For almost four decades my Consulting firm has worked with entrepreneurs to design, develop, package, Brand, Market and Sell a vast range of Consumer Products.
Our job is to save clients time, money and mistakes.
This goal is best achieved when we are involved in a nascent project from inception.
Unfortunately this is not always the case.
Many prospective entrepreneurs decide to self-market their "alpha" product launch.
This can certainly be done, though it requires a very high level of due diligence and trial and error.
Unfortunately we are approached all too often by a rookie product developer who has exhausted their funds, mis-marketed the product or not been able to penetrate the target market at the most fundamental level.
The following is a series of questions, a test, that can be used as a guide in deciding if you have the capacity to self-market a new product, service or business strategy.
This test is general in nature and you can fine tune the questions to more closely apply to a specific product you are developing.
1.
Have you filed for Intellectual Property protection (patent, trademark, copy right, trade secret, etc.
)? Yes___ No___ 2.
Do you have a detailed Gantt Chart? Yes___ No ___ 3.
Have you chosen Engineer, Designer, Lab (depending on product type) Yes___ No___ 4.
Do you have Production Quality Prototypes (or formula, or recipe, etc.
depending on product type)? Yes___ No___ 5.
Have you conducted deep competitive product research (pricing, distribution, etc.
)? Yes___ No ___ 6.
Have you researched and chosen source of mass production for the proposed product? Yes___ No ___ 7.
Have you researched and chosen a Graphic Artist to produce art files for packaging, sales collateral, display, web-site, etc.
? Yes___ No___ 8.
Have you organized Point-of-Purchase display design? Yes___ No___ 9.
Have you sourced and finalized packaging components? Yes___ No ___ 10.
Do you have a detailed Bill of Materials? Yes___ No___ 11.
Do you know final, landed, dead-net Cost of Goods...
CRUCIAL? Yes___ No__ 12.
Do you have a Sales Model, pricing structure? Yes___ No ___ 13.
Have you customized a Branding and Marketing Strategy? Yes___ No___ 14.
Have you tested the product (i.
e.
Focus group, clinical tests if needed, etc.
) Yes___ No ___ 15.
Have you begun or strategized a Public Relations Campaign? Yes___ No___ 16.
Is your Business Plan perfected? Yes___ No___ 17.
Do you have Product Liability Insurance organized? Yes___ No___ 18.
Production of Sales Brochures, Video, Web-site, Trade Show display, Point-of-Purchase display, Product Folio, etc.
completed? Yes___ No___ 19.
Logistics organized (EDI, UPC, warehouse, inventory control, billing, etc.
)? Yes___ No ___ 20.
Trade shows researched and contracted for launch and Pre-Sell? Yes__ No__ If you can objectively answer each of these questions positively you can probably be successful in self-launching a Consumer Product or Service.
Remember, these are general questions and there many sub-issues related to each one.
Use this as a Guide in deciding if you have the mettle to undertake this exciting new outlet for your creativity and competitiveness.
Birthing a New Business opportunity is both daunting and thrilling at the same time.
by: Geoff Ficke