Validate a product potential in new markets

The Challenge

A SpecialChem Client had the intuition that their bio-based products could have a great potential in cosmetics & personal care, but had no connections nor market knowledge in this industry.

Their bio-derived ingredients had potential as thickeners or stabilizers, but the Company lacked concrete knowledge about real market needs and the best-fit applications for their products.

They had the choice between the usual tactics to validate the potential of a product: traditionnal market research (long, costly and not sales-driven); use distributors (but they prefer to sell products with validated potential); "launch and learn" (which is both risky and expensive).

Then the SpecialChem Insight Solutions team proposed them another approach to:

Identify the most promising applications in personal care
Validate the product's value propositions in the different market segments
Connect them with the best prospects ready to adopt their novel ingredient

A unique human & digital research methodology

4 months to assess the market potential and get first customers

The SpecialChem team applied our unique and proprietary market research methodology that combines digital techniques (data-mining) and human-centric research, to engage with targeted professionals. In this case primarily formulators, but also relevant industry experts.

They created specific digital campaigns that quickly generated hundreds of interactions between the new product profile and relevant formulators. In a matter of days the SpecialChem experts had a pretty solid initial market landscape and could see differences appearing between applications and company profiles.

The large amount of interactions created with professionals and their extreme relevancy enabled them to identify the most interested formulators, in the most interesting companies. Which quickly led to in-depth discussions, unique learnings about the product directly from application experts, and obviously, many excited companies wanting to test this novelty.

The Results

A deep understanding of product's potential, a winning strategy for successful market entry and... first customers!

Rapid confirmation of interest in the new ingredient:
800 unique professionals engaged with SpecialChem campaigns. The bio-products were recognized for their versatility and multiple applications, closely mirroring the performance of certain synthetic alternatives.
Identification of clear differentiators and promising opportunities:
After 25 in-depth phone interviews that explored experiences and expectations of our community, two main applications were identified: skin care and hair care. SpecialChem provided recommendations on what data to create for commercial discussions.
For skin products, formulators were looking for performance like skin penetration, emulsification, or UV resistance. Formulators in hair care were more interested in new versatile formulas based on bio-derivatives to improve look and texture.
Competitor benchmark and analysis of pricing dynamics
We provided a detailed analysis on the best pricing strategy and how to postion product vs competition.
Promising collaborations with 10 companies
Among the large amount of companies exposed, we selected 10 of them willing to test the new ingredient and to share results openly. They joined hands with our Client supplier, not only expanding their penetration in the personal care industry but also paving the way for new business together.

Testimonial

“Working with SpecialChem helped us quickly gain valuable feedback and understand how to best position our products. They are now our primary digital marketing and lead generation platform for personal care market and the results have been exceptional.”