Extreme, Or Only Leading-Edge?
When working on the design of a new product, I almost never have the time, nor the money, to talk to everyone I want to talk to. I want to meet the end-user, and I want to meet the distributor, and I want to meet the manufacturer. Everyone in the chain from the company that makes the product down to the person who buys it and the person who uses it.
Usually, though, I have to settle for some subset. And often, it’s suggested by either my client or a colleague that we talk to “leading-edge” consumers instead of just average consumers. Except sometimes the suggestion is “extreme” consumers. Is there a difference between “leading-edge” and “extreme” consumers?
To me, leading-edge consumers are thought-leaders, early-adopters, and those consumers just waiting for this product to come out. They own a generation one iPhone, or bought a Prius years ago. They’re useful to talk to because their attitudes are the ones a company wants to understand and hook into–not just to grab the leading-edge market, but because there’s an entire wave of people right behind, just waiting to be tipped into “I want it, too” mode.
Extreme consumers, on the other hand, buy products that serve some bigger purpose. They bought a Skype phone in order to experiment with dropping their land line, and bought a Honda Insight back in 2000 because electric cars are the future. They’re interesting to talk to, but not because of why the buy any product–most people don’t think like them, so they won’t tell you anything about advertising to everyone else. But they know what works and what doesn’t work, and generally are really happy to tell you about it.
So, even when faced with limited resources, I want to talk to both. More than talking to “average” consumers, a combination of leading-edge and extreme consumers help a design team understand what the market thinks it wants, and what it actually wants.
Question: What sort of consumer do you do research with?
