CUSTOMER STORY
Wave Deodorant validates its business with market research
Learn how Wave Deodorant launched its company with confidence thanks to fast market research from SurveyMonkey.
OVERVIEW
Wave Deodorant began with an innovative idea for a new kind of natural deodorant. Through SurveyMonkey market research, its founders validated that their product would solve a common problem for consumers, learned what people were willing to pay, and clarified their audience. These SurveyMonkey insights were the definitive factor that helped them launch their small business with confidence.
THE CHALLENGE
Balancing innovation with insights
Wave Deodorant CEO and co-founder Christine Jennings came up with the idea of an all-natural deodorant with three stacked layers because of a problem she had as a consumer: every natural deodorant she tried became ineffective after just a few weeks. Constantly replacing products, and never knowing how long they’d work, was expensive and frustrating. Christine believed a multi-stick deodorant would be a great solution. But would her innovation have mass appeal?
“Christine was ready to go and start creating Wave right away. She knew it was going to work in her gut,” said Erik Jennings, Christine’s husband and Wave Deodorant co-founder/CFO. “I really wanted to get some market research and see data points to validate this business.” The couple needed reliable data to launch their company and dive into product development—and SurveyMonkey was “an easy choice” for all those insights.
“I utilized SurveyMonkey Audience to reach a wide demographic of over 500 respondents, which was really great for unbiased results. Within 24 hours, we were able to get all of our results, examine the data, and validate that we wanted to move forward with creating our company.”
Christine Jennings
CEO & co-founder
Wave Deodorant
THE ANSWER
Powerful market research that validates next steps
Christine was well aware of her challenges with the long-term effectiveness of natural deodorants but, as she explained, “I wanted to know if this was a ‘me’ problem or if other people were going through this same issue.”
She and Erik used SurveyMonkey Audience to reach 500 US respondents across a wide range of ages, genders, incomes, locations, and more. The survey asked about consumers’ purchase habits, their experiences with natural deodorant, and even what they were willing to spend. It also dug into how often respondents were switching deodorants and why.
“We sent our survey out and started seeing results the next morning,” said Christine. “It was a very quick and seamless process, which was really great because it built off the momentum of wanting to start this company.”
“We found out that our multi-stick deodorant could be really effective in the marketplace. We found out where we should be selling and that people are willing to pay a higher price point for quality ingredients. The value of data from SurveyMonkey has been really critical for us.”
Erik Jennings
CFO & co-founder
Wave Deodorant
THE RESULTS
Riding the wave of a growing business
Wave’s market research revealed that 25% of all respondents were experiencing the same problem with ineffective natural deodorants. And a full 60% were switching deodorant brands every one to six months, hoping to find one that worked better. These insights not only signaled that Wave’s layered deodorant was viable, but that consumers’ brand loyalty was up for grabs. “We saw that this is definitely a market we can touch on and a problem our product can help solve,” said Christine.
The survey results provided a blueprint for how Wave would develop its product and bring it to market. Christine continued research on top-tier formulas, armed with the insight that consumers were willing to pay more for high-quality ingredients. And she and Erik focused on selling Wave Deodorant through the company website and at pop-up events—two channels that had appealed to their target audience.
“SurveyMonkey has been really critical for us to launch our small company,” said Erik. “The data gives us a lot of validation and I think down the road it’s going to help us understand if there are new products we can launch and new events we should be working to drive more revenue. There are a lot of insights we’re going to look forward to collecting in the future.”
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