The Experiential Needs of Your Target Market:
Is the chase worth it?
I wanted to expand on the Third question that every founder needs to ask themselves ( for other question(s) in this series please subscribe to my blog)
The question is
Do I understand the experiential needs and preferences of my target market? The market may be an overcrowded space, where it is increasingly harder for people to exist without being pushed around by others who have taken the nice ‘corner spots’. If the market is not crowded, it simply would suggest no one is there yet or no one will ever get there as it is not big or profitable enough. While you may need to know the needs and preferences of the market you should also question if it is worth the pursuit for a few decades.
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In fast-moving markets and competitive industries, many founders ask themselves: Do I understand my target market's experiential needs and preferences?
More importantly, is this market worth pursuing for the next few decades? Every entrepreneur must grapple with these questions, especially when entering a space that may already be overcrowded. Even if it is overcrowded, is it likely to grow?
As Peter Drucker famously said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” But understanding customers is no longer about features or benefits—it’s about crafting the entire experience they desire.
The Challenge of Crowded Markets
If you find yourself in a well-established or competitive market, you’ll know it can feel like stepping into a crowded space, where the best spots are already taken by others.
It’s hard to make your mark, especially if your understanding of the customer is superficial. But crowded markets exist because they are large, profitable, and validated spaces. Succeeding here demands a deep, nuanced understanding of your target audience’s experiential needs.
So, what are experiential needs? These are the entire emotional and psychological experiences your customer goes through when interacting with your brand or service. In a crowded market, this understanding can be the difference between blending in and standing out.
When Entering an Empty Market
Entering an empty or niche market may suggest that no one has either recognised the opportunity or, more worryingly, that there’s little demand or profit potential. As the saying goes,
“Where there is a market, there is competition”
So, before investing your time and resources into a market that seems quiet, you must ask: Is this a market with real, untapped potential, or is it a dead end?
Our bounded rationality often acts as a constraint when we aim to predict the future. It is easy to see what is probable and hard to see what is possible.
Experiential Needs and Preferences of Your Market
To answer these critical questions, it’s vital to go beyond standard market research. You must develop a deep understanding of the experiential needs of your customers. Let’s explore how to do that:
1. Map the Customer Journey
Begin by mapping the entire journey of your customer’s experience—from discovering your product to using it and beyond. The customer journey is not linear; it’s shaped by their emotions, expectations, and interactions at every touchpoint.
Where do customers first encounter your product?
What expectations do they have before trying it?
How do they feel while using it?
What emotional and practical outcomes do they experience?
For example, customers may not just want a faster way to manage their finances—they may want peace of mind, convenience, and confidence. These are experiential needs that must be addressed.
Actionable Step: Conduct customer interviews or surveys where you ask about their journey and how they felt at each stage. Focus on both the practical and emotional aspects.
2. Identify Emotional Triggers
Often, what motivates a purchase decision isn’t just a product’s practical benefits, but how it makes a person feel. Emotional triggers are powerful drivers in any buying process, and in crowded markets, they can be your biggest differentiator.
What emotions do your customers associate with solving their problems?
How does your product connect with these emotions?
What emotional outcomes are they seeking?
For example, customers purchasing eco-friendly products might be driven by a desire for sustainability, pride in making ethical choices, or a sense of contributing to something larger than themselves. In contrast, someone purchasing luxury goods might seek feelings of status, indulgence, or reward.
Actionable Step: Analyse customer testimonials, reviews, and feedback to identify recurring emotional themes. Use these insights to fine-tune your product messaging and user experience.
3. Customise the Experience to Preferences
Preferences go beyond price and product features. Customers in today’s market expect personalisation. They want products that speak to their specific tastes, needs, and lifestyles.
How can you customise your product or service to better meet individual customer preferences?
Is there flexibility in your offering that allows customers to personalise their experience?
Understanding customer preferences means looking at more than just demographics or buying habits—it’s about knowing how they want to feel when using your product. Personalisation can range from tailored product recommendations to flexible payment options or even custom packaging. Often when you personalise, like in the case of designing a car with a small upfront deposit (that is redeemable if you change your mind) you are so emotionally entrenched in the product before you receive it that it is hard to change your mind.
Actionable Step: Segment your market based on preferences, and offer different versions of your product or service that appeal to these distinct groups. This could be through customisation options or by creating distinct experiences for different customer profiles. You can often charge a higher fee if you offer a greater degree of personalisation.
4. Analyse Competitor Offerings
In a crowded market, it’s essential to study your competition carefully. What experiential needs are they addressing? More importantly, what are they missing?
What experience do your competitors provide, and how is it resonating with customers?
Where are the gaps in their offerings, and how can your product deliver a superior experience?
This step is crucial because it helps you identify your unique opportunity to offer an experience that stands apart. In some cases, your competitors may have established themselves well, but they might overlook critical emotional needs or miss opportunities for personalisation.
Actionable Step: Perform a competitor analysis focused on the emotional and experiential aspects of their products, not just features or pricing. Identify areas where you can excel.
Nuanced Step: You can analyse competitor’s customer testimonials and reviews and recurring emotional issues. Can you use this information to fine-tune your offering?
5. Assess Market Longevity
Once you understand the experiential needs of your target audience, it’s time to step back and ask the all-important question: Is this market worth pursuing for the next few decades?
You may find that while you can meet current needs, the market itself is not robust or growing. In these cases, even the best experiential understanding may not lead to long-term success. You must balance understanding your market’s preferences with evaluating whether that market will continue to exist and evolve.
Is the market growing or shrinking?
Are customer preferences likely to change in the next 5–10 years?
Can you adapt to these changes, or will they render your offering obsolete?
Actionable Step: Conduct a market trend analysis to assess the long-term viability of your industry. Combine this with your understanding of experiential needs to ensure that the market is both profitable and enduring.
Nuanced Step: Run a demographic profile of your market and assess various segments. Which segments are increasing or decreasing? Which segments have higher needs of your offering? Are these segments expanding or contracting?
Is It Worth the Pursuit?
As a founder, understanding the experiential needs and preferences of your market goes beyond identifying product features—it requires diving into the emotional and psychological drivers behind your customers’ choices. In crowded markets, this can be your key differentiator. In quieter markets, it can help you determine whether the space is worth your time and investment.
But no matter where your market stands today, the real question is whether it’s worth pursuing for the long haul. By deeply understanding your customers’ experiential needs and combining that with market analysis, you’ll be in a much stronger position to make an informed decision.
As Jeff Bezos once said, “We’re not competitor-obsessed, we’re customer-obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.” If you want to build a company that lasts, start by understanding not just what your customers need—but how they want to feel.
This topic is an expanded article from my book THE ‘BENEFIT’ BLUEPRINT FOR STARTUP SUCCESS Chapter 3, Question 3.
© Sameer Babbar
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Disclaimer: This is for information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. The author, his company, his associates, his directors, his staff, his consultants, and his advisors do not accept liability for any loss or damage, including, without limitation, any loss that may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on the information provided