7. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
Five ingredients for success
1. A substantial market
2. Existing technology
3. An acceptable retail price point
4. Ease of explanation
5. User-friendliness
8. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
1. Substantial Market
• Product needs to appeal to a large enough
market
• No customers = no sales = no business = a
waster of time
• Who is going to buy your product and where are
the customers?
• Other products similar to yours indicate a
substantial market
9. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
2. Existing Technologies
• Many people underestimate the realities of
creating a brand new product
• Product that require new technologies are
going to virtually always be costprohibitive
• Take on expert advice to see if your idea is
feasible
10. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
3. Acceptable Retail Price
• How much will your idea cost to product?
• What margin are you looking to achieve?
• Compare your retail price to
similar/existing products
• Retailers will only stock products that fit
into an effective price point
• Products usually retail for 5x cost of
manufacturing
11. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
4. Ease of explanation
• You are looking to sell
benefits not ideas
• Benefits are what
motivates consumers to
buy your products
• You need to be able to
describe your products
benefits
Case of the iPad
12. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
5. User friendliness
• Customers should be able to easily
figure out what your product does
• If your idea is too new or too complex it
will cost you to explain how it works to
consumers in the long-run
• Marketing is hard enough as it is –
therefore keep things simple
14. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
Idea Generation
• "I'm just not creative“
• Creativity is a skill
• Good ideas solve problems and challenge
assumptions
• Some of the best ideas were once
considered “too out there”
• The more creative and ludicrous the better
24. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
• A fridge could tell you what products are
about to go out of date?
• You could order a bacon sandwich for
when you’re hungover?
• What if you had a razor blade that
moisturised your face at the same time?
25. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
Other considerations
•
•
•
•
Use expertise you already have
Identify future trends
Bounce ideas off friends
Don’t be afraid to look at other people’s
ideas
• Know your limits
• Come up with a goal and work backwards
27. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
TASK
We’d like you to prepare an “elevator pitch”
for the session on 04/02/2014 (i.e. two
week’s times).
You need to think about what business
ideas you might like to pursue and convey
these to us
28. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
Content
• Start with a hook – a general statement which
makes your audience want to hear more
• Ensure you pitch covers
–
–
–
–
–
–
target customers
the current alternatives available
the opportunity you have spotted
description of proposed product/service
why your product is better than the competition
key product features and benefits
30. ROYAL HOLLOWAY
ENTERPRISE ACADEMY
Elevator Pitching
• An elevator pitch is a short statement
about your business
• Lasts no more than two minutes
• Clear and concise explanation of your
idea
• Should be memorable
Most Deprived. Buy a large bag of M&M’s and give each person the same amount (try ten M&M’s). Start by stating something you’ve never done that you think everyone else has done (thus the name “Most Deprived”). For example, you might say, “I’ve never had a birthday party,” or some other true statement about yourself that you think everyone else has surely done. Then, everyone who has had a birthday party pays you an M&M. You pay everyone who has not had a party. Keep playing until everyone has a turn or until someone runs out of M&M’s. Obviously the idea is to come up with the most M&M’s and be most deprived. This activity takes longer…
Shout out their thoughts
Ideas come in all shapes and sizes. Winning ideas are those that are are profitable, quick to implement, and require minimal capital investment. You need to be able to quickly overcome the barriers to entry, without investing significant amounts of time, energy and money into an idea.
If your product doesn't appeal to a large enough market, you may never recoup the cost of bringing your idea to life. Simply put, you're wasting your time. Don't wonder if there's enough demand to support the cost of manufacturing, distributing and marketing your idea – do some research using the internet to find out the market size. And identify who you think is going to buy your product and where?
A good indicator of a substantial market is the existence of other products that aim to solve the same problem yours does. If your idea is so revolutionary that not a single other product like it exists, that presents a new set of challenges. That's not to say your idea isn't good or shouldn't be pursued. But it's going to be much more difficult to execute.
This is a really important point. Many entrepreneurs ignore the realities of manufacturing until far too late. Products that require the creation of new manufacturing equipment are incredibly cost-prohibitive.
Contract manufacturers (e.g. factories in China) can determine how your product idea can be made. These can be easily identified online or through trade associations. Show them a sketch of your idea, ideally with CAD drawings, and ask what it would cost to produce 10,000 - 100,000 – 1,000,000 units.
How much will it cost to manufacture your idea? Get a quote from a contract manufacturer.
If your product is significantly more expensive than other similar, existing products, you want to assess is this really a god idea. Retailers won't be willing to stock a product that doesn't fit into an effective price point. The general rule of thumb is that products retail for five times the cost of manufacturing and they’ll want to buy them from you wholesale at around 1 or 2 times the costs of manufacturing.
Many entrepreneurs fail to understand they're actually selling benefits, not ideas. Benefits are what motivate consumers to buy products. Likewise, you'll be selling the benefit of your idea to everyone you work with along the way, including investors, distributors and retailers. Is your benefit unique? Is it significant.Case of the iPad:
Portability & Convenience
Good battery life
Large Display – easy to use and more enjoyable user experience
Office use on the move
Relatively cheap compared to a high-end laptop
In addition to having a one-sentence pitch, you want it to be easy for customers to figure out how to use your product on their own.If your idea is so new or complex that consumers need to be taught how it works, let alone be convinced they actually need it, this will cost you. Most companies aren't willing to invest in such a radical idea. Creating a sound marketing strategy is difficult enough; having to describe your idea in addition to selling it is often too great a task. Make your product as intuitive as you can and it will be much more marketable.
Would you recognise a great idea if you came across it? The real probability is that many of us would fail to spot a great idea on its first outing into the world. We would probably dismiss it as ludicrous, impractical and possibly even dangerous.
the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.This is because by their very nature transformative ideas are challenging and have far-reaching implications.
Too many people say to themselves: "I'm just not creative." Creativity is a skill that can be developed with practice and dedication. It's about solving problems and refusing to take no for an answer. The most creative people ignore what's widely accepted in favour of the unconventional. Let's face it: some of the best ideas were once considered too out there – e.g. mobile phones.
Exercising your creativity should be fun, and forcing yourself to come up with new ideas is unproductive. Let yourself be inspired and stimulated by the world around you. In the early stages of idea generation, it's not about what's actually feasible. The more ludicrous your ideas are, often the better.
Tom Uglow is the Creative Director for Google and YouTube, Europe. His role is to lead the development of new ideas and global brand projects for Google, Android and YouTube. This has included launches for Chrome, Maps, Mobile and Google+.
In this interview Tom talks through the process of idea generation and development. He outlines some of the processes in place for the creative process and explains why he believes the company has maintained its start-up mentality despite becoming one of the biggest companies in the world.
To inspire new ideas there are three games that you can play:
What two products could be brought together for the first time to create a new one? Don't be afraid to get unconventional. You try walking down the aisle of any store and putting products together.
Watch and compass, watch and calendar
Tune into the world around you and question everything. How could things be better? Listen to the complaints of your friends and family. What difficulties do they encounter in daily life? What annoyances do you deal with in your own life? Identify problems, and start throwing out solutions. A lot of entrepreneurs and inventors work this way.
Computer screens
One way lock-system
Allows you to stick items to walls anywhere
Allows you to drain vegetables efficiently
What if you could listen to music while swimming? Don't be afraid to let your mind wander and dream. What do you really wish were possible? One of my students wondered: "What if I could track how and when my children grow?" As an alternative to pencil markings on the wall, he created a magnetic height chart for the fridge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtqyFXOCnYQ
Question – What should go into a pitch and how should it be delivered?
Free to pair up and work on an idea together
Ideally you should be pitching the idea which you want to develop during the duration of this course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeCfI4EY_wE
1 – Make an impression
You only have one chance to make a first impression. Get their attention. Get them excited. Don’t overdo it though. It’s easy to be more style than substance if you’re not careful.
2 -Rehearse
This one is a no-brainer. We’ve all seen people dry up in excruciatingly embarrassing style on Dragons Den. So to make sure it’s not you next time – practice, practice, practice. Rehearse in front of a group. Know your figures inside out, and if you’re demonstrating a product make sure that nothing can go wrong. Prepare for every eventuality. Then take a sip of water, stand up straight, take a deep breath and begin.
3 – Don’t Offend Your Audience
Be polite. Listen to feedback. Don’t be over-confident (i.e. arrogant). Don’t offer business lessons to people who are clearly more successful than you are.
4 – Be Passionate
If you don’t believe in your product then it’s unlikely the person you’re pitching to will believe in it either. But it’s a tricky one to get right. Over-enthusiasm can result in putting off your audience and make them think you can’t separate what’s going on in your head and heart.
5 – Be honest and credible
Don’t try to be something you’re not. Don’t oversell. Be direct. Be honest. Don’t lie, don’t embellish, and don’t wing it. They’ll know. Your future investor must be able to believe in you, and trust you. The second they suspect you’re not being honest with them the deal is off.