DO YOUR HOMEWORK COMPLETELY

The following two stories will point out that the first steps in getting a product to market is to do your homework and do it completely. The first one concerns a friend of a friend who is a college professor who "invented" a new pet product. It was amat to be used by cats after they used the litter box and was aimed at capturing the excess litter caught in their paws while in the litter box. We were brought a sample and after doing some instant marketing research with friends and neighbors it was determined that the product could be viable even at a retail of $19.99. We then went to the next step and visited the major retailer in this arena Petco and Petsmart and what we found was that our initial research was correct people would buy this porduct because someone had invented the exact same product at least six years previously and it and another similar product were already being sold at these outlets. The person who spent a lot of hours, time, and money would have saved himself all of that if he had done his homework once he came up with this "unique" and "new" idea. The second story relates to a product where the people who invented the item did the initial homework and did marketing surveys and took bold steps to see if there was a marketplace for their product. What they did not do is truly determine if the pricepont they were aiming at would actually turn into retail sales to the consumer. The product was a hydraulic addition to a toilet seat that allow the ring to be lowered by itself to the down position if the man of the house left it up after using the toilet. The premise was good and the door-to-door selling to retailer as well as the personal research the comapny did by exhibiting the product and getting pubilicity ended up in sales to retailers and a manufacturer what was not done was price research that would have told both the manufacturer and his customer that taking the retail price of a basic toilet and raising it by a multiple of four would not work at the retail level. This is especially true when you consider that that the average retail price of a toilet seat at the time was $10.00 and making the price around $40.00 was unacceptable as well as the fact that most homes have 2-3 bathrooms and spending anywhere from $80-$120 to solve an issue that may exist between partners would not work. Even buying one unit was a stretch for the average consumer. If the product would have at maximum double the retail price then the product would have had a chance to procue the desired results which was to gain 10-15% of the retail unit volume of 100 million units per year. This would have generated sales of $25-$30 million dollars for the company and made everyone very happy especially the investors who backed the project. NOW FOR THE COMMERCIAL----------------If you have a product idea or product line that you would like to get into retail and need help with finalizing it, sourcing, supply chain management, marketing research, and/or finding a national sales force CALL or WRITE BHR GLOBAL ASSOCIATES. Our phone number is 267-664-5165 our email is: bhrglobal@aol.com. We provide a free half day consultation to get to know you and product and if we decide to work together will tailor a plan that fits your needs.