How to Tell When Product Research Has Gone Too Far
4:45 am. Alarm ringing. My turn to feed our daughter.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes and hauled myself into the kitchen to grab a clean bottle.
There, in the dim glow of the microwave light, I spotted it…
…sitting on the countertop…
…calling me.
A little blue box.
Discrete. Unassuming.
Completely harmless.
Innocent.
And inside the box?
Waiting for me?
…
The mind-altering stimulant that had been keeping me awake for the past week…
…possessing my thoughts to the point I’d been keeping a journal, writing about these little white pick-me-ups.
My muse.
And I couldn’t stop.
How could I, with my family depending on me?
Faintly, I heard my daughter stir in her crib…she’ll be awake soon. I don’t want her to see me like this.
I must be quick.
I ripped open the box and popped three of them into my mouth…
Bit down…hard…
And felt that familiar ‘blast’ of glacier-cold, brain-jolting…
…
…
Peppermint.
A week earlier, I’d entered a contract with a client running affiliate ads for a real gosh-darn popular brand of ‘focus’ gum.
My task?
Research—no writing involved whatsoever.
For those of you wondering what kind of copywriter gets paid to NOT write copy…Well. I’ve got a peppermint-fresh take for you, depending on who you are:
- “I’m a copywriter.” → Writing copy is only 20% of your job.
- “I run a business.” → Don’t hire the person above.
Now, forget all that “market research” stuff you’ve heard about. That’s boring.
Today we’re here to chew caffeine gum and kick ass. Introducing…
How to Run Market Product Research for Fun & Profit
First of all, what is the POINT of product research? Why are we doing this in the first place? Just so I can bill my client extra moolah for a month’s supply of peppermint-blast caffeine taurine focus gum with a cool, FREE travel tin that has a badass stingray on the side?
…
NO!
That’s what we in the marketing world call a free ‘bonus.’
Anyway.
The real point of product research is to “become the market,” as we’ve heard a thousand times from every marketing guru under the sun…
And well, you don’t get any more “market” than ordering, receiving, using, and reviewing an actual, honest-to-goodness hold-it-in-your-hands physical product.
Below you’ll find my REAL “clinical trial” that I sent my client (part of a package with wider market research).
Names REDACTED for privacy, of course.
My 7-Day Clinical Trial
I’m a pretty heavy coffee-drinker—about 400 mg of caffeine per day, which is about 10 pieces of REDACTED gum. My goal over the next week is to phase out ALL of my coffee intake and replace it with gum. I’ll report any findings below.
Day 1
- Replaced 40 ml of coffee with one piece of gum
- All caffeine consumed before noon
- Initial remarks on the gum:
- Taste is absolutely horrible…there’s a blast of peppermint flavor and obvious sorbitol / fake sugary-ness. The peppermint flavor vanishes after a couple seconds, replaced by nasty bitterness/medicinal notes. For a few minutes, all you can taste are the caffeine and fake sugar. By 5-10 minutes, you’re left with a faint breeze of peppermint, but it’s at least tolerable.
- The texture is super weird. First bite, you crunch right through the gum—it’s crumbly, hard and brittle. At first, I thought I made a mistake and ordered the mints by accident. After a minute or so, the texture transforms into gum and the pieces consolidate…overall, very weird.
- A lot of these energy/focus gums have complaints about the gum turning into a “wet paper” consistency after chewing, but I didn’t have this issue (only chewed it for 30 minutes). I’ll go for an hour tomorrow…
- On packaging—REDACTED shipped the paper packs all jumbled up in a plastic shipping bag with no padding. The boxes were a bit crushed on arrival, which isn’t a great look. They also came with a metal tin as a bonus, but it’s pretty flimsy…as far as bonuses go, it’s flimsy enough that I feel it detracts from the experience.
- REDACTED has great packaging design. The gum packs look modern and clean, almost like supplements instead of gum. But they’d look better if they didn’t ride all the way from REDACTED to Maryland with somebody’s blender sitting on top of them.
Day 2
- Replaced 120 ml of coffee with 3 pieces of gum
- Still not used to the flavor
- Nothing remarkable to report
Day 3
- Replaced my entire first cup of coffee (around 7 am) with 5 pieces of gum
- Chewed all 5 at the same time, to see if there’s any difference in energy levels, as per REDACTED’s website
- No notable difference
Day 4
- Replaced first cup, same as yesterday, with 5 pieces of gum
- Replaced most of second cup with 3 pieces of gum
- Had a really small cup of coffee around noon
- Actually felt MORE jittery today than when I just drink coffee
Day 5
- Replaced all coffee with gum
- All gum before noon
- Same jitteriness as yesterday
- Still tastes bad…more tolerable
Day 6
- Had a “cup” of gum (5 pieces) first thing in the morning
- Spread the remaining 5 pieces of gum out all the way up until 3 pm, way later than I normally drink coffee
- Felt WIRED, couldn’t sleep
Day 7
- Spaced gum evenly throughout the day, all the way up until 5 pm
- Felt wired again, couldn’t sleep
Final Notes
- While I definitely don’t LIKE the taste, it wasn’t nearly as bad by Day 7.
- The texture is still super weird…hard to crumbly to gum…just a strange experience.
- I didn’t notice any focus “enhancements” while working. Same as drinking coffee, except less fun.
- One of the use cases I thought would be useful is if you’re crashing in the late afternoon but don’t want to drink a cup of coffee…but it was still hard to sleep after chewing the gum.
- I do see how this gum would be appealing if you’re traveling and just need a quick shot of energy.
Overall, I don’t like it. But I can see how it’d appeal to its target market, and on the plus side, it does seem to avoid the pitfalls of most of its competitors.
What to Look for and Record During Product Research
When you’re deep in the trenches of product research, chewing gum like it’s your job (because, well, it is), you need to track more than just whether you like it or not.
Your opinion doesn’t matter.
Here’s what to document:
1. First Impressions & Packaging
- How does the product arrive? Is it well-packaged? Or does the box look like it fell out of the back of a dirty pickup truck and got attacked by geese?
- Does the design look premium, cheap, or forgettable?
- Are there unexpected bonuses included? Do they add value or just feel like junk?
2. Taste, Feel, and Experience (If Applicable)
- If it’s a consumable, how does it taste/smell/feel?
- If it’s a physical product, is it intuitive to use, or does it need an instruction manual written in hieroglyphics?
- If it’s a digital/info product, does the experience feel cohesive?
3. Usability & Performance
- Does the product do what it claims?
- How does it perform over time? (Not just 5 minutes in—does it hold up after a week?)
4. Comparison Against Alternatives
- How does it stack up against similar products?
- Is it better, worse, or just a carbon copy of something else?
- What’s missing that competitors offer?
5. Common Complaints & Issues
- What do real customers hate about it (from reviews, forums, Reddit deep dives)?
- Does it solve a real problem, or is it just another shiny object?
- Are there quick fixes that would improve the product instantly?
6. Unexpected Insights
- The stuff you wouldn’t have noticed if you just Googled it.
- Something you felt or experienced that might be a huge selling point nobody’s talking about.
- Any weird use cases or alternative benefits?
Open thine eyes beyond casual consumption—remember, you’re a marketer. Do marketing.
Key Takeaway?
You can see a couple pretty valuable sales angles nestled lovingly in those notes up there—angles you might miss doing ONLY market research.
Can you spot them?
Yes…you there, in the back.
Bingo! The most valuable nugget above is REDACTED.
(OK, seriously. Can you spot the huge insight I got that I would NOT have found just doing market research? It’s right there.)
Keep looking.
And if you don’t see it…
Sign up for my daily case files right here (watch me get my hands dirty on real marketing projects, not just selling courses and stuff…even though I do that, too).
