(33) Focus Groups
One of the most important parts of winning the invention-to-market race, is market research. I've spent a whole lot of time research online, in bike stores, in baby/toy stores, out in the community, etc., trying to understand if this invention makes sense, people might buy it, and what kind of cost thresholds and design considerations I need to consider. Now comes the hardest, and potentially most vulnerable part of the market research - actually telling real people about it (beyond my own family and friends!), and getting candid opinions. I've delayed doing this, of course, to keep the invention "under wraps" as long as possible (so the knock-off agents don't get a head start!), but it's time to unveil it in a limited public forum. The prototype is about as complete as it can get without external review, and it's really time to get moving and market/sell this thing!
I plan to execute a series of focus group activities as follows:
1 - assemble a group, representing the target market with relevant background, probably no more than 20-30 persons.
2 - execute an NDA (not that this will stop the spread of information, but it might stall it a bit)
3 - do an online disclosure and survey to the focus group (through the site, www.slingwheels.com)
4 - after gauging the interest and feedback, do an in-person demo and hands-on tryout of the prototypes with a portion of the focus group.
5 - analyze and report the results.
The in-person focus group needs to be local; the online group can be fairly widespread, but I'm going to prefer to keep it somewhat local. What's important is I get a good cross-section of the target market, including those who might use the product in different ways.
From a focus group participant perspective, the benefits might include; fun, being part of a local "movement", potential local publicity or business exchange, discounts on future stuff, other potential giveaways.
I've put out the word on two local portals, am seeing a pretty quick turnaround in "click-throughs" to check it out.
On another topic, I saw the fourth installment of "American Inventor" yesterday; this show really isn't very good right now, as they weed through all the sob stories and junk that aren't inventions at all. They do show glimpses of some neat things that made it through; hopefully they'll spend more time analyzing the good stuff in weeks to come. I'd be interested in assembling a list of persons in my community who are in some stage of inventing; there's a lot of inventing going on around DC (my area), but far more never makes it past the "I've got an idea" stage.
I plan to execute a series of focus group activities as follows:
1 - assemble a group, representing the target market with relevant background, probably no more than 20-30 persons.
2 - execute an NDA (not that this will stop the spread of information, but it might stall it a bit)
3 - do an online disclosure and survey to the focus group (through the site, www.slingwheels.com)
4 - after gauging the interest and feedback, do an in-person demo and hands-on tryout of the prototypes with a portion of the focus group.
5 - analyze and report the results.
The in-person focus group needs to be local; the online group can be fairly widespread, but I'm going to prefer to keep it somewhat local. What's important is I get a good cross-section of the target market, including those who might use the product in different ways.
From a focus group participant perspective, the benefits might include; fun, being part of a local "movement", potential local publicity or business exchange, discounts on future stuff, other potential giveaways.
I've put out the word on two local portals, am seeing a pretty quick turnaround in "click-throughs" to check it out.
On another topic, I saw the fourth installment of "American Inventor" yesterday; this show really isn't very good right now, as they weed through all the sob stories and junk that aren't inventions at all. They do show glimpses of some neat things that made it through; hopefully they'll spend more time analyzing the good stuff in weeks to come. I'd be interested in assembling a list of persons in my community who are in some stage of inventing; there's a lot of inventing going on around DC (my area), but far more never makes it past the "I've got an idea" stage.
posted by T | 12:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home