Dream Merchant • 2309 Torrance Blvd. #104, Torrance, CA 90501 (310) 328-1925 email: Jkm316@aol.com

 THE MALL TEST

In Taking Your Idea to the Next Stage, You Must Begin 
Researching How People React to It.

© 2004 By Ken Tarlow

PART ONE

You've asked your husband or wife what they think about your new idea, and they think it's great! You've asked your friends and they also remark on its brilliance. You're off to a good start, but you'll need some less-biased feedback.

What do people who don't know you think about the idea? Would they buy one? Who would they buy it for? What would they be willing to pay for it? You need answers to these questions if you're going to continue to invest time and money in developing your idea.

This is when a short description and a simple line drawing of your product will come in handy. If you have trouble doing the drawing yourself, find someone you know who can. Perhaps the art teacher at a local school, or a design student at a local art school or college. You should be able to get a simple line drawing for around $50. If all else fails, look in the Business-to-Business Yellow Pages under "Graphics" and make a few calls.

You also need to have an idea of the approximate cost of your new product. In the early stages, you can simply look at other products of comparable size and complexity and use their cost as a guideline. 

PRELIMINARY MARKET SURVEY--THE FIRING LINE

Armed with the product description, line drawing and cost estimate, you're now ready to do a preliminary market survey. Your form shouldn't be more than one page in length. Make it so that people simply check off the answer they want to keep writing and time spent to a minimum. However, leave room at the bottom for additional comments.

Take the form where shoppers would most likely find your type of product. Bring a few clipboards so people have something to write on. Offer an incentive for their time. Perhaps a gift costing a few dollars to thank people for the inconvenience. 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. The more the merrier.

I'm a somewhat shy person and it takes all my courage to stand in front of a store to do this. I find that it helps if I bring a friend or two along to create more of a safe "group" atmosphere, both for me as well as for the people I'm questioning.

There are marketing companies that will charge you thousands of dollars to do "Focus Group" studies to test the viability of your product idea. However, my own experience is that an informal survey can be just as insightful. You are, of course, taking a calculated risk showing people your idea at an early stage. Someone might steal the idea!

Although there is a chance this could happen, I consider it very remote. It takes a lot of time and work to fully develop a new product and most people don't care enough about the idea to take that initiative. As a precaution, though, keep your description somewhat general and don't reveal the specific way the internals of your product work.

If your idea is so simple that it really doesn't have "internals" and can be easily made or copied, then you may want to skip this stage and build a prototype instead. You can then show your prototype to a store "buyer." You would, of course, have them sign a confidentiality form first.

NEXT ISSUE: More on Market Surveys

The above article was excerpted from 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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