HOW DO THEY REACT?
Here's How to Gauge the Response to Your New Product.
By Ken Tarlow
PART TWO
As I Mentioned in the last article, You can take your market survey form where shoppers would most likely find your type of product. Bring a few clipboards so people have something to write on. Try to get at least 20 people to fill out the form. A better sample number is 50 and a great amount is 100 people.
One of your main goals as a new product developer is to follow a step-by-step approach to developing your idea. When you get a positive response to your preliminary market survey, you'll have the confidence to spend more time and money on your idea.
On the other hand, a negative response shows that you need to alter some aspect of your idea, or scrap it and go on to the next idea. The most dangerous thing to do is fall in love with your idea so much that you fail to be objective about it, and proceed with a product that few people want or are willing to pay for. Remember--love can be blind.
One of the most important responses to look at in the market survey form is, "Would you buy this product for yourself?" If they answer, "No" to this question but "Yes" to buying it as a gift for someone else, it may be an indication that they don't really like the product and are just being polite in saying that they might buy it for a friend or family member.
The preliminary market survey is an "early stage survey to make sure you're going in the right direction. I recommend that you also do a final market survey when your prototype is complete. And, of course, I recommend that you do have the people fill our a confidentiality form at that stage of your product development.
Once you have the information gathered from the market survey, determine if the total response is positive or negative. If positive, you can move on to create a prototype of your idea.
In our next article, we'll take a look at some tough questions you'll need to ask yourself before continuing with your product development.
The above article was excerpted from Ken Tarlow's MIND TO MONEY, a cassette tape/workbook package that can help you develop a new product from the idea stage to the marketplace. MIND TO MONEY may be ordered from the Dream Merchant at $59.95 plus $4.95 CA sales tax and$5 shipping and handling ($69.90 total). Send orders to the Dream Merchant, 2309 Torrance Blvd., Suite 104, Torrance, CA 90501.
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