Innovation continues to be at the forefront of companies’ strategies, but uncovering those fresh ideas and growth areas is often difficult.
A pathway to discovering where and how to innovate lies in better understanding the habits, opinions and needs of consumers. There are often opportunities where consumers can’t find a solution, leading to white spaces for companies to deliver on what competitors might not have explored yet.
But how do you find those white space opportunities that everyone is after?
First, understanding the changes in consumers is critical. Then, applying structured frameworks that will give direct insights from target consumers. They will help uncover what works and what the consumer pain points are, leading to more consumer-driven opportunities and ultimate white space.
Identify changing consumer lifestyles
Consumers are constantly changing. Before any white space opportunities can be identified, it’s important to understand what these broad behaviours are. For example, over the last decade, there have been some large shifts in how consumers are choosing to spend their time and money.
Source: Euromonitor Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded January to February 2024 (n=40,236)
These statistics from Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey 2024 show us that today there is more of an emphasis on self and personal enjoyment that wasn't as definitive a decade ago. Companies need to further understand what personal enjoyment means for target consumers’ lifestyles and product habits and needs.
Applying smart frameworks to guide consumer insights
Once a company identifies consumer lifestyle shifts, the next step is to understand what that means for its industries. By utilising structured, targeted consumer insight frameworks, businesses can uncover consumer behaviour within a specific context translating them into actionable strategies.
Some examples of frameworks that can drive innovation could be:
- Consumer Profiling
- Who is the target consumer?
- What are some of their characteristics and general habits as it relates to a specific product/service category?
- Path to Purchase
- How are consumers shopping for a product/service?
- Where do they get information to inform their shopping experiences?
- Usage and Attitudes
- How are consumers using a product/service?
- What are some of the consumption occasions and unmet needs?
Transforming consumer insights into innovative white spaces
Once consumer behaviours, preferences and pain points are identified through a strong consumer insight framework, the results can often lead to discovering true white space opportunities. The overarching goal is to spot unmet needs and identify untapped opportunities across products, services and markets.
To showcase what this process looks like, here are a few real-world applications.
Uncovering white spaces in the vitamins and supplements space through usage and attitudes
A vitamins and dietary supplements company was looking to develop a stronger product assortment to better meet consumer needs and expectations.
By testing specific product attributes like ingredients, packaging and claims through an online discussion board and consumer survey, the company was able to uncover key pain points and areas of interest that competitors in the market weren’t yet delivering on to inspire future product development.
Following path to purchase to identify unmet traveller needs and white space for online booking
A global company was looking to improve and better cater to the experiences of families looking for accommodation in online travel resources.
Utilising a path to purchase consumer survey, respondents that travelled with their families were able to reveal how they selected a travel platform, what features they used for online bookings and where there might have been issues in the booking process. This helped the company better understand how it could tailor its online features to better serve travellers and how to stand out from competitors.
How can Euromonitor help you better understand your target audience?
We tackle consumer insights quantitatively and qualitatively through various methods, from B2C and B2B surveys, to online bulletin boards, to in-depth interviews. From off-the-shelf to completely custom products, we use a wide range of consumer data, methodologies and analytics to provide the right support to your business.
Learn more about our custom research capabilities and consumer insights expertise.