Product Research

My previous blog concentrated on how I got started. One of the things I did during that time was some initial market research, not to determine who would buy my product, but to determine, before I took giant leap into this process, whether the same product was already on the market. I had never seen it if it was, so I figured initially that I would be okay taking the process further.

So, how do you take the process further? Lots of different methods can be used, and I recommend taking a multi-pronged approach to be as thorough as possible. In a perfect world, I would have been able to fly around the country, visiting every kind of store I could think of to search their aisle. Also in a perfect world, I would have been able to determine with utter certainty that I was indeed alone in the manufacturing universe with my product. Neither of these happened, of course. I was not then independently wealthy I'm still not), nor would it be possible to reach 100% certainty. I have been asked if it was wise to move ahead without that 100% certainty, but, hey, life is mostly uncertain and I am not very risk averse. I think everyone needs to assess their own risk tolerance before moving ahead. I look upon this entire process as a grand adventure, and I am a person who loves a good adventure.

There are a great number of books and online resources that discuss using the public library. The library has so much information and many of its resources are so large (one database resource can have millions of entries) that one can easily be overwhelmed without the help of a good reference librarian and a dose of practicality about collecting and using the information. Reference librarians are great for letting you know what kind of resources are available for business research and guiding you to those that might be most helpful (I think librarians are the universe’s gift to humanity). Overall, I think the public library is great for general knowledge and information, perhaps learning about resources that you might want to utilize initially or down the road.

If the library is good for general knowledge and information, the Internet is great for narrowing the search to specific products that might be similar to or the same as yours. If you are not comfortable using a computer as a search tool or don’t know how, get comfortable and visit your local librarian! They can help you learn how to search for information using a computer and how to tailor your search accordingly. Like everything else, the Internet has some drawbacks. First, if you don’t know the name of a similar product that might be out there, you can easily miss it in your search. Recently, a couple of people have brought companies to our attention that produce similar products to some of ours that I had not found in my computer searches. Second, if you don’t have some kind of defined search plan (patent office first, large product listings next, etc.), you can quickly get overwhelmed and lost in it all. Third, it can be rather time-consuming and a lot of guesswork is involved when formulating search terms. Choosing search terms can be exercise in letting go—you will never know whether the terms you choose are the “best” ones. My business partner is a genius at choosing search terms. I am not. The Internet is the resource we use the most.

Get out there and window shop! Walk the aisles of every relevant retail outlet within 25 miles of your house, Twenty-five miles is completely arbitrary—do whatever you can manage. You will be amazed at what’s out there, and it will either make you feel really good about your idea or really bad. It’s also fun to walk aisles from a research angle instead of a consumer angle. We spend a lot of time in local stores looking at complementary products, color combinations, endcap displays, shelf displays, and any manner of various other things.

I am sure there are other search tools out there, but these are the three we use the most. They are convenient, free, offer lots of good information, and we have learned how to utilize them to best meet our needs. Good luck!