The Powers that Be

The marketplace is a conversation, of sorts, between buyers and sellers. When the conversation is going well, the sellers sell and the buyers buy. Take Apple and its enthusiastic customer base. Now there’s a robust conversation! Not all marketplace conversations are so healthy, though. When Apple introduced its Newton handheld computer in the nineties, buyers wanted no part of it. That conversation went south, fast.

Startups, who can ill afford a spurned product introduction, have turned to the so-called MVP or minimal viable product. With little or no prior reputation to lose, a startup can introduce its product half-baked in hopes of stirring customer feedback — i.e., a conversation — that will inform the rest of the development process. Established players don’t have that luxury. They have already made names for themselves with polished, successful offerings and the notion of introducing an MVP to test the market would be anathema.

That’s where J.D. Power comes in. The California-based consumer insights and data analytics giant can engage consumers within an entire market segment, whether it be computers or automobiles. Through their surveys, they can take the pulse of the marketplace and capture the voice of the customer. And, by presenting their findings to the established players can facilitate a “conversation” that may lead to product re-engineering, improved customer care and so forth.

Join the team from Failure - the Podcast in a conversation with Jeffrey Conklin, a VP at J.D. Power, and learn how its industry-wide studies help keep the big players and others from failing.