Every inventor interested in patenting their creation is curious about whether their idea has been developed before. Another question that may roll around in their head is “will the public really want to use my creation?” To answer these two important questions, the inventor must conduct market research.
Market research, to someone who is untrained in marketing, may sound tedious and difficult to do. Nevertheless, just about any one has the faculties to do market research. The first step in doing your research is to ask many questions about what you’re looking to find. This brainstorming process will get you geared up to delve through many sources to answer the questions.
Market research is best done in phases. The first phase is focused on obtaining information. At this point, it’s best that you sit down in front of a computer and surf the web, or visit your library to review periodicals and trade journals related to your invention. The bites of information that should be most important to you are what your idea could be sold for and at what volume it should be manufactured at. When you decide to sell it, these numbers will give you a good estimation about how to sell it.
Other important pieces of information include who your target audience will be, where they live, how your advertising will reach them, what time period will they buy the item, and how many they’d be in the market to purchase. These tidbits of knowledge sometimes do turn up for free by market research firms, which can be doubly valuable to you. If a market research firm isn’t involved, you can draw your own conclusions, which is far, far better than going about selling your product without any market knowledge at all.
Once you’ve gathered information about similar products to yours, you must consider the trends of the overall marketplace. If you plan to sell during a speculated recession, you should expect not to get much return on your investment. If a cure for diabetes has recently been discovered, then your sugar-free treat invention probably won’t sell as well as you’d like. It’s very difficult to predict what the market trends will be like during the early stages of an invention’s life, but it’s useful to get idea of general feel of the market at first and alter any expectations you may have as the market morphs.
Another part of market trend measurement is the evaluation of competitor success. The average corporation today is in a constant state of change. If a competitor of yours has shown steady growth in their revenue, the trend could be a good sign that selling a similar product will result in equally high profits. If the competitor has shown a decline in profits, then it’s up to you to find out why. It could easily mean that the popularity of their product has gone downhill for a very good reason, one that may affect the sale of your product.
Market research may be difficult if your invention is not like any others that exist out there. Still, you want to do research to ensure that it hasn’t been patented before and didn’t sell. Again, trade journals and periodicals are the best place to evaluate this. It may be best to visit a college library that has a good journal selection to explore to get this information, because buying articles online can be very expensive. Nevertheless, there is always a vast amount of free information available on the web to peruse through. Be sure to know your favorite search engine and use it!
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