Turn to the Voice of Verified Buyers: What Consumers Really Want from Your Next Product

Achieving product-market fit is a challenge for any industry, but it’s especially true for home electronics. Consumers are always looking for the next cool gadget or the hottest new feature. What are some of the ways you can achieve this lofty goal?

Online review analytics powered by generative AI can help you transform your products. Why, you ask? Because this is post-purchase data from verified buyers who have already used your electronics product in real-life situations. Did the product work as it should, and what opportunities should be capitalized on to create a completely new product?

For this blog post, we’ll be focusing on routers and diving into the data to understand where there are product issues and opportunities. 

Leveraging Category-Level Data

When deciding to develop any product, it’s important to go from the macro to the micro. This way, you’ll quickly be able to understand the broader market. The Revuze platform provides category, brand, and SKU-level data, making it easier than ever to understand consumer behavior.

Here’s an overview of router brands with the biggest share of voice. The data is divided by organic and incentivized reviews, highlighting consumer sentiment for each one.

How are these brands positioned in relation to the average consumer sentiment? The chart highlights that there are only two brands that exceed the average consumer sentiment, 66%, Netgear and QGoo. The looming question: How can you improve your product offerings to surpass both companies?

What Drives Success

If you’re thinking about improving your current product offerings or innovating new ones, it is important to understand which product features or topics are driving those five-star ratings for the entire electronics industry. Those are the ones that you have to include no matter what, or it’s at your brand’s peril. 

From the chart below, we can quickly identify five key areas from verified buyers. “Assembly & Installation” ranks at the top, driving a five-star rating by an additional 19%. This is followed by “Speed,” “Coverage Area,” and “Ease of Use.”

Given the impact of the topics in driving the five-star reviews, consider the different ways these qualities can be improved or incorporated into your own products to ensure success.

Benchmarking: Insights into Your Competitors

In the previous section, we looked at factors that drive success across the overall industry. In this view, we looked at four leading router brands and examined the way various topics were ranked. This is a way to get a sense of how your brand measures up to the entire category and competitors.

Earlier we saw that “Assembly & Installation” is the topic that drove the most five-star ratings. Here we have an opportunity to get even more granular. The topic garnered 38% of the discussion volume and has 80% consumer sentiment across the industry. When we look at the various brands, we see that Netgear and TP-Link have discussion volume and sentiment above the average for the topics. This already gives some insights into what your competitors are doing well or not.

Now that we have a sense of the brand, we can dive into some of the brands’ products. We can see the share of discussion and sentiment for each one. Once again, Netgear and LinkSys products are above the industry benchmark. Further explore the sentiment and discussion volume for all the product topics. This will help you understand what moves the needle for consumers and once again can be integrated into your product road map.

SWOT Analysis

This is a snapshot of a SWOT analysis representing five leading router brands. Topics from the voice of verified buyers populate the visualization of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The first thing we can pick out quickly is that there aren’t any glaring weaknesses across the brands.

At this juncture, we see that the top opportunities that can be maximized are around “Performance,” “Instructions,” “Lifespan,” and “Design.” For instance, when we delve into “Performance,” consumers are looking for products that work well in large homes while providing both a stable and strong signal, especially when connecting multiple devices at once. We can dive into each topic and get very granular to understand what consumers are looking for.

However, there are threats around the “Access Point” and “Product Defect” topics. The leading “Product Defect” related comments from consumers were the following: 

1. Defective product
2. Faulty unit
3. Damaged item
4. Broken device
5. Missing parts
6. Connectivity issues
7. Unusable audio

Your Brand in Focus

Empowered with the overall temperature of the router market, it’s time to dive into your brand. For this example, we’re going to use TP-Link and follow the same steps that we did for the overall router category. 

When we look at topics, one important one in the case of product development is the “Customer Wishlist,” which can immediately be integrated into your roadmap. In the case of TP-Link, users express a collective desire for enhanced reception and improved quality to ensure a seamless online experience. Stability and reliability are paramount, as users seek a connection devoid of frequent disruptions. Consumers also prioritize a user-friendly and intuitive app interface, emphasizing the importance of hassle-free navigation and configuration.

Furthermore, there’s a call for higher network interfaces, with some users expressing interest in 2.5gb options, an advancement beyond the conventional 1gb. The importance of a quick and straightforward setup process is underscored, as consumers value simplicity in getting their networks up and running efficiently. Signal strength and coverage emerge as critical factors, with users seeking routers that excel in providing robust signals throughout their spaces.

Additionally, certain users express a wish for added features, such as mounting screw holes or Ethernet lights on the ports, demonstrating the nuanced preferences within the consumer base. Overall, the consumer wishlist for TP-Link routers underscores a blend of performance, user-friendliness, and advanced features to meet the diverse needs of modern connectivity.

Here we see many of the same positive drivers for the product. One additional one that we haven’t seen yet is the “Apps” topic which drives five-star ratings by an additional 7%.

The SWOT analysis for TP-Link paints a very different picture when compared to the category-level SWOT. What jumps out from the visualization is there are many product issues around “Connectivity,” “Coverage Area,” “Signal Strength,” and “Connection Dropping.” All of the topics are very much related to performance and would need to be addressed and optimized in the next product iterations or completely new products that TP-Link would launch.

That said, TP-Link has other positive aspects that should be maintained and accentuated in upcoming products. 

Here we see the best and worst TP-Link products based on verified buyer feedback for the “Performance” topic. Their highest rated product from verified buyers is TP-Link TL-SG105 and the worst is the TP-Link AC2300 Wifi Router. 

Conclusion 

In the dynamic landscape of consumer preferences for TP-Link brand routers, it becomes evident that a macro-level understanding of the strengths and weaknesses across the router category is crucial for any brand aspiring to stay ahead. Recognizing the collective desires of users for enhanced reception, improved quality, stability, and user-friendly interfaces provides valuable insights into the evolving expectations of modern connectivity. This macro approach not only highlights the diverse needs within the consumer base but also sets the stage for brands to refine their offerings. At Revuze, where we provide brands with category-level data derived from verified buyers’ reviews, this approach takes on a new dimension. Leveraging online review analytics becomes instrumental for brands in comprehending the intricate nuances of consumer feedback, enabling them to make informed decisions when developing new products. By focusing on the collective wishlist of consumers and harnessing the power of data analytics, brands can elevate their products to not only meet but exceed the expectations of their audience. In the evolving landscape of connectivity, the macro approach becomes a strategic compass, guiding brands like TP-Link towards innovation and excellence. Learn more about how Revuze can optimize your brand’s product development by clicking here.

Florence Broder

Florence Broder is a marketing professional with over 20 years of experience. She has worked in a range of global high-tech companies.