Who should make the choice on product selection or design for an Original Equipment Manufacturer that needs a water level control for proper operation of their products – Customers or Engineers?
I remember going to the new car show just after high school when a foreign manufacturer was first introducing a line of cars. In the area of these new cars were a bunch of people with pens and paper strategically placed around the entire line up of cars. I asked one of them what he was doing and he said is job was to make observations about what prospective customers looked at and went to first, second, third and so on with both their hands and their eyes. Also, he was asked to listen and document the comments and ask follow-up questions as necessary. So all he had to do was document this data as it related to a potential consumer. Who were these people?
After talking with this person for several minutes I realized he was very capable at design and development of ideas and concepts and was more of an engineer than a marketer. But I also concluded that this was his only exposure to the customer. With that being said, I concluded this was a market survey of sorts that did not require asking the person what he or she was looking for but rather an observation process about what was important to that customer, and later, some inductive reasoning as to why it was important to that consumer with the help of other staff members in the marketing department. What did the majority look at first or touch first and what were the comments, etc…
I believe the surveyors already knew the target demographics they were just trying to understand the consumer in ways no one in that business had ever done before.
I believe this is a universal product development concept that is not always practiced. For the consumer the design and access to the design is as important as the products functions and features. Waterline Controls follows this product design concept of what the customer needs even though that consumer really did not know it or understand it at the time. We continue to make improvements as we learn how our products are applied.
Oh and needless to say, the foreign car manufacturer is still either number one or number two in market share because of the quality of design in the products they make.