Identifying a new category is exciting, particularly when market research uncovers a first mover opportunity and your brand is ready to capture it. Let’s see how consumer and market intelligence reveals these instances, and a few brands that have been nimble enough to take advantage of key insight.
We will be delving deeply into what market research can reveal about:
- Movers and shakers first to arrive in an industry and how you can have that same opportunity
- Discovering the tools that will help you win the race to first place
- How emerging trends and white spaces can aid a brand in discovering your next big product or opportunity
Stats and facts follow us on the journey such as:
- It costs 60% to 75% less to reproduce a product than it costs to make a new one –highlighting the need for good market research and consumer intelligence.
- Having a positive emotional experience with a brand is crucial as customers who do are 15 times more likely to recommend that company.
- First mover Amazon is top in many things, including being among the first to transition to 80% renewable energy usage by 2024.
The First Mover Club
Uncovering emerging trends has a lot of challenges, but with the right intel and market research, you can be a part of the first movers’ club.
First Movers are brands that gain a competitive advantage, being the first to bring a new product or service to market. They typically build strong customer loyalty and establish powerful brand recognition.
And there are advantages and disadvantages to consider here. Being first, you have time to develop your market, discovering economical ways of producing a product. But, a brand risks copycats who look to improve on its model, so once you start – the race is on! Additionally, it costs 60% to 75% less to reproduce a product than it does to make a new one – highlighting the need for good market research and consumer intelligence to stay on top once you’ve investing so heavily in an idea.
Perhaps the most modern icons of the first movers club today are Amazon and Ebay.
Amazon & Ebay Stories
Amazon started in a garage, but Jeff Bezos had all the right stuff to be a mover and shaker. And their YOY growth all around the world points to exactly that. This trendsetting company sees annual revenues of $280 billion and at the end of 2019, had a 20% asgr.
And Ebay is no slouch. As Amazon’s #2 competitor, in the 2nd quarter of 2020 they achieved 182 million active buyers worldwide, representing a five percent growth compared to the prior year quarter.
Whether these two brands tapped into market research and consumer intelligence to discover emerging trends is unknown. But one thing’s sure – in today’s fast moving and competitive climate it is best to assume your current and potential competition has the best of both. And keep your own analytics game on point.
Moving First – And Holding Steady
Market research reveals trends around the topic of innovation. We see wind energy, health and banking, anything we want to know about is here really. And technology of many forms is a theme woven throughout.
COVID-19 created an opportunity for new technology and demand for remote work solutions has subsequently skyrocketed. And so have work from home stocks.
Sitting comfy in the middle of out Stocks cluster is Direxion Work From Home ETF’s. In November 2008, this company was the first to offer ETFs with 3X leverage. And beating folks to the punch once more, Direxion launched a thematic ETF in late June of 2020 which allows investors to broadly gain equal-footed exposure to all of today’s work-from-home stocks.
Among them are cloud communications provider Twilio and star of stay at home video teleconferencing giant Zoom.
And if anyone played Romeo to our Juliet during lockdown, it was Zoom, stepping up to the plate as a first mover during stay at home orders and bringing office meetings to the living room. Between March 4 and May 27, they added 159 million active users.
How Social Listening Sweetens the Pot
Social listening paired with market research allows brands to see how consumer sentiment pairs up with published articles, papers and blogs – providing a rounded view. And it confirms that Zoom is a hot commodity:
And yet another hero in the shadow of a pandemic arises, Bitcoin, which saw a 24% increase through July, was uniquely poised to respond. With the worries of coin shortages and the cost of printing more money, they were a shoo-in. And over the past month, consumers are showing positive emotions toward it. And this bodes well for them, as customers who have a positive emotional experience with a brand are 15 times more likely to recommend that company and 7x more likely to purchase from them. So this sentiment analysis is a vaulable assist to market intelligence indeed!
But how are businesses spotting these emerging trends, specifically? Let’s find out!
Identifying Emerging Trends & White Space
The timeline below shows us conversation around first movers and how it’s shifted over the past year. Consistent themes highlight emerging trends, such as previous mentions of digital transformation within our segments Telecom and Global Virtual Conference, the latter seeing a little less action currently. Speaking to Bitcoin is banking, showing spikes in June and August. And staying persistent throughout is Wind Energy.
Continuing to use market research to locate trends that are building currently, we look to opportunities with high social engagement, but low publication numbers. These are stories that are being picked up a bit by media, but really resonating with consumers – which is something any brand wants. It’s a way to identify potential products or services consumers want and aren’t finding in the market right now. And your brand doesn’t want to miss them as they could place you among the first movers.
Our scatterplot exposes opportunity within green spaces – and a few articles stand out below – Oil and Gas Companies See Opportunity in Offshore Wind Energy and Shipping Green’s 1Trn is a Profit, not a cost.
These two articles point out the need for clean energy – something the pandemic highlighted. Even the trendsetting Amazon announced last year that it would transition to 80% renewable energy usage by 2024, and zero emissions by 2030. So, people are taking notice, and opportunities abound.
Clean Energy Patents
And, staying with wind energy and clean shipping, as we look to patents, the picture is brimming with results. Each cluster is clickable pulling back the veil on the who, what and where of patent applications.
For example, narrowing in on wind energy conversations, a detailed view comes to light. We see who is investing and applying for patents such as German research and development company Wobben Properties. They have applications spanning control commands, detection for wind load, weather forecasting and tower cranes:
And, exploring further – as every bit of insight is like an onion with many layers – we can see the number of patents this company has filed in this topic area. And we can see so much more too – from application dates and filing locations to inventors and investors:
It’s really a wealth of competitive intelligence that any brand is elated to have access to! And that is really just scratching the surface of one of our available datasets. There are also News/Blogs and Company datasets and then Quid Social as well!
What opportunities and emerging trends are waiting for your brand to discover in our clusters and beyond? Reach out for a demo and become the next first mover in your space.
