Before coming to study to the UT my mature in Spain was Finance, so I decided to choose some classes of marketing this Fall in order to investigate a different field from which I was used to. At the same time, I was curious about how different the classes of marketing were here in comparison with Spain. Another reason of my choice was the fact that I had been told by other students that the marketing classes were more practical and interactive so I made my decision.
Regarding this class, Customer Insights, I had some problems with my coordinator back in Spain as this was not include in my choices before coming to Austin, but after taking some advice from the professors here and some students I got to be in this class, one thing I am very glad of now.
At the beginning of this class, when we were told we were going to make a project with the aim of building our own prototype of a new product addressed to a concrete segment of the market, I have to confess I was quite skeptical. Moreover, I could not believe I could be able to invent a new product and what is more, create its prototype. However, during the course I realize that with simple materials (as the ones we were given during a session of class) you cannot event imagine the feeling of inspiration to create things you suddenly find. Thus, at the end, all the groups created new products, which I believe all of us got utterly surprised with, because the final results were unexpectedly fantastic!
Concerning to the concepts I learned during this course and the process of our project which helped me understanding them, one of the things I would like to talk about are the concepts of CREATIVITY and INNOVATION. Both, the article we read “The new, faster face of innovation” and the blog we wrote about a creative and innovative product were really useful for me and linked with the overall process of creating our prototype.
First, we needed to find the underlying need which, in the case of our persona (wealthy teenagers between 15 and 18), had to be related with their backyard. Almost all our teenagers agree on the fact that they wanted more privacy and to translate some of the technological devices to their backyards in order to utilize it more. So we had a point from where to start: we decided to create a new a technological device.
At this point, we were conscious that we had to face the problem of the rapidity of the innovation and evolution of the technologies nowadays. Therefore, it would be difficult to find a new product which was better that the existing solutions in the market and, at the same time, offered our teenagers an advantage, making an impact of them and provoking an interest in buying our product.
Bearing this in mind, we came up with the idea of an evolutional iPod converted into a widescreen display monitor in which the teenagers could choose the song or movie they wanted to see just as they would in a normal iPod. The difference that made this product innovative was the waterproof speakers that provided external sound and a set of waterproof headphones for a more private viewing or listening experience. This device offered the advantage of using it either indoor or outdoor. So here is where the product became original: with the combination of simple and existing products; the iPod with a bigger screen, portable as the portable DVDs and with the added value of the waterproof resistance which made the WaterVu unique!
Nonetheless, the project was not as simple as it seems because, during the process, we found a hard obstacle when presenting our first prototype. Surprisingly for us, a classmate argued that our prototype already existed. So, after this, we felt completely lost. We did not realize that, as the article of “The new, faster face of innovation” explained, now and more in the future, the change and development of new technologies will be even faster so the opportunities to find something new to invent will be more complicated, that is what the author called ‘the innovation of rapid innovation’.
However, at the end, we managed the problem and, from my point of view, the final prototype was properly improved, with a high level of detail and complexity and what was more important, it was useful for our teenagers, meeting their needs, as their feedback appointed, so the result was an exclusive piece of technology which was the envy of the rest of our classmates! ;)
I learned that the key of the project was to look behind the customers (the teenagers in our case) and search for their insights so that you can come up with something innovative and creative to satisfy their needs and expectations.
Another thing I learned during this course, that before I did not even know what it meant, was to GAIN CUSTOMERS INSIGHTS. With this project I understood all the phases you have to come through, as a marketer, when intending to target a specific segment of customers. The process to get to know the deep insights of someone is more complicated than what people believe. Firstly, we had to do an accurate description of what our persona was, then contact with them to investigate which their needs and desires were and, finally, find the best idea for our project which could accurately satisfy their need. I would like to remark that it was not easy to find teenagers who met all our conditions, but finally we found very interesting the responses they gave us in the interviews, as well as the amount of things we found interesting and useful when asking them to make the photo-journals. Actually, the photo journal is a method of which I had never heard before, and we really enjoyed watching and reading them! The last thing, but not less important, is the feedback received from the teenagers. This last phase is essential to evaluate your success when approaching to their needs and see if we really understood and satisfy them. One thing I honestly think we achieved!
About my personal emotions during this project, I strongly believe this has been a very useful process in which I had developed and improved some skills when working in a team. Sometimes, there were moments of tension between some members in which I learned that you need to know how to adapt to each other, because, although unwillingly, you have to prepare a final project together with your team members in which you are graded. Thus, for these reasons, I learned understanding but, overall, respecting others’ opinions, because they have the same value as mine. However, we lived several moments of fun, creating the new prototype or recreating the old one! At the end, I saw the feeling of belonging to a team so I was glad about it, also because I think the result of the final project was excellent!
To conclude my last blog and as a goodbye, I would like to thank the Professor Walls as well as my classmates for making the classes that entertained and funny, I will remember this when going back to Spain. Thank you all and good luck!
