by: Geoff Ficke
The following are 10 of the most important Commandments the entrepreneur or inventor can follow when seeking to define a fresh niche to be attached with new products, services or business concepts.
1. Speed
People, especially in the industrialized developed world hate to wait for services, delivery or fulfillment. Figure a way to deliver your product faster that competitors and you will enjoy a huge competitive advantage.
2. Addition
What can your product add to an already existing product that creates an obvious advance, improvement or new usage feature or benefit for the consumer.
3. Customization
In a world of mass marketed, high volume production goods the opportunity to customize a product or service is often a sure fire way to break through market clutter.
4. Portability
The ability to use a product in as many places, as many ways and at any time creates huge opportunities to expand a category with a portability feature that is highly prized in a mobile modern society.
5. Safety
Can your product innovation improve the personal safety of users? Mitigation of risk is always a winning feature in new products.
6. Entertainment
People love to be entertained. This can be achieved by incorporating humor, novelty, history, pro-activity or clever branding in your new item.
7. Adaptation
If there are already successful products in your space, look to adapt and improve those products by adding convergent features and benefits to differentiate your offering.
8. Reversal
Identify a service or product feature that competitors are highlighting and reverse engineer the offering to highlight a performance difference.
9. Elimination
Life is hectic, cluttered. People will pay more for a product or service that provides a service that eliminates or lessens wait, pain, risk, inconvenience, etc.
10. Easier
People crave products and services that make life easier. Just look at the modern kitchen, laundry room or tool shed in any modern home.
Consider each of these 10 Commandments when evaluating your new product or business idea. If you can shape the idea to include one or more of these keys you will have an exponentially greater chance to successfully sell into the contemporary marketplace.
