Market Research for Trends and App Ideas
So you just bought some awesome game code from Appsfresh. Now what? If you just make up a theme without doing research more than likely it will do horrible and worst of all lose you money.
Trust me, I’ve been there and so have most of you.
Why it’s important
If you’re an app developer market research is one of the most important things you need to do and even more so if you’re an app reskinner. Market research tells you what people want and proves to you what people will download or spend money on. Like Tony Robbins says, “Success leaves clues”. So use those clues to your advantage to crush it. Doing so will save you time and save you money, something us Indie developers can always use more of.
A common mistake is just reskinning an app with a theme we think will be cool without seeing what’s actually doing good in the App Store. Gone are the days of putting a ninja or zombie theme and expecting to make an app people will download by the millions.
To Illustrate, if you’re a baker and your making pies, making a ton of apple pies won’t do you any good if everyone wants cherry pies. The recipe is basically the same and you need to make what people want. Reskinning is the basically the same, you have a code (recipe) but the theme is the cherry pie, or apple pie. So if people are buying cherry pies you better make make sure you are too.
Example Trends
Not long ago anything Flappy was hot. Then a few months ago simple Puzzle games were dominating the top games. Games like Don’t step on the white tile, 2048, Timberman, 100 balls.
But then you saw Developers catching on and you saw a ton of clones. But then the clones started doing really well. Don’t touch the spike, 2048,Tiny Flying Drizzy started killing it. In fact some companies have built quite a business doing market research well and putting out nice clones. So what’s the new trend? That’s up to you to find, but you will see it if you take the time to look. I promise.
How to do it
So first you need to look at the top app charts daily. Yes, daily. In the past Candy was the hot theme and everyone put out candy themed apps. Then it was a flappy bird. Then recently, as mentioned before, simple games were the trend and now that has changed. So start keeping track of these and write them down. Seriously, write it down for reference.
So let’s say I want to know the top game themes and game trends in iOS apps(this works for whatever category).
1. Pull up the App Store and look under Top Free Games
2. Look over the top 100 games
3. Start taking notes on the top games ie, sniper games, mmpg, puzzles etc.
4. Note which are the top types and themes and what they have in common
You’ll start to notice the same types of games are on the charts. You’ll also start to see the same types of themes emerge. This is what you want. This will tell you what people are downloading and what kinds of games they like. It also tells you what theme is trending. It’s up to you to see it but it’s You’ll see the small changes. Who is moving up and who is moving down.
Follow the money. People are downloading these for a reason.
Trends will jump out at you
Like I said, doing Market Research will also show you the new trends as they emerge. As of this writing FIFA 15 is at the top at #1 of the free games chart. But I also noticed Asphalt Overdrive has jumped 53 spots to #5! Is that saying racing games are what we should be doing? Who knows, but it makes me want to keep an eye on it. It may become a trend. You don’t want to miss the next Flappy bird reskin frenzy, do you?
On the flip side, seeing the dying trends is just as important as predicting the up and coming trends. You don’t want to be developing an app that the code is now on the decline or a theme that was old news.
I can’t stress it enough, you have to do this regularly! If not, you’re wasting time and money. The apps that were doing good last week might be falling off the list this week.
This leads us to:
You Save Time and Money
I mentioned this before but I think it needs to be stressed. Doing your research will save you time and money.
When you look at the charts ahead of time you can see the themes and games/codes that are doing the best. Pick out the themes you want to do NOW, not when you get a code. Do the same thing when you’re looking for code.
The Wrap Up
Now you know why market research is so important.
1. Its saves money time and money. A little time each day it can save you a lot of heartache and a lot of cash.
2. It helps you make good decisions on which code to buy because you know what’s doing well in the App Store.
3. You know what themes to reskin your apps
4. Helps you predict the coming trends or even which trends are dying.
There you go, use this to your advantage. Use this in your development arsenal now and you will start to see some of the “secrets” of the App Store . I hope this helps in you to be even more successful and consistently make better apps!