For businesses, one of the biggest challenges to making a mark in the marketplace is developing a product that really sticks with consumers. Afterall, there are a lot of competitors out there that are also looking to eat away at the market share of a particular niche. 

Having that in mind, one of the most important steps that you can take, therefore, is having the right product planning cycle in place. It is not just enough to release a product into the marketplace, it needs to be a product that really sticks with consumers. 

Perhaps the perfect example of this is the iPhone. Truth be told there are a lot of phones out there that can compete with the iPhone in terms of its technology and design, but because the branding around the iPhone is so consistent and so iconic — it’s dominant market share does not seem to be dwindling any time soon. 

So if you are a company and you do not know where to start when it comes to product placement, here are a few brands that you can try to help you get the ball rolling. 

Curion

Curion is one of the best companies that you can partner with if your goal is to have real solid consumer insights when it comes to your product planning. Not only can they work with you to determine the products that are a hit with consumers, but they will also work with you to determine how you can make the slightest optimizations in your product branding so that you can maximize consumer interest. Their list of customers range from major consumer hubs like Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and New York City.

Decision Analyst 

Decision Analyst is another brand that you should give a try because what they specialize in within the realm of product development and planning is quality assurance. Even though this is not directly related to branding and design, this is also very important because if you do not make a product that can meet certain standards that consumers expect, you cannot expect to do well in the marketplace. Remember, there is something in an account called Good Will value which is an actual dollar amount that is put into your balance sheet that is added by good branding as intangible as it may be, having good quality products will increase this Good Will value.

Survey Monkey

This is a bit of an unorthodox choice for this list but equally important to the product planning cycle are the services that are provided by Survey Monkey. Sometimes it is important to just eliminate the guesswork when it comes to determining what consumers want to see from products, so the ultimate solution to figuring out what consumers prefer is just to take a good sample size and just ask them, it really is that simple. One of the best providers of this service of course is Survey Monkey. 

Harper + Scott

Last but certainly not least, probably the most fun part about the product planning cycle is design and sourcing. It is like the iPhone example that we mentioned earlier, there is nothing that sticks to a consumer’s mind more than the uniqueness of your product designs and your branding pallets. 

The best company that you can partner up with to give you these services is Harper + Scott. Product planning with Harper + Scott makes the product planning cycle a lot more fun and invigorating because they will guide you through the process and give you the benefit of really seeing your vision for your products come to life. 

So those are the top brands that you can explore for product planning. With their help, you will be well on your way to releasing an iconic and well-designed product that your customers will love.