Psychology plays a huge role in marketing–that much is well-known. But is there a way to quickly identify what people value when it comes to your product specifically? Do they most like the fact that your summer sandals are eco-friendly and made from locally sourced materials? Or is the fact that you have the biggest TikTok stars wearing them to the beach a major highlight?
Last week on Optily Radio, we had the CEO of MindCart AI, Charles Chy, in to discuss the new approach to mind typing that they’re pioneering. The main topics we touched on were:
- The difficulties in striking the messaging fit for new companies
- Quantifying the consumer’s thinking and mindset through testing
- Testing the market before you enter the market
Take a peek at the preview clip or just dive into the full episode where Charles discusses the challenges with traditional market research and how this new approach could help budding eCommerce companies.
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Who are Charles and Kevin?
Charles Chy is the CEO of MindCartAI, a consumer insights platform built for B2C marketers who crave a deep, fundamental understanding of their customers. He’s also an advisor for Cheffe Inc, a smart cooking platform that provides guided recipes powered by AI and is also an advisor for Soltech Solutions, an eCommerce company that specializes in plant lights for interior design.
Kevin Stagg is a frequent guest on the show and our Marketing and Customer Director here at Optily. He has 20 years of experience working with both B2C and B2B brands of varying sizes, including international companies like Microsoft and Ding.
Launching a new brand with traditional customer personas
Starting a new business is really hard, but it’s even harder to keep a business running. It’s a well-known fact that 90% of startups fail. So what do companies typically do to bring a new product to market?
Charles lists out what the standard process is for companies or agencies developing their go-to-market strategy:
- Stakeholder interviews
- Customer interviews
- Keyword analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Gartner magic quadrant positioning
- Create customer personas
Ultimately, no matter how much research is done at this stage, it’s just a guess at the best way to go about launching a new product. Only once it’s out there can companies start to really iterate and test their messaging to a meaningful extent.
By using something like mind type analysis, it’s possible to skip a lot of the time-consuming elements and test before launching a new product. This could lend companies a huge leg-up in this initial phase, giving them a longer runway for iteration.
Mind type testing
How MindCart AI goes about their testing is really interesting. They don’t ask direct questions, rather they show multiple stimuli related to the brand and track responses. They then look for patterns in how the stimuli are perceived by the audience. The experiment isn’t isolating cause and effect, rather it’s producing insights that might prove useful in terms of truly understanding the end-user and their thinking.
The methodology is based on exploration, rather than verification, like many other research methods tend to focus on.
Establishing product market fit early on
Charles remarks that in hindsight it’s always easy to see when you hit the nail on the head with the perfect mix of messaging and channels. But what if marketers had the kind of confidence when looking ahead?
That’s exactly what mind type analysis wants to equip business leaders with–the knowledge of who their customer base is early on, so they can grow and commit to campaigns and approaches from a position of confidence.
Looking for more marketing tips?
Check out previous episodes of Optily Radio for expert insights on how to fuel your eCommerce marketing efforts.
