So the concept, designs and costs were all in, but the next stage was to conduct the market research that would indicate if this could sell or not.
Over many years I have learnt that one persons view on style, design or concept is not proof alone, on the failure or success of a concept.
If my wife listened only to my views she might never buy animal print clothing!
When I asked friends and family about The Pen Rest …. well … frankly they laughed!
So there had to be a better way to establish the following;
- if people wanted the product without manufacturing it
- I needed to reach a mass audience on a low budget
- I would need to use every conceivable free bit of marketing in my test
- my budget was limited so testing had to be exceptionally sharp
The answer had to be crowd funding.
If you’re not familiar with crowd funding then you’ve been living under a rock! This is the latest new wave of marketing and developing a concept to reality.
Here you set a funding goal, work out what you are asking people to back and then promote like crazy to reach the target for your project.
So I set about writing up all the project details on two crowd funding sites. I chose two of the biggest… Indiego and Kickstarter.
My funding goal had to be based on manufacturing 1000 Pen Rests, covering costs incurred, packaging, carrier and postal charges, etc.
I needed £12,500 for my funding goal… All or nothing… that’s how it works.
Both campaigns ready… I submitted them for approval.
Sadly they were not granted 🙁 There was problem with the images… No photorealistic images were allowed!
I needed prototypes making, if this was to get approval and get it off the ground.
See how I get on in Part 3.. Getting Prototypes.