Many inventors often hesitate entering animals invention the market because they are worried that their product is already out on the market or that there may be obstacles that they will run. With a little effort on your part, you can explore on a preliminary basis whether or not a product will be successful, and while it is not a night mission you should be able to complete the project in 30 days. I think that each inventor must do this to make sure whether or not the product has the potential to succeed before spending a lot of money.
Start by looking at Google Patents
Goggle patent has a feature called prior art searches. Normally, a patent granted only if an invention is new and not obvious, which means the patent language, it is not art, which simply means that the product has not been made public before either a patent, to be sold or in any otherwise. The Prior Art Finder makes it easy to search multiple sources simultaneously to the prior art. You can experiment with it by clicking on “Find prior art” button from the main patent, or the “related” link in the patent search.
The Prior Art Finder identifies key phrases from the EPO (European Patent Office) and after the 1976 US patent documents, combines the query and displays the results from Google Patents, Google Scholar, Google Books, and the rest of the site.
The key to being successful with the preliminary state of the art search is to use multiple keywords that are wider than your idea. For example, let’s say you have a plastic bag with a zipper to keep your shirts from getting wrinkled plane. You can search for wrinkle-free clothes bag, plastic fence to travel, vacuum sealed bag for travel, and bags for the fence travel luggage or carriers.
Competition
You want to check the competition and its selling price. Competition does not have to be identical to the product, but it needs to achieve the same goal. For example, if the product minces garlic, competition would be some kind of product that minces garlic. You want competition so you can show your product along with competitive products for at least a few potential users so you can get their feedback on whether you have a salable product.
The best way to obtain competitive information from directories of products are published in industry trade magazines and industry trade shows. You may find this Google search, like housewares trade magazines. But they can sometimes be difficult to find. Larger libraries will have a reference source called Source Gales of publications and broadcast media. The reference is a chapter called trade magazines where you can usually find the trade magazine for the industry. When you have a name you should be able to find the source of Google and see if the magazine publishes an annual product list.
Product Complexity
You should make a preliminary assessment of whether or not a product will be difficult to design and produce. Inventors have a difficult time financing four to 10 and perhaps more prototypes they need if the product has a complex design. The inventor is to stay away from these types of products the cost is just too high. This is a key question to ask mechanical engineers and industrial designers you may know. If you do not know something I have found a good source for retired engineers or designers in rating, Service Corps retired executives. http://www.score.org. Their services are free and you can find a local branch of their website.
Design – Is Communication Benefits of the product
Products that sell themselves are ideal for inventors because they do not have to worry about perfect packaging or promotional campaigns. A product like the junk drawer organizer is a perfect example. The package had just decals in each compartment what went into it. The product was easy to understand and it was immediately successful. The key that inventors need to be assessed when they have a great idea for the product will be easy to sell. If it is too hard, the inventors could fail. A product immediately communicating the product benefits is a key consideration before you start spending too much money.
Price / Value Relationship
One of the reasons that you research the competition is that you can show people an idea and competing products (including price competition) and then ask them how much the product is worth to them. If you have four or five competing products usually they will put the product on the few products that gives you an idea of ??what the product might be worth on the market. There is value. For you to make money, the price needs to be four to five times the cost to produce. It is a difficult number to find, but I have found that SCORE back usually has some producing people who can help you get a rough estimate of the production costs. Ideal situation is where the number is four to five times more than the production cost is lower than the value people put on your idea.
Distribution
Everyone wants to be a Wal-Mart. But mostly inventors do not have the capacity to step into Wal-Mart. They are better off with a smaller distribution channel to start. Inventors do not start out well in markets with smaller shops, such as kitchen stores, bike shops, scrapbooking and craft shops, hardware or auto supply store. All these markets have smaller stores that buy, and they all have a well organized sales representative network of producers to sell through. Inventors can get their sales began in these smaller markets, build up their sales, and then go after the larger chains. Wait to see if you are “inventor friendly” distribution available for the product.
Resolution
Guidelines that I have listed are not hard and fast rules. You can still promote products which have the presentation time barriers. But it is not wise to go for a product with too many obstacles as you just might run out of time before you run out of money.