Observational Research

Observational research consists of just watching end users use the product, noting each step a user takes and then asking why he or she takes every step. This is the type of research that many industry giants such as Proctor and Gamble use regularly. If you observe four or five users in action you will use notice they compensate for different drawbacks to a product, drawback that they might not even realize exists. When I was the marketing manager of a company selling dental chairs, we had an engineer sit in a dental office and observe dentists. We found that dentists had many elderly patients that did not like to lie flat.

Dentists were twisting and turning and struggling to work on these patients. In response to this need, we created a new chair with an articulating headrest that allowed the patient’s back to be at a 45-degree angle while the patient’s head was still parallel to the floor. The articulating headrest feature helped the chair become the number-one-selling chair on the market in just six months.

You should do observational research on your product, to find flaws, or ways it can be improved, as well as on competitive products, so you know their weaknesses. Outlining your observational research is a great way to explain the competitive advantages of your product.

Comparative Research

This process simply asks buyers or end users to evaluate your product against three to seven other products asking them rank them by their likelihood of purchase. It is useful to do comparative research for both direct competitors –products that achieve the same benefit with a similar device, for example comparing five garlic presses – and for indirect competitors, for example products like the garlic twist that mince garlic in a totally different way, but give the same result to the consumer. The ideal set up is have people evaluate all the ideas, #1 for most likely to buy, #5 for least likely to buy and then ask people why they ranked the products as they did. People will prefer a product for a wide variety of reasons, easier to use, easier to clean, one product has a feature they feel is important, or other products have features that annoy the end user. This research gives you information on how to promote your product, which features are important / unimportant, and how important your differential advantages are to the consumer. If possible, I recommend you do this research before you go too far on your product development as you might want to make product changes after the research.

Price Point Research

All too often inventors price their product based on their manufacturing costs, and they end up with a price that is too high. Instead inventors should worry about what price end users will pay, and then target a manufacturing cost that is 25% of the selling price. If you can’t hit those manufacturing costs, you probably shouldn’t introduce the product, or you will need to look for a bigger market where the increased volume will help drive the price down.

Comparative and observational research are primarily done with end users. For price point research, try to include as many industry people as you can: store owners, retail sales people, marketing personnel or sales reps that sell products to the store. If you need help finding sales reps look at this article: http://onestopinventionshop.net/blog/2011/02/setting-up-a-sales-rep-network/

Price point research is done just like comparative research, only you are looking for people to rank products from the most expensive to the cheapest. For the test, try competitive products that range from twice what you think your price should be to half of what you think your price should be. Then have people rank the products with # 1 being the most expensive to # 7 being the least expensive. You want to observe the products ranked just above your product and just below. If the product above yours is $7.00, and the one below is $5.50, then you know your product should be priced at about $6.00 to $7.00.

This price point will be important when negotiating with manufacturers because you can tell them the maximum price you can pay and important when you start to sell the product because you will have facts as ammunition when people try to get you to lower your price.

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Inventors frequently have multiple ideas. The question is which one to pursue. Other inventors feel like they are creative and can solve many problems and wonder which ones to attack. Even in winning categories there are some products that are better than others. Recognizing winning categories and then the wining products in that category will greatly help you succeed. This article will help you recognize which ideas have the best chance of success.

Winning Opportunities

Some of these principles apply across the board, whether you are looking to produce your own product,    license it to a manufacturer, or strike a joint venture deal of some kind.

Across the Board Principles

• A new market is emerging — when the scrapbook industry started, many of the suppliers were inventors and small companies that have since become mainstays of the industry. Another example is that many of the accessories for cell phones were from small companies and inventors were the leaders in creating the pampered pet category.
• A product category is stale — there haven’t been any new products for a time, which results in companies having low margins. A few years ago wall paper had become a stale product, and then a flourish of activity developed with faux painting sponges, speckled paint for entertainment rooms and glazing print applications.

Licensing Opportunities

• Companies responding to competitive moves — companies move as quickly as possible when they are at a competitive disadvantage. Some inventors stay in a an industry, often one where they have worked before, and watch for opportunities created by new product introductions. They simply move to offer a product to companies who at a disadvantage in a product category after a new product introduction by another company.
• Companies with slowing growth rates — a company who has led the market in the past sometimes will run out of ideas and their growth will slow. These companies are very interested in ideas that keep their sales rates increasing.

Winning Products

Once you have an opportunity, you need to create a product with a high wow factor that will accelerate your product into the market. Follow these guidelines and you will have a much better chance for a successful idea.

• Appeals to customers with passion — people with passion know what products are available, spend freely, and will pay a premium for products they want. High income mothers with babies, people with beloved pets, dedicated golfers, and gourmet cooks are all examples of people with passion.
• Clearly understood benefits — products were people immediately grasp the concept have a strong chance for success. A cell phone that also does email is an easy to understand concept. A smart meter in your home to control energy is an easy to understand benefit, but how to install and control the usage is confusing and the smart energy meters is a concept that has been slow to catch on.
• Meets a total solution — customers prefer buying one product that takes care of their entire need. The concept of a total solution applies to new products as services. This is the core concept behind a catering business, but also the concept behind products like the iPad, the new generation of cell phones and the Swifter, the all in one cleaning product.
• Helps customers meet their goals — customers buy products for their own reasons, not your reasons, so always look for ideas that help people meet their preferred goals. Weedwackers were a big improvement over grass clippers, and the products are now owned by most homeowners. Granite counter tops help customers meet their goal of having a high end home look, even for modestly priced homes.

Are Successful Inventors Lucky?

Inventors who have yet to have success sometimes feel that winning inventors have had good timing or that they have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Truly, some do have luck. But inventors can greatly increase their chances of being the lucky ones by simply watching for winning opportunities and then create products that meet the criteria for success. Some inventors just fall into the right product, but you can succeed by planning and watching and creating ideas where the timing and features are right.

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2. “As Seen On TV” is a Key to Success for Inventors at T2 Design
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Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

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Aug 23, 2010 – Santa Monica, CA – T2 Design Corporation (http://www.t2design.com), featured on a Freemantle TV series, has designed and prototyped dozens of new inventions for their clients and several of these products are now being introduced on television.

“Inventors and entrepreneurs find TV to be a powerful tool in making the public aware of their new and innovative products,” says T2 Design President Paul Berman.  T2 Design recently licensed a barbecue tool with Chuck Khubani’s company Ontel, a leader in the direct Response and retail business.  Ontel is a pioneer in the “As Seen On TV” industry and some of their current products include the “Iron Gym,” “Swivel Sweeper G2″ and the hugely successful “Dryer Balls.” Ontel sells their products, from housewares to hardware, on television, retail and at http://www.ontelproducts.com.

Lit Mitt

Another T2 Design client appeared with their invention on Discovery Channel’s popular TV series, “Pitchmen,” starring Anthony Sullivan and featuring the Young Billy Mays.   Inventor Linda Sue Miller launched her product, the Lit Mitt, the grill mitt and oven mitt with lights on the premiere episode of “Pitchmen” season two.  The Lit Mitt is a barbecue and kitchen accessory with 3 powerful LED lights that allow you to see what is cooking on the grill or in the oven.  The Lit Mitt is a flashlight at your fingertips.  The Lit Mitt comes in two sizes; grill mitt with lights and oven mitt with lights.  It is available for order in black, red and red with Christmas Print trim at http://www.litmitt.com.

A success on QVC and selling out their product every time it appears, are T2 Design clients, Marc Newberger and Jeffrey Simon.  Marc and Jeff’s “Drop Stop” is a car accessory that stops cell phones, jewelry, keys and pens from dropping into the gap between the car seat and the console.  It also helps reduce driver distraction by keeping one’s eyes on the road.  The Drop Stop is available for order at http://www.buydropstop.com.   Inventors Marc and Jeffrey both believe that the key to success is to follow your dreams.

“No matter what anyone says about it, if you believe in it and put your passion and heart into it, no one can stop you and you will make it happen, however it plays out,” said Jeffrey Simon.  Marc Newburger adds, “We discovered Paul Berman of T2 Design while watching the ABC’s hit TV show, ‘American Inventor’.  He had several designs that made the top 10 and seemed like a pleasure to work with.  He was.  He really gets excited about a project and makes the whole experience a fun, collaborative process.  His pricing was more than fair and he helped get our little invention ready for the marketplace.  I highly recommend taking a meeting with Mr. Berman – you won’t be sorry.”

T2 Design has been designing and prototyping inventions for over twenty years and works with inventors from idea, to design and prototyping to manufacturing.  ”Consultations are done over the phone or in person,” said President Paul Berman. “Inventors find us from all over the world at http://www.t2design.com.”

T2 Design was featured on ABC’s hit show American Inventor. Services include product design, prototype construction, patent search, engineering for production, and manufacturing sourcing and liaison. T2 Design is rated “A” by the Better Business Bureau.

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Let’s look at an example of how this works.

Inventor Story: Bud Fraze

Bud Fraze was an aerospace engineer who designed action toys on the side. When a mother of a year-and-a-half old blind child found out he designed toys, she wouldn’t leave him alone. She was unhappy with current blind balls that would bounce and roll away. She said her son needed a ball that wouldn’t roll away, was easy to grab and wouldn’t hurt anyone. The mother kept on calling him until he finally decided to make the ball.

Combining some things he knew about weather balloons and sailing, Fraze created the Rib-It Ball, a soft, lightweight ball that makes noise so children can find it and with ribs that make it easy to grab, but that keep it from rolling very far. He set up production with a Chinese manufacturer and got the first shipment, which to his amazement sold out in just a few days.

Soon Fraze was getting orders from therapists working not only with the blind, but also with cerebral palsy, plus he got an order for $40,000 worth of balls from a catalog of special products for the blind.

His next big break was getting a call from the Helen Keller Center for the Blind. They loved the ball, but they said it needed different coloring. Many children are visually impaired, but can still make out highly contrasting colors, so he started making balls with red, white and black contrasting designs.

Since then, special-needs teachers and therapists have been suggesting ideas to him, some of which he designed and refined. These ideas became a growing line of special needs toys carried by PlayAbility Toys, the company Fraze founded.

Teachers are ecstatic about Fraze’s toys and that finally someone is listening to them and creating the toys they need. But it is Fraze who feels like he is really getting the help. He is using their years of experience and research to create great products that really sell. All of these teachers and parents were a great untapped resource of ideas and Fraze is developing these ideas into products and building a successful business out of it. Everyone is happy with this great win-win situation.

How to Tap into Your Customers’ Knowledge

There are lots of ways to get connected with your customers. The internet has made it extremely easy to connect with different interest groups either on websites, forums or social media sites. Also trade shows or conferences can be invaluable for connecting with customers and other industry experts. But not all markets have groups of customers are willing to go out of their way to help you. Of course you can organize focus groups in any market, but only in certain markets you will get the kind of expert help that Fraze got.

The markets that will help you the most are markets with few products, meaning they are generally overlooked, but with lots of expertise. For instance, Fraze’s market had some products, but people were unhappy with them and always looking and hoping for something better. Also those people had lots of experience and much research has been done in their field. So Fraze’s customers could tell him exactly what they needed and he used his engineering background to make it for them. Of course, you don’t need an engineering background to serve markets like these. You can learn what your market wants and hire someone to design the product for you or try to do it yourself.

These overlooked markets are everywhere. They are generally pretty small and so for big corporations it often doesn’t make sense to enter these markets. But if you set up a smaller operation, like Fraze did, these markets can be very profitable.

Once you have found your market, start talking to people in that market about the problems they have or what is wrong with the products currently sold. If you tell them you are looking to develop a product for their market, they will probably tell you what you’d like to know. Then use their input to start developing the product.

Once you have a prototype, show it to them and ask for more input. The more input you get the better. You don’t need to follow all their advice, but listen and see what you do to meet their needs.

The great thing about getting input from people in the market is that when you develop the product according to their specifications, they are ready-to-go customers. For instance, when the Helen Keller Center told Fraze to make balls with contrasting colors, he did. Then we he let them know the balls were ready, how could they not buy?

Once you develop one good product for that market, keep on talking to people in the market. Use their expertise and listen to their problems and you may be able to develop one product after another, creating a great business. It may even go beyond just creating a great business. In Fraze’s case, he is genuinely helping children with vision impairment. In situations like this, everybody wins.

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Many inventors have a hard time pricing their product.  Why is this?  It is because pricing your product is a very difficult task—one that takes weighing multiple factors.  The two main aspects you need to weigh are cost and market factors.  We will deal with pricing in a three part series, with the first part dealing with market pricing, the second part dealing with cost pricing and then the third part dealing with how to balance the two.

So now you know what the market determines for your price and you know what your costs tell you about how much you need to charge to make a profit — now what?  Well, this will be easy if your market price is higher than your cost price, because then you can just go with your market price and you should make plenty of money.  This is because the market can bear a price higher than you need to make a profit.

The trouble comes when your market price is lower than your cost price.  This means the market can only bear a price that ensures you won’t make a profit.  Does this mean that your product can’t succeed?  No, because you can always change your product.

Your market price will be lower than your cost price when customers don’t value your product enough for what it costs to make.  So you have two options, make your product have more value for little extra cost, or have your product keep value with less cost.

For both options, you will need to go back to your focus groups.  If your product wasn’t ranked as the top value, what was lacking that was present in other products?  Can you add similar features for low cost?  Often, adding an abstract appeal is the best way to add value with little extra cost.  Can you make your product look fancier or more in-style?  If so, that adds value.  Another good way of adding value with little extra cost is to provide a more complete solution.  If your product needs to be used in conjunction with another product, can you combine the two products to create a high value?

Also look at what product features are not important to customers.  If you have a feature that customers aren’t interested in, eliminate it, that will save you money in manufacturing, hopefully bringing your market and cost prices in line.  Also, to lower your costs, you can look at sourcing your manufacturing overseas.  You will want to still have a way of monitoring quality, but this can be a good option for lowering prices.  Before you resort to that, you should find an engineer with experience in manufacturing to look at how you make your product.  He or she might be able to suggest some new methods or materials for manufacturing that could dramatically lower your costs.

Another option is changing distribution.  If you switch to a distribution system with fewer steps in between you and your end users, you may be able to make the market demands and cost demands line up.

One hidden cost in distribution is packaging.  For instance, if you sell to retail stores, you will need high quality, professionally designed packaging.  This is a big expense, but one that the distribution channel requires.  But if you sell through catalogs, or directly to customers either through the internet or direct marketing, you will only need a package that can get the product safely to the customer.  This can be a huge savings.

If you end up making changes to your product, either by adding value or cutting costs, go back to your focus group and see how they rate your product.  You will want the rating to stay the same if you cut costs and you will want the value to go up if you tried to add value. Hopefully your value added will be a bigger proportion than your costs to add that value, but if not you will need to employ some other tactics mentioned in this article to bring your market price and cost price in line.

Getting your product priced right is a big concern, because like I mentioned in Part 1, having the wrong price can have disastrous effects.  Usually this happens when someone prices their product too low.  This can only lead to bankruptcy.  I think the problems many airlines are going through reflect this very well.  Many airlines are trying to set prices at what the market can bear, unfortunately often it costs them more to run the flight than they make from it.  This is the danger of market pricing.  But some airlines are staying in business and even doing well, how are they doing it?  By using the tactics we talked about in this article.  They know that the market demands one price, so they bring their costs into line with this.  For instance, if a certain flight (or for products, a distribution channel) cannot be profitable, they drop that flight.  Also some airlines have secured fuel contracts that keep their fuel prices under control, thereby making the cost of flying cheaper (like with inventors, finding cheaper ways of manufacturing or by sourcing their manufacturing overseas).  Also these airlines evaluate what customers value, and what the customers don’t value they eliminate, along with the costs associated with it.  It takes a lot of creative thinking to lower your costs and still keep value, but if you can do this well you will have a much better chance of making a profit.

It is worth while to evaluate your costs no matter what, since it will help you earn a larger profit, but sometimes you will need to really spend a lot of time so that your product is profitable.  Some people think that they can get by with a lower percentage of profit, or margin, if they sell more products, but this never happens.  The more products you sell, the more costs you have to sell those products, so unless you are charging at least twice the manufacturing costs, you will not make a profit.  One of the main reasons Wal-Mart has succeeded is that they know this fact and put it into practice.  They do not have low margins on their products; they cut costs so they can have lower prices and still have high margins.

Remember, let the market dictate what your product’s price should be, then make sure that your costs are in line with that.  Be creative, think outside the box, but get those costs low enough to make a profit.

Related posts:

1. How to Price Your Product – Part 2
2. How to Price Your Product – Part 1
3. What to Do When Your Attempt to License Your Product Fails – Part 1

Many inventors have a hard time pricing their product.  Why is this?  It is because pricing your product is a very difficult task—one that takes weighing multiple factors.  The two main aspects you need to weigh are cost and market factors.  We will deal with pricing in a three part series, with the first part dealing with market pricing, the second part dealing with cost pricing and then the third part dealing with how to balance the two.

Cost pricing refers to setting your price based on your product and distribution costs. These costs will be different for the same product in different distribution channels.

There are many costs that are involved in running a business.  You have administrative costs, marketing costs, space costs, taxes, insurance, product development, employee benefits, incidental expenses, travel expenses, and the list goes on.  So when you sell your product, your price needs to be enough to cover all of these expenses.

The standard cost pricing formula is simple: retail price is four times the manufacturing costs.  The manufacturing costs include labor, parts, distribution, packaging and overhead costs for manufacturing and administration.  Doubling your manufacturing costs would typically give you your wholesale price if you were selling to distributors or retailers.  This may seem high, but many companies make a total profit of only a few percentage points, so it is not too high at all.

So where does the rest of the money go?  It goes into those expenses mentioned above: product development, insurance, etc.  This is why financial personnel in many companies are so important – if your company only makes a profit by a few percentage points, an adjustment in costs, either higher or lower, can mean your company will not make a profit or will be increasing their profits considerably.

So is pricing your product just as simple as four times your manufacturing costs?  Maybe, but you should consider all of your costs before you set your price.

Is there something about your business that creates higher costs?  For instance, in technological companies, the cost of developing new products is very high.  If you are planning on developing new products, which you should do, you will need to charge more for your current product to cover the costs of developing new products.  Or if you have a product that needs a lot of insurance, again you will need to charge more for your product to ensure you can make money.

Another factor in pricing your product is your distribution.  If you sell directly to retailers, your wholesale cost will be half of the retail cost, so your retail price will be four times manufacturing costs.  If you have more complicated sales, like through sales agents or representatives, who then sell to distributors, there are more people who get paid, so your retail price will need to be higher.  Different industries have different standards of distribution.  Some always sell through distributors, others not.  You will need to look into how many people your product will need to go through before the product finally reaches the consumer.  Each group has a certain mark up, usually expressed as a percentage of the price.  Once you have your manufacturing price, double it for yourself (or more as discussed above) and then count the costs of the distribution mark ups and then the retailer will sell the product for twice what they pay for it, so add another 100%, and this will be your retail price.

If you sell directly to consumers, your retail or final price can be much lower, but again, you can’t set your price too low, because there are many costs involved in selling directly to customers.  For instance, if you manufacture your product yourself, possibly in your garage, and sell the product on the internet, you might think that everything you charge over the cost of parts in money in your pocket.  This will not be true.  You will have product insurance costs, website costs, marketing costs (which will probably be higher than you expect), office supplies, telephone bills, etc.  But because of the lack of distributors and retail discounts, you can probably make a profit if you sell your product for twice the manufacturing price, which would include paying yourself for labor and overhead costs. This is why products sold directly to consumers can be cheaper than in retail stores.

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1. How to Price Your Product – Part 3
2. How to Price Your Product – Part 1
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Many inventors have a hard time pricing their product.  Why is this?  It is because pricing your product is a very difficult task—one that takes weighing multiple factors.  The two main aspects you need to weigh are cost and market factors.  We will deal with pricing in a three part series, with the first part dealing with market pricing, the second part dealing with cost pricing and then the third part dealing with how to balance the two.

Market pricing is often favored by many companies, and although this can have disastrous consequences, which we will talk about in our third article, this is also a way to maximize your profits.

So what is market pricing?  Market pricing is a price based on market factors, for instance, what customers will pay or what is the minimum or maximum price based on the distribution channel’s image.  Most often, market pricing deals with what customers will pay for your product.

Different customers of course will have a different value for your product.  For instance, some people pay a large sum of money to buy a condominium or loft in a downtown district while other people prefer to have a large house in the suburbs.  This is because they value the housing differently.  Those who prefer downtown like the convenience, lifestyle and image of living downtown, while the people who prefer the suburbs might value privacy, having more space and not mind commuting.  These are different value judgments and the people who prefer to live downtown might look at the prices for houses in the suburbs and think that they are much too high for the location and the people who live in the suburbs will look at the prices downtown and say that they are much too high for the space.  It is important to understand how different customers will value your product if you want have the price that allows you to make the most money.

Before you can start determining your price, you need to find out who values your product the most, meaning, who will pay the most for your product.  You need to base your product price based on this group of people.  For instance, using the above examples, if you were building new condominiums downtown, you would want to find the price that the people who want to live downtown would pay, not the people who prefer living in the suburbs.

Once you have determined which group will pay the most money for your product, you will need to have focus groups with people from this customer population.  Never ask anyone how much they think your product is worth.  They will always list a price lower than they are actually willing to pay.  You need to take a variety of products that are similar to yours that have a range of prices.  Without listing the prices, have your focus group rank the products listed in order of value to them.  So they could rank the product they think has the most value first and so on down the line.  Then look at where your product falls in the list.  If your product falls below products that cost $50+ and above products that cost $40- then your price should be in the $45 range.  It probably won’t be so simple, but you need to use the prices as existing products as a guide.

Once you have a pretty good guess from the focus group about what your price should be, you need to have some limited test runs.  If your product lends itself to being sold at fairs or shows, you should try that.  Or you can try limited retail runs or anything that gives your product a test with real buyers.  Then you need to try different prices for your product.  The goal is to see how well your product sells at different prices.  At lower prices, of course, you will sell more products, but your goal isn’t to sell the most products, but rather to make the most money.

You will also find that after a certain price the number of people buying will sharply drop off, this is because your price is too high.

Let’s look at an example to see how this works.

You have a product that costs $5.00 to make.  You have arranged to sell at 3 trade shows for 2 days each.  Each day you will have a different price to see how each price sells.

Day 1 – Price: $20.00 – Products sold: 1,000 – Profit: $15,000

Day 2 – Price: $22.00 – Products sold: 975 – Profit: $16,575

Day 3 – Price: $24.00 – Products sold: 925 – Profit: $17,575

Day 4 – Price: $26.00 – Products sold: 850 – Profit: $17,850

Day 5 – Price: $28.00 – Products sold: 800 – Profit: $18,400

Day 6 – Price: $30.00 – Products sold: 400 – Profit: $10,000

So in the above example, we see that $28.00 is the best price for that product, even though you sell 200 fewer products than when the price was $20.00, you made $2,400 more. There may be factors that make your trials less clear, like attending different types of shows or fairs or having a busy or slow retail location.  You need to try to make your trials as equal as possible, but if this is not possible, you will need to adjust.  For instance if you go to a big show one weekend and then a small show next weekend, you will need to adjust your results based on the difference.  Again, this will help you determine what price best reflects the value of your product and what price will bring in the most money.  It is highly unlikely that your results will be so easy to interpret, but by using test runs, you will have a much better chance of choosing the right price based on the market.

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1. How to Price Your Product – Part 2
2. How to Price Your Product – Part 3
3. What to Do When Your Attempt to License Your Product Fails – Part 1

He created the AeroPress, a device that brews the coffee or espresso directly over a mug and then pushes the coffee through a paper filter using a small plunger.  All you need to do is add hot water and grounds and you will have a drinkable cup of coffee in about a minute.  Clearly the AeroPress has great potential as a quick and uncomplicated way to make brewed coffee.  With a retail price of only $30 it is also at a good price compared to other coffee makers.

Adler knew that the ability to make coffee quickly was not enough, however.  The coffee made with the AeroPress also needed to be of high quality if it was to compete with instant coffee and drip coffee makers.  Adler did some investigation and found that water should be 175 degrees for ideal flavor, about 25 degrees less than most drip makers.  Also, the way the water and coffee grounds are mixed in the AeroPress results in considerably less acid content than coffee brewed by conventional methods.  These advantages make the AeroPress not just faster, but better than other products currently on the market.

The lesson here is to remember that just one advance over other products is rarely enough.  You have to give consumers a clear advantage over the products they currently own or they will be reluctant to switch.  By offering several advances at once, Adler greatly increases the AeroPress’s chance for success.

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