Investigation of different perspectives between developers and customers: Robotic vacuum cleaners

The literature on high-technology marketing frequently observes that the perspectives of managers in cutting-edge product development are often at odds with the perspectives of consumers, leading to products that do not fit into consumer values, force behavioral changes upon them, are difficult to use, or do not meet needs at all. A possible case-in-point is robotic vacuum cleaners (RVC) for home use. In 2001, their market introduction was accompanied by optimistic forecasts, but the pace of market penetration has been slow and over 10 years after their initial launch, RVC still only account for 4.1% of the vacuum cleaner market in 2012 in the United States. This paper investigates if there is a mismatch between product developers´ perspectives and actual customer needs that can provide a possible explanation why RVCs are facing difficulties in expanding market share in the home cleaning device market. To do so, it uses fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to capture and quantitatively model the perceptions of RVC developers and RVC customers. The developer model shows the causal links between product features and presumed product attractiveness; the customer model shows causal links between product features and perceived product desirability. The models are used to investigate how developers and customers value alternative product improvements and two what extent their perspectives are aligned. Results show that there are distinct gaps between both perspectives, causing product developers to favor product improvements with little pay-off for perceived product desirability.