A lot of factors are involved in understanding what creates a successful product, and merging this idea with Dragons Den’s pitches, or any sort of pitch of an idea. So I decided to look into that in more detail and find what are the missing links to some people in succeeding with a new innovative idea.
It is a shame that it has to take more than a good product to be able to sell. It could be a product that would revolutionise society but in the condition our capitalistic society runs it would encounter too many barriers before reaching a considerable amount of people’s hands. That would probably be the case, because our society is dependent on the flow of money for survival and with the current over population of the world, there are too many products in the market. Good or bad, without something for it to stand out and ‘prove itself worthy’, a revolutionary product would look like any other in the shelf of a store.
Then there is money. The cost of production needs to be lower than the price people are willing to pay for it. May sound obvious but products like solar power panels today are revolutionary but still is more expensive than coal or oil to generate electricity. Perhaps with the development in technology and the raising price of fossil fuel power there will be an intersect between the dropping cost of solar and increased price of oil, then, it will be economical to switch to solar energy.
As an inventor/creator/entrepreneur you must ask yourself some questions while making your product with the intention of selling it and making a profit. These are:
- What do people currently do to address this problem?
- Is there already an established market solving this need?
- Are you able to manufacture this service/product at a price below what people are willing to spend?
- Is there a market large enough to produce a profit that will sustain your business?
- Is this something you enjoy doing? Do you care about the needs of your customers in a real way?
So marketing and finances are the main aspects to focus on assuming you are tackling a need with high demand with a revolutionary product. I will not go into details of marketing strategies or efficient production due to its relativity to the market and product itself. What I will say is that focusing on your customer will be far more beneficial than going only by your own instinct? I do believe that is a far more effective way to seek success and though it may sound obvious to some, others are struggling to get a product in an over saturated market place and to compete with multimillion pound organisations that have been doing business for dozens of years sometimes. I propose, look at what the people you want to sell to are doing, look at what they already buy and why they buy it, create something that will touch them in an emotional level and at the same time make it affordable (again affordable is relative but when aiming to sell in quantities of thousands or more, affordability is incredibly important).
What other needs does the target audience has? How is the distribution made? What other stakeholders are critically involved in the success of an idea? Are there investors to please? Balance is key. A recommendation I would make is looking at the idea/business from a 3rd person perspective, ‘is the creator attempting to make a process easier/more efficient? Or is he just using his creation as a form to express him/herself?’ take a step back and critically analyse what has been done.
To conclude, focusing on your customer may be a large step to take, but may be the definitive factor to success. It doesn’t only take a good idea to succeed. In Dragons Den we can see that a good pitch consists of several elements, including body language, a appealing idea and very importantly pleasing the investors, if they don’t like the idea/entrepreneur they won’t invest.
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