Sleep Market in the Spotlight: Exploring Opportunities with “Bird’s Eye” and “Bug’s Eye” Views of the Market
This article is a revised version of content from “Seminars on Business Opportunities Arising From Changes in Consumers – Part 2: Sleep Quality and New Business Opportunities” held by INTAGE on December 16, 2022.
Using the increasingly popular sleep market as an example, we consider effective processes for exploring market opportunities with Brain Sleep, an expert in the sleep market.
Exploring Market Opportunities with “Bird’s Eye” and “Bug’s Eye” Views
Many businesses and brand managers are concerned about market growth in Japan, where declining birthrates, an aging population, economic stagnation, and an increasingly diverse consumer base have reduced the reach and effectiveness of marketing activities.
We frequently hear the following kinds of concerns: ・It is difficult to achieve functional differentiation, and therefore difficult to show that our products/services are unique and/or superior. ・We can improve our products/services, but innovation is not possible.
One factor contributing to these concerns is the perception of the market in terms of “objects”. When developing products and services, viewing the market in terms of “people” rather than “objects” is an effective way to gain a “broader” and “deeper” perspective. At INTAGE, we believe that repeated divergence and convergence, going back and forth between a “bird’s eye view”, which takes a broad perspective of the subject, and a “bug’s eye view”, which looks in more detail at consumers and situations to gain deeper insights, will lead to the discovery of market opportunities. The key here is to think in terms of multiple perspectives, not one or the other. This is because perspectives are the very core of conceptualization. Looking at things from different perspectives and making new discoveries is essential for coming up with ideas.
At INTAGE, we have developed this approach into a program called the “Growth Opportunity Hypothesis Acquisition Program” which we are working on with various companies. Through a real-life example, let’s follow the steps of this program to explore market opportunities with a “bird’s eye” and a “bug’s eye” view.
This article focuses on the sleep market as an example. This market is attracting growing attention, as evidenced by the increasing number of searches for the term “sleep quality” (Fig.1), the success of Yakult 1000, and the expansion of the market for functional food products with sleep claims (Fig.2).
Fig.1
Fig.2
Now, let’s explore additional opportunities in the sleep market using our bird’s eye view and bug’s eye view approach
Bird’s Eye View of the Sleep Market
At INTAGE, “bird’s eye view” is defined as taking a broad, sweeping view of the market. In this case, it is important to capture a wide range of related markets by focusing on the sleep behavior of people, rather than on sleep-related objects such as the bedding market or the lactobacillus beverage market.
Let’s take a look at the sleep market with a bird’s eye view. Fig.3 shows the findings of a survey on “Concern about insomnia”. We can see that the number of people who are concerned about insomnia has increased over the past decade, and that many young women, especially those in their teens and 20s, are concerned about insomnia.
Fig.3
Furthermore, using purchase data, we checked the user composition by gender and age for several products with sleep claims, and found that while the composition varied by product, several products have a high percentage of young women in their 20s and 30s.
This led us to take a close-up look at what specific problems young women have with sleep, and what they are doing about it.
Bug’s Eye View of the Sleep Market
INTAGE defines “bug’s eye view” as capturing the behavior of consumers as a series of moments. Specifically, it is a deep, multi-layered, linear view of a single person using a combination of methods such as diaries, histories, photos, videos, observations, and interviews.
Through interviews conducted with women in their 20s and 30s who have trouble sleeping, we identified characteristics specific to each degree of sleep distress and the shared characteristics of people who have trouble sleeping (Fig.4).
Fig.4
First, we found that those with “heavy” sleep problems have more types of problems, are more knowledgeable about sleep, and have used more products and services in the past. One noteworthy finding was that, because they are very knowledgeable about sleep, they understand that the causes of deterioration in “sleep quality” differ from person to person, so even if a product or service is right for them, they are not quick to recommend it to others. Another characteristic of this segment’s behavior is that they even consider buying or using high-priced products and services, such as bedding, to improve their “sleep quality”.
On the other hand, those whose sleep concerns are not that severe were found to be reluctant to use products and services that are expensive or have a high running cost.
In addition, we found that people with sleep problems share the following characteristics: they do not want to rely on pharmaceuticals or medical treatment; they are more likely to experience benefits from coping methods that stimulate the five senses; and their intention to purchase or continue using the product is related to the usage occasions that they associate with the category. For example, in a discussion about sweets and beverages that claim to improve sleep quality, it was noted that “Sweets are something eaten during the day. Since I have the perception that eating sweet food before bed leads to tooth decay and obesity, I am not inclined to eat something on a continuous basis even if it is recommended for improving sleep quality”.
Enhance the Accuracy of the “Bird’s Eye” and “Bug’s Eye” Views with the “Expert’s Eye”
So far, we have captured the sleep market through a bird’s eye and bug’s eye view, but we also added the perspective of sleep experts in an effort to further improve the accuracy of our research.
For this case study, we conducted an expert interview with Brain Sleep, a company that aims to address Japan’s sleep-related issues not only through products and services that utilize advanced technology, but also by providing information based on sleep science. The company is very unique in that it offers solutions to sleep-related issues that are based on medical papers and collaborations with physicians.
Brain Sleep cooperated with us in the following three phases. ①Gaining a deeper understanding of the market: They spoke with us about the state of the sleep-related market, including bedding, and about the latest sleep research topics that are likely to attract attention in the future, and this gave us a picture of what is happening among consumers and provided many insights on generating ideas for the development of products and services.
②Fine-tuning the research questions: Before conducting research on sleep, we asked them to check the options for “behaviors that affect sleep quality”, “measures to improve sleep quality”, etc. from an expert’s perspective.
③Reading the research findings: Rather than simply accepting the survey findings at face value, we also focused on areas where the numbers were low, and by questioning generally accepted norms in this way, we gained many insights in our reading of the findings.
Having taken a “bug’s eye” view with the help of the expert and consumer interviews, how can we sort out the opportunities in the sleep market? Lastly, let’s take a look at the survey we conducted to get a bird’s eye view of what the market is like and how large it is.
The survey was conducted on 50,000 SCI panelists who cooperate in the collection of consumer goods purchase data, and included questions on past experience with and perceived efficacy of products and services that are already popular among consumers (walking, jogging, mattresses, and pillows) as well as those that have potential (herbal tea, hot milk, body massage, and acupuncture and moxibustion). We interpreted the findings of this survey together with Brain Sleep.
Mapping products and services by experience rate and perceived effectiveness as shown in Fig.5, we can find products and services that many people have already tried, and products and services that few people have tried yet but have a high perceived effectiveness. Exercise and bedding are felt to be highly effective, but food and beverages are not found to be as effective.
Fig.5
Furthermore, by mapping products and services by “Never tried” rate and “New intention (Interest in using in the future)” rate as shown in Fig.6, we can identify products and services that are likely to become opportunities. What we found is that the “Relaxation”-related domains – i.e., products/services such as “bodywork/massage”, “herbal tea/hot milk”, “aroma/air freshener”, and “pajamas/nightwear” – are potential opportunities.
Fig.6
Furthermore, mapping of “New intenders” by average age and male/female ratio (Fig.7) shows that trends differ by gender and by age. Specifically, men tend to be more interested in “Convenience x Science” (Equipment/Medical items), while women are more drawn to “Extra effort x Natural” (Bedding/Therapy).
Fig.7
In this way, even within the “sleep” market, which is already approaching maturity, new opportunities can be identified by bringing an expert’s perspective to the selection of survey items and choice of analytical parameters.
Moving forward, the next step might be to cross analyze SCI purchase data with attitudes toward sleep. Based on the data on manufacturer market share and differences in categories and products purchased, we may be able to identify domains that have not yet been marketed properly and consider possible methods of approach.
At INTAGE, we take a broader view of consumers and situations through approaches such as the one described in this article, and while going back and forth between the bird’s eye and insect’s eye views, we formulate numerous hypotheses to identify changes. We believe that through this process, our customers will find areas where opportunities overlap with their own business. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact our sales representatives.
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【SCI® (Nationwide Consumer Panel Survey)】 Daily shopping data continuously collected from 53,600 male and female consumers aged 15-79 nationwide, SCI provides information on consumer purchases of products with barcodes – including foods, beverages, daily sundries, cosmetics, drugs, etc. – so that you can see who bought what, when and where it was bought, how many were bought, and at what price. *SCI data are processed statistically and no information that can identify individual survey panelists is disclosed.
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