Hosting an Event to get Market Feedback

[AmazingLarry]

I am in the early stages of developing a physical product with a partner, and we are planning to host a local event so that we can get a lot of direct feedback from our target market in a short time. The product is in the pet industry, so we will be inviting a specific type of pet owner and providing them free food as well as items for their pets.

We will be showing some different variations of our product in the form of renderings/animations/videos (no physical prototype) in order to get feedback, refine, and validate our idea.

I'm thinking that we should avoid giving a presentation to the group because we really don't want this to come across like a scammy timeshare presentation where it's awkward and you get pressured to buy at the end.

As an alternative, I thought we could have some tablets set up showing the product info/video and ask people to take a look and answer a couple questions. They can sign up to get on our mailing list and receive a discount when the product is available.

Have any of you done something like this before?
Any tips on how to approach this to make people feel comfortable and willing to engage?
We decided to do this fairly recently, so we're still working through the best way to go about it, but I figured I could get some good advice on the forum.

 

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[Fastlane Liam]

Sounds like a great idea

 

[Pink Sheep]

Ive seen similar events at pet daycares, kennels etc. Give people free stuff/training/whatever and they will come. Have an emgaging speaker and youll sell them anything tbh.

 

[AmazingLarry]

Ive seen similar events at pet daycares, kennels etc. Give people free stuff/training/whatever and they will come. Have an emgaging speaker and youll sell them anything tbh.

Nice, good to hear that pet owners are generally receptive towards this sort of thing

 

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[Kid]

Idea is good.
Are you sure you don't want to have prototype?
At least one?

I'm not sure whether pet owners are visual type of people or more physical type.

If you'd have prototype you could let them hold it and gather better feedback or look for something that needs improvement.

 

[AmazingLarry]

Idea is good.
Are you sure you don't want to have prototype?
At least one?

I'm not sure whether pet owners are visual type of people or more physical type.

If you'd have prototype you could let them hold it and gather better feedback or look for something that needs improvement.

Yes, ideally we would have a couple prototypes, but we are still a ways off from that point.

It shouldn't be too expensive to host the event, especially split two ways and I think we can get some good value out of it, even without a prototype.

If we get a decent turnout, we will do it again when we are further along and have a couple physical prototypes to demonstrate.

 

[Kid]

Yes, ideally we would have a couple prototypes, but we are still a ways off from that point.

It shouldn't be too expensive to host the event, especially split two ways and I think we can get some good value out of it, even without a prototype.

If we get a decent turnout, we will do it again when we are further along and have a couple physical prototypes to demonstrate.

Ok. I see you have a good plan.
Good luck, then!

 

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[1step]

We will be showing some different variations of our product in the form of renderings/animations/videos (no physical prototype) in order to get feedback, refine, and validate our idea.

I would be weary of what type of feedback you are trying to get from your customers. Based on your post I am not really sure what you are doing, who you are targeting or even the type of feedback you are wanting so it is hard to provide tons of useful feedback.

With that being said this quote from Henry Ford rings true “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

I think there is certainly a place for customer feedback but I am not sure you will get tons of helpful feedback based on a video/animation/questionnaire. Especially not from a limited audience (say under 100 people)

You can always give it a try and see how it goes but I would NOT scrap an idea or do anything drastic from the feedback you get.

 

[StrikingViper69]

It could be a valuable way to find out how to market it. People will have questions... and your marketing will need those answers!

 

[Tourmaline]

Look for ways to provide value to the pet owners first. Then have them fill out a survey second.

 

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