Reality show since 2009 Shark Tank he consistently pleased the audience. In 2022, media rankings and analytics giant Nielsen estimated average viewership for season 14 at 4.2 million people per episode. The Shark Tank The catch is easy: discover a unique and typically unmet need in the market, create and produce a product that fills that need, and then hopefully make a lot of cash from it. Whether it’s Scrub Daddy, a dishwasher with a smiley face, Bombas, a philanthropic sock and underwear brand, or Ionic Ear, a surgically implanted Bluetooth headset (so-called Sharks don’t bite on this issue), a groundbreaking CEO Jack Truong sees this strategy of “identifying demand and supply of needs” as a truly sound business practice.
With a PhD in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and 11 progressive patents to his credit, Jack Truong has an impressive history of exploring untapped market niches and then creating the mandatory goods and services to fill them – all with the goal of constructing significant profits. While at 3M, he transformed the pale yellow Post-it Note into the rainbow, multi-use megabrand it is today, and was instrumental in developing the company’s Scotch-Brite microfiber cloth, which has since develop into synonymous with scratch cloth. free cleansing worldwide.
“In my first two years at 3M, I was exposed to various departments and really had to learn and understand the unmet needs in these industries, as well as come up with inventions that provide innovative solutions for these specific sectors,” Truong said Construction news.
Why firms must change to fulfill changing consumer needs
As times change, there will inevitably be goods and services that develop into neglected. However, all these losses only account for a small percentage of failed business ventures. Unfortunately, the corporate landscape is filled with failed players who failed resulting from a missed opportunity.
“As technology advances and consumer demand evolves, companies and products can quickly be left behind.” Truong cautioned. “Too many organizations focus on developing, bringing to market and loading new technologies and features into existing products, while ignoring the opportunity to introduce new solutions that actually make consumers’ lives easier.”
When Truong took the reins as president and CEO of Electrolux, the venerable home appliance brand was on a slippery slope. At the time, company management accepted declining sales as, if not inevitable, then at least highly likely. But where expansion prospects were expected to stagnate, Jack Truong saw promise.
“In 2011, when I joined, [Electrolux] it was a business worth about $4.2 billion,” he said CEO’s Magazine. “The company viewed North America as a mature market and did not expect any growth. In fact, when I took over the company, the company was not growing and profits were declining.”
In his first meeting with the company’s global management, Truong made his case: “There is no such thing as a mature market, only mature business managers,” he stated. “Of course they were shocked… but North America is a very big market and it should grow.”
After examining the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, Truong focused on market feedback to search out a viable solution. Realizing that Electrolux couldn’t arise to the technological madness, Truong saw that its products had their very own set of strengths – ease of use, durability and unique aesthetics – that made them items that buyers not only desired to own, but were willing to pay a handsome premium for. money to get it. By repositioning the brand to benefit from these aspects, Truong saved Electrolux from possible extinction and transformed it into a brand to be reckoned with, rising from third place in the North American market to second and seeing the company’s valuation double.
How listening to consumers’ needs opens the door to progress
Admittedly, there are sometimes insurmountable forces at play – equivalent to the introduction of artificial intelligence – that are resulting in the obsolescence of certain industries whose profit models depend on outdated technology. But as consumer preferences change in response to a changing market, Jack Truong says savvy leaders must consistently tune in to customer feedback if they wish to succeed.
Stakeholders must not only determine what things their customers like and hate, but also discover goods or services that the consumer urgently needs, cannot find, or cannot reasonably afford. “Creativity costs money, innovation generates value,” Truong explained. “Listen carefully to what consumers aren’t saying and watch closely what they are doing. Only then will your innovations have the potential to change consumer behavior and create real value and demand.”
Truong warns that rushing a product to market without first diligently doing all of your homework can have disastrous consequences. If you’re looking for a prime example of a long-awaited product that was neither budget-friendly nor on the wish list of satisfied consumers, Jack Truong says you need look no further than Google Glass.
With an ill-conceived, overly fussy design, not to say a high price tag, Google Glass’s less-than-stellar reception quickly made it the Edsel in Tesla’s world of high-tech gadgets. As Truong wrote in Article from September 11, 2023 Down Entrepreneur“Google didn’t understand the true unmet needs of its consumers when it first launched its ‘moonshot’ Google Glass in 2014. Despite the cutting-edge technology of “smart” glasses, the product was discontinued after just one year. Despite live map imaging and hands-free web navigation, Google misjudged the product’s marketability – choosing an “awkward” shape, overly complex features and an inflated price ($1,500).
One last lesson from the Sharks
It is a widely accepted belief that sharks must always move forward to survive, and this is a strategy that some misguided leaders stick with, even when it really works against their best interests. The truth is that the old saying about the shark is more myth than aphorism. Although some species obtain oxygen by water flowing over their gills, sharks, which rely on the inside their throat to breathe, can remain at rest and not suffocate. Moving forward without first taking a winning course has brought down greater than one company.
It may be difficult to tell apart a truly compelling, unfulfilled consumer desire from falling victim to the “something shiny” syndrome. IN Shark Tank Broadly speaking, it’s the difference between a multi-million dollar selling Scrub Daddy, a product that really addresses unmet consumer needs, and an ill-fated Wake N’ Bacon, an alarm clock in the shape of a pig, designed to wake sleepers from the land of dreams, bombarding them with the aroma of America’s beloved cold meat. (While it’s hard to disclaim the appeal of bacon, it turned out that this invention posed each a fire hazard and a food safety risk.)
While listening to consumers could also be elementary, Jack Truong emphasizes that it is just the first step in a longer process. Once the relevant feedback data has been collected, it have to be rigorously analyzed and placed in the context of realistic results. Only then can progressive strategies be launched to scale back consumer pain points and deliver pleasure metrics, enabling corporations to leverage appropriate resources to create progressive solutions that will ensure customer satisfaction and correspondingly increase company sales performance.