OPPORTUNITY SEEKING: MARKET – PRODUCT FIT

Opportunity Seeking is the process of spotting, evaluating and pursuing

relevant and sustainable revenue and profit generating activities in the
marketplace. There are many ways to spot opportunities. One way is to use
what is called the Voice of Customers (VOC).
Voice of Customers (VOC).
-is a research process used to capture the changing needs of customers.
A key to voice of customers is identifying and understanding pain points,
barriers and its root causes to trigger greater demand in an industry.
Exhibit 4-1: Pain Point Process
• STEP 1 --- PAIN HUNTING
• STEP 2 --- PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION
• STEP 3 --- PAIN POINTS UNDERSTANDING
• STEP 4 --- PAIN POINTS HEALING
 PAIN HUNTING

Entrepreneurs must choose a specific group of people as their target market.

Whether customer or noncustomer group, the group must behave in a
homogenous way like having common traits and seeking common benefits.
The entrepreneur’s company must be capable of serving the group well which
must also be large enough to be profitable for the entrepreneur.

EXHIBIT 4-2: 4 TYPES OF BENEFITS

4 Types of
Consumer What Is It? Examples
Benefits
Functional Benefit related to the Mansmith and Fielders Inc.
Benefit performance of the product or has propriety training on the
service “5 Skills of Master
Strategists”.
Economic Benefit related to the price of Ever Bilena cosmetics are
Benefit the product or service good quality but cheaper than
imported cosmetics.
Emotional Benefit related to how the “I feel I have high self-worth
Benefit owner feels when owning or when I hold a cup of
using the product or service Starbucks coffee.”
Social Benefit Benefit related to how other Seeing entrepreneurs riding
will perceive the owner of the in their BMW, Volvo or
product Benz, makes me think they
are financially successful.

 PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION

To know consumer pain points, the target market can be asked what they
dislike about a particular brand or product. These dislikes can be plotted on a
moment-of-truth map that captures the consumer buying journey. Note the best
time to ask is when the consumers are conscious of these pain points so get as
close to the customers when they are using the product or encountering your
service.

 PAIN POINTS IDENTIFICATION

To know consumer pain points, the target market can be asked what
they dislike about a particular brand or product. These dislikes can be
plotted on a moment-of-truth map that captures the consumer buying
journey. Note the best time to ask is when the consumers are conscious of
these pain points so get as close to the customers when they are using the
product or encountering your service.
 Exhibit 4-3: Pain Points of Consumers of a Furniture and Appliance
Retailer
Before a
During a Purchase After a Purchase
Purchase
Dislikes • Long • Being sold the •Delivery schedule should not
time display unit with be anytime within morning (or
to some scratches. within afternoon) bu have a
check • Need to fall in line narrower range for shorter
inventory and pay twice: for waiting time.
level furniture at the •Guard inspects product bought.
available furniture cashier and
in-store. for appliances
cashier.
• Long time to process
payment.
Wish ******* •Something • Coordinated briefing about
List interesting to read or installation (extra parts to be
watch while waiting bought different crew

for payment to be expected for installation.

processing.

Some Examples of Pain Points if Suppliers are Unable to be relevant

to the retail channel members are as follows:

• Lack of area coverage

• Unsupervised placement and merchandising
• Sporadic availability of stocks
• Low margin
• Transactional approach, not relational or strategic in account
development
 • Unprofessional salespeople

 PAIN POINTS UNDERSTANDING

Not all pain points have the same level of importance. Entrepreneurs
must understand the frequency, and depth then choose the key pain point
priorities that must be solved due to relative higher impact that can be felt
by the customers.

 PAIN HEALING

It is important for entrepreneurs to have empathy and not just

understand pain points, but also accept that change is needed, and that
speed of change by external factors may leave them obsolete in their
industry. They should not be swivel chair owners, relying on reports that
have already been filtered by their subordinates.

LIFESTYLE TRENDS

Another practical way to spot opportunity via voice of customers is by looking

at lifestyle trends, in terms of how people live, how people work, how people
play, how people die and how people inest.

EXHIBIT 4-4: 5 Practical Ways to spot a Business Opportunity Based

on Lifestyle
 How People Live
 How People Work
 How People Play
 How People “Die”
 How People Invest
Voice of Enterprise (VOE)
- is a process to articulate the needs of the entrepreneur or his/her
company.
Growth Strategy
- is needed not just as part of business expectations but because it can lift
the spirit of the organization. But while entrepreneurs need to be agile and
move fast to be ahead in the industry, growth cannot happen too fast, too
soon, and in different directions, as to risk losing focus and getting drowned
in the opportunity.

EXHIBIT 4-6: OPPORTUNITY-SEEKING PROCESS

DISCOVERY INCUBATION
IDEATION

Problem Identification Testing Assumptions Building the Solution

Or
Opportunity
Identification
 EXHIBIT 4-7: IDEATION PROCESS OF HYGIENIC FOODS

Ideation Process Case Study: Hygienic Street Foods

1. Recognize a Reymont Choachuy was hospitalized with diarrhea
potential market after eating kikiam and squid ball street food at the
sidewalk of Edsa Muñoz in 2005. Being the
entrepreneur that he is, he recognized the opportunity
to offer hygienic street foods, thus “Sam’s Everything
on Sticks” was born the same year.

2. Analyze the Street foods are comfort food familiar to the buyers
market need and when they were still children, and not an exotic
customer concept from abroad unfamiliar to them. The pain
requirements point that prevent them from buying or buying more
often is hygiene.

3. Identify the target The target market is hygiene-conscious consumer (for

market those in food courts and supermarkets) and public
transport commuters (for those buying in or near public
terminal bays). They usually have tried eating fish ball
from vendors when they were still studying.

4. Propose value Bring sidewalk food to the highest level by offering the
proposition or the most modern technology in food processing while
solutions utilizing the most stylish innovations ran by
professional and motivated employees.

5. Innovating the Aside from hygienic food. Sam’s shall take care of
value Proposition its employees via PMTDR (“People Making The
Difference Real” Campaign) program by investing
in trainings, incentives and rewarding performers
with a career path.
6. Define the Take care for the well-being of customers and
purpose or vision employees.
7. Select the best Tasty Filipino favorite food items in 3 categories:
product or local street foods (tokneneng or quail egg coated in
service that will orange coating), imported street foods (lobster ball,
meet the market squid ball), dimsum (like kikiam), with unique beef-
need flavored sauces, and crystal-clear gulaman.

8. Describe the For end consumers – variety of quick, clean local

unique selling and international version of street foods.
proposition that
For sellers – Daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly
differentiates
incentives upon hitting targets.
one’s
product/service
from existing
products/ services

9. Key Given the choice, buyers of street food would

Assumptions rather pay a bit more than risk being hospitalized,
losing money and time in the process. When given
incentives and taken care of, store employees will
pay more attention in helping the company.

10. Estimate Primarily limited to a fraction of the number of

market size passers-by at each store location.
11. Identify KISS King of Balls was the lead innovator in the
primary target market but they are no longer as focused after
selling KISS to new owners with many food
concepts. Aside from KISS, any food with a P40
 price tag is considered a competitor since malls
practice non-duplication of tenants having the same
offering.

In the discovery phase, the entrepreneur needs to test the correctness of

three critical assumptions of their ideas that will affect financials and
must pivot accordingly to reduce risk:

 The target market

 The problem
 The solution, including the value proposition (product and price),
whether it is meeting at least the minimum viable product (MVP).
If not, product can still be tweaked as new data come in.