Product innovation driven by in-depth understanding of your target customer

Challenge

Launching a new product is a lengthy and costly endeavor, traditionally a high-risk activity since 70% of the product launches fail to deliver the expected results. Philips Skincare adopted a growth-hacking mindset and lean startup methodology to develop a new product specifically for the Chinese market. Philips Skincare asked Chaoly to assist in the problem-solution validation as part of their product development.

Solution

A team of 4 employees from Philips together with Chaoly’s team of a growth hacker, copywriter, designer and project manager started a 3-month data-driven product launch program. In the first month, we executed surveys and ran dozens of online experiments to clarify what type of problems were experienced by which target audience. We ran A/B testing across multiple target groups and garnered crucial consumer insights – insights that even Philips wasn’t aware of. In the second month, a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was created based on the insights, for launching in the Chinese market. In addition, to reduce risk, we used the Chaoly store on the Alibaba platform as the main channel to drive traffic and attract paying customers. After receiving the products, these customers provided feedback on their user experiences. In the third month, we completed the validation of a problem-solution fit aimed at a targeted group of customers. We ran experiments, using data to underpin and inform every decision we made. We ended up testing numerous areas, replacing speculation with data. From the validated learnings and metrics from our experiments, we were able to identify the customer segment for Philips to focus on.

Results

Philips Skincare actualized data-driven validation in several areas related to the target audience, problem-solution fit, purchase intent and price range. Moreover, conducting qualitative research helped the brand gain in-depth customer understanding, with real user feedback the brand was able to launch the right skincare product, increasing the chances of success.