FREE WEBINAR: The Sale Doesn’t End at the Register

Understand the Power of User Experience in Growing Your Brand

Design Research prepared two presentations for the Inspired Home Show.  Both were recorded as webinars.  This one,entitled “The Sale Doesn't End at the Register" is introduced below and available to watch here.   For a pdf copy of the presentation click here.

How many times have you been frustrated, confounded or infuriated by a product you purchased that doesn’t work?  Or doesn’t work well?  Or whose use is not the least bit self-evident?  If you are like 74% of Americans who have been disappointed with kitchen products they have purchased, you are not alone.

But are you the guilty party?  Has your company sold products that consumers are dissatisfied with?  No?  How do you know?  Our survey found that only 13% of consumers who are unhappy with a kitchen product they purchased returned it.  That means that 87% or nearly 9 out of 10 unhappy purchases were unknown to the manufacturer. 

The news gets worse too.  64%  still own the kitchen product they were unhappy with.  That means that every time they look at that product with that brand name on it, they are reminded that that brand disappointed them.  Not so good for future business!

But there are things you can do to avoid this invisible yet extremely detrimental outcome.  In Home Product Placement tests are the best way to evaluate every aspect of your new products before they are launched and possibly misunderstood and disliked.  In these research projects we place prototype products with consumers and we evaluate every aspect of the product from its packaging (what does it promise and are the promises clear and relevant?) to the instructions to the product’s controls (where relevant) to the product’s operation and performance.  We have never failed to identify and suggest improvements in both products and their explanation and communication in placement studies. 

If a full product test isn’t possible, we can also perform an instructions or product manual evaluation.  We do two levels of these.  At the first level, you send your products to us, we follow the directions and we note any aspect of the instructions or product operation that is unclear.  In the consumer version, we have consumers go through the instructions and operations and note everything they did not understand or otherwise were tripped up by. 

We also perform packaging tests to make sure the packaging maximizes sales.  The goal is to best communicate the key messages that trigger purchases.  Typical packaging studies evaluate not only the general appeal of the design, but the clarity of the information on the packaging, the relevance or importance of the information and the persuasiveness of the information (does it trigger a purchase!).  Packaging is often the only salesperson your product has.  Make sure it does its utmost for you.

Call or email us today to assure high satisfaction with your products.