- View Wirecutter’s website: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/
- Here’s an example of recent evaluation for coffee pods: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-nespresso-pods/
- Show videos: https://www.youtube.com/@wirecutter
- Divide students into teams. Have each team select a product line or service that college students might purchase. The product should be something with complexity and impact, not a commodity. (See https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/ for examples.)
- For each product line, have teams develop a list of attributes important to consumers. The list should have a minimum of five attributes or more. There should also be at least five competing products to compare.
- Each team should develop their own spreadsheet and testing protocol.
- Now, have the teams analyze the products accordingly.
- How should this information be communicated to consumers?
Source: Airhart, E. (7 November 2023). Wirecutter’s secret to making great picks: Obsessive spreadsheeting. New York Times; Wirecutter. (30 April 2024). The best Nespresso pods you can buy at the grocery store. New York Times.
