How do you become the most competitive software product in one of the most competitive software categories? You go to one of the most competitive markets in the world.
Lander Product Manager Nico Roddz is spending six months in Austin, Texas, to conduct market research with some of the world’s most demanding customers.
Roddz’s goal: to give Lander an unfair competitive advantage in the market, and share that competitive advantage with you.
Customer Knowledge – Key to Gaining a Competitive Advantage
Most marketers agree that you must know your customer intimately to launch a successful marketing campaign.
But customer knowledge is also the key to gaining a competitive advantage for your product as well.
Back in the day the conventional wisdom said that the key to competitive advantage was to be the first in your market. However, Microsoft broke that theory in the early 1980s by surpassing Apple in the graphical operating system category, despite being late to the party.
Then the conventional wisdom said you needed a unique technology to stay ahead of the pack.
But the advent of cheap technology and cloud computing has enabled competitors to catch up to technology innovations almost instantaneously.
So what’s left?
According to Google in their report the Zero Moment of Truth:
“Today you are not behind your competition. You are not behind the technology. You are behind your consumer.”
The key to understanding consumer behavior in the 21st Century is to understand the Zero Moment of Truth (also known as ZMOT) – and American consumers are deeply entrenched in the era of ZMOT.
Americans and the ZMOT
ZMOT is that point before the person arrives at the store (or the car lot, or talks on the phone with a sales rep). It’s when consumers conduct research on the web before doing anything else.
According to Google, 79% of American consumers say they use a smartphone to help with shopping, and 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them.
And here’s where it all comes together. For companies to take advantage of ZMOT, they need a landing page – or rather several landing pages.
The purpose of a landing page is to direct web visitors to take the action you want them to take. This can be to purchase an online product, or to direct web visitors on a path that eventually leads them to purchase a product or service.
If you sell aspirins at a retail location, you can use a landing page to direct consumers to download a coupon they can use at the store. If you sell a big ticket item such as a car or enterprise software (this kind of sale is known as a considered purchase), you can send them to a page with technical specifications or case studies.
You need a series of well designed landing page to take advantage of your customers’ Zero Moment of Truth research path.
To understand ZMOT, Roddz is taking the next six months to understand American consumers intimately.
Why Austin, Texas?
Austin is the perfect laboratory for this type of market research.
Located within 1-3 hours from some of the largest urban centers in the United States (just a one hour drive from San Antonio, and a three hour drive from Houston and Dallas), Austin is itself a dynamic urban center.
According to Roddz, Austin is the next “Silicon Valley”. Also known as the Silicon Hills, Roddz says Austin has an innovative spirit and a high concentration of startups.Since his arrival in Austin Roddz has participated in a startup weekend, has spoken at several events, and has hobnobbed with top bloggers, such as conversion scientist Brian Massey, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Peep Laja, CEO of Markitekt and author of the popular conversion blog Conversionxl.com.What have been Roddz’s impressions of Austin so far? “Austin is the perfect laboratory for Lander,” he said. “The startup energy here is great. I’ve been to visit a very dynamic startup laboratory, I’ve already spoken at a couple of events, and I’ve met some prominent people in my target market. I’m learning a lot about the most competitive target market on the planet.”
What’s in this for You?
The result of all this research will be a more solid product designed to provide you with your own competitive advantage in the marketplace.
We are also planning more educational content for you. We have a series of informative blog posts that we will be posting shortly on the Lander blog, based on some of our findings from our Austin trip.
So stay tuned, and be ready to learn more about how you can take advantage of your customers’ Zero Moment of Truth!