Retail Product Development

There are many issues involved between developing a product and a product with successful sales at retail. We have developed hundreds of products and product lines and have developed a method to get success 95% of the time if our methods are followed. Here's a brief overview of the issues. For a comprehensive list, click here.

Product Development

Most people and businesses do it backwards. They invent something and then try to find a way to sell it. Product development done this way the failure rate of consumer products approaches 98%.

Our process starts by identifying a consumer "want", not a "need". People might have to buy something they need, but I'd rather sell something they want. We then verify the current sales volume of the existing products in the market and develop something substantially better, cheaper or meeting additional unmet desires.

Packaging

For products sold in retail stores, packaging is critical. If yours will be a product without national advertising and consumers coming to stores and asking for it, the packaging has to do the entire job of selling your product.

Most people think of packaging as an afterthought, but it's a critical component of your product development that needs to be tested before being rolled out. If your product will be an "impulse" sale — in other words, people do not come to the store looking for it — you have a fraction of a second to grab their attention and once you accomplish that, only a few more seconds to make the sale.

Here are all the things your packaging must do and do well:

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Make the sale — no one else will.

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Protect the product or get it back — individual packaging and case packs.

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Meet legal requirements or you're in big trouble!

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Retailer merchandising requirements — don't do these and they won't buy.

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The right way to do in pack/on pack promotions.

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Instructions — on the package or in the dreaded instruction manual.

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Special bulk packaging for Costco, Sam's and other warehouse type stores.

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Different requirements for different distribution channels.

Merchandising

Retailers expect you to understand what works and doesn't work in their stores and to prepare the necessary merchandising aids. Depending on the distribution channels, this can include: floor displays and headers, counter displays, bulk packs, J-hooks, Clip strips, permanent fixture displays, and "plan-o-gram" layouts for merchandising on the shelf.

Ask us about how we created bolt-in fixtures that attached to Hallmark's in-store fixtures to assure distribution for one of our product lines.

Promotion

What promotions are you planning to create consumer demand? What special incentives or allowances are you providing to those at each step in the distribution channel? Do you know what your competitors do?

Mess this last step up and no matter how well you've done everything else, your product will sit on the shelf and not sell.

Some Examples of Our Experience

Here are a few examples that illustrate that we understand all these steps of product development:

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We have founded and built 2 separate companies that had complete product lines with over 500 products filling 2' and 4' sections in all Wal-Mart & Target stores.

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Invented, developed and sold over $40 Million in consumer products (at wholesale) to retailers over 9 years.

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Got an award from Target for the "Best New Product" in the stationery and school supplies department.

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Set up distribution into over 20,000 independent retailers.

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Set up subsidiary companies to cover distribution in Canada, Europe and the UK, and Australia.

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Created a promotion for card and gift stores that got 900,000 kids to join a kids club in only 9 months — this increased sales for our retailer customers $145 million in one year.