How to market a medical product?

Tents: How to take a new product to market?

• I have the option to purchase a company who has developed a new and unique tent. The tent can hold 2-3 people comfortably and is rather different from the normal camping tent. I can't get too specific beacause I'm stil in the due diligence phase of negotiations. The tent weighs approx. 40 lbs so it is not ideal for backpackers. It is designed more for the RV or SUV person who pulls their vehicle into a campground and sets up camp. The big advantage is that the tent can be set up by one person in the dark of night if necessary. That is how easy it is to set up. No poles, fly's or ropes. The tent can be used by campers, hunters, fisherman or ice fisherman, scouts, miltary, outdoor changing area like at the beach or lake or sporting events etc. The size is about 7 fot diamater andfive feet high. There is a doorway and two mesh windows with storm flaps. The manufacturing cost for the tent is approx. $100 with a retail price of $289 A wholesale price point has not been established yet. What would be the best price point to market this product? My question is multi fold in list format and in no particular order: 1. What is the best way to market this new product? 2. Can I sel to the mass merchants as well as one at a time on the internet? 3. Am I better off to sell them inexpensive and in large quantities or price them high and sel to individuals or specialty stores. Which will net more profit? 4. Am I better to find sporting goods reps or go direct to wholesalers/major retailers like the Targets and/or Walmarts of the world? 5. Where would I get a list of the major tent buyers at retailers? 6. Where would I get a list of companies who produce infomercials? 7. E-mail address's for the above would be ideal so I could do a mass/bulk mail? 8. If I put a rough web ite together is there a way to promote it to major buyers? 9. Any thoughts on a clever web domain name? 10. How can I attempt to market this to the various branches of the military? 11. Is there a national camping show and how would I get e-mail address's of the the exhibitors. 12. What would be the best way to market this internationally. ? 13. Are there licencing opportunitites? 14. Where would be the best places to advertise? 15. Do you think this would make good temporary housing in disaster areas? 16. What would be the easiest and cost effetive way to test market besides asking friends and family? 17. What is the total market for tents? 18. What are the demographics of campers? 19. Where in the US are the most used campgrounds? These are just a few of my questions! I know this is alot of work and am willing to pay a fair fee for your research. If it exceptional and results in some sales, the tip would be very appropriate!!!!

• Answer:

  <Tents ? taking a new product to market. 1. Best way to market. Case study - Paha Que Wilderness. This company provides a good model for building a successful tent retailing operation. The company was founded in 1996. Their target market was SUV owners who camp with their vehicle. Paha Que has concentrated on selling their tents with speciality retailers. They have expanded their base of dealers by one a week. They sell their products through large retail stores such as REI and high end speciality stores. They also market through direct mail, an 800 phone line, its website and product reviews in consumer publication such as Outside, Camping Life, Mountain Living and Roads to Adventure. The company is also investigating selling through mail order companies and developing its own product catalog. http://www.pahaque.com/news_info3.html Marketing approach. http://www.pahaque.com/news_pr2.html Product training program. To train sales people to sell their product they used their website to give photos, diagrams, features, benefits and key selling points. http://www.pahaque.com/news_pr8.html Company website. http://www.pahaque.com/ Opportunities. Air travel has declined since 9/11. Due to the drop in consumer spending for air and hotel vacations. This article reports the targeting of entry level consumers. http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:dwYiA-lcAyUJ:www.reveries.com/extratexture/content_links/Creating_Growth.pdf+%22market+for+tents%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 ------------------------------------------------------ 2. Should manufacturer?s sell directly over the internet? The advantage of selling over the internet is that you have lower overheads as you don?t have to pay commissions to dealers. According to Dr Ralph Wilson, ?The Internet is troublesome to manufacturers, threatening to overturn the carefully nurtured network of distributors and dealers they've used for decades. Simply stated, the dilemma is: If you don't sell your products directly over the Internet, people will go to your competitors who do. If you do sell your products directly, your distributors and dealers will desert you and only carry products from manufacturers who don't compete with them." There are several solutions: i. Just using your website to promote your products and help the customers to find a dealer near to them. ii. Sell products directly over the internet but not offer any discounts so that you are not competing with the dealers. iii. Give dealers commissions on any sales you make in their territories. http://www.ecomtips.com/articles/bigdilemma.html The internet ? friend or foe? http://www.digitaloutput.net/back%20edit/edittopic4i.html ----------------------------------------------------------- 3. Pricing your product. Entrepreneur.com has some good articles about pricing products. Pricing a product. http://www.entrepreneur.com/amex/article/0,5742,305615,00.html Offering low prices can have a negative effect on a product and business. It erodes profits and give the company a negative perception in the market place. http://www.entrepreneur.com/amex/article/0,5742,302781,00.html Tactics to avoid lowering prices. Many businesses find that they are pressured to lower prices. This can be due to the emergence of a low-priced competitor or economic conditions. However a price war can be extremely damaging to a business. Higher prices can be kept by emphasising customer service by offering extended warranties, free delivery and generous returns schemes. It is better to create customer loyalty than to be continually chasing new customers. http://www.entrepreneur.com/amex/article/0,5742,307579,00.html According to David Newton, associate professor of entrepreneurship finance at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, start-ups shouldn't automatically match their competitors' prices. Large companies often have lower manufacturing costs due to large-scale production, which allows them to set a lower price. In many cases, smaller firms can't achieve the same degree of cost savings. http://www.entrepreneur.com/amex/article/0,5742,265084,00.html Price comparisons with Paha Que. Floor dimensions 80 in, 53 in high. $349.90 http://www.thetentstore.com/paha_que_black_mountain_tents.htm 56ft floor, 84 in high. $449.90 http://www.thetentstore.com/paha_que_temescal_creek_tents.htm 90ft floor, 93in high. $599.90 http://www.thetentstore.com/paha_que_pamo_valley_tents.htm -------------------------------------------------- 4. The problem with selling to Walmart is as this site reports ?the contracts they write with the mnfctrs are such that Walmart keeps its margin but the mnfctrs lose theirs in a price war. I've seen it happen with previous clients, including one that went completely out of business because Walmart wouldn't let them make any profit at all and they were stuck in a contract (that was American Camper, a mnfctr of tents and other camping supplies). Mnfctrs who sign with Walmart are invariably left with two choices -- keep staff wages painfully low or cut quality. Typically, they end up having to do BOTH.? http://www.stblogs.org/scgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=7624 Doing biz with Walmart http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tractor/msg110955027974.html If you decide to sell through Walmart, their site has a section that advises potential suppliers. Their supplier proposal packet gives details of their requirements and procedures. http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstores/Mainsupplier.jsp?pagetype=supplier&template=ContentLanding.jsp&categoryOID=-8250&catID=-8250 --------------------------------------------- 5. Tent buyers. The National Sporting Goods Association produces several publications which may be of use to you. NSGA's International Directory of Retail Sporting Goods Associations & Buying Organizations is the Association's compilation of international retailing and buying groups from 18 countries. It includes all the information necessary to contact the key person at each organization. The NSGA Buying Guide each year lists more than 8,000 suppliers of sporting goods products, which are listed by more than 70 major categories and 1,200 subcategories. In addition, the NSGA Buying Guide contains the names, addresses and phone numbers of buying groups and NSGA-member sales goods agents. You need to be a member of the NSGA in order to get a copy. http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=10 Membership details One of the benefits of membership is a free 1,000 record mailing list of retailers and dealers. http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=841 A list of the top 25 outdoor stores in the country with names, addresses and phone numbers of all the top executives can be purchased for $25.00. http://www.vnuemedia.com/digitalmall/store/product_view.jsp?product_id=8587&category_name=Retail:%20Sports Top 100 sporting goods retailers. Contact details for including Walmart, Dunham?s (120 stores specialising in camping equipment). Bob Ward & Sons (5 stores) http://www.sportinggoodsbusiness.com/sportinggoodsbusiness/images/pdf/sgb_top_retailers03.pdf -------------------------------------------------- 6 & 7. Informercial production companies with email contacts. Lightmaster Media Email: [email protected] http://www.lightmaster.com/ StarPoint Media Productions. Email via http://www.starpointmedia.net/contactus.html http://www.starpointmedia.net/home.html Direct Response TV Email via http://www.direct-response-tv.com/Contact-Us.html http://www.direct-response-tv.com/TV-Infomercial-Production.html Pure imaginagion Email via http://www.pureim.com/_/contact.htm# http://www.pureim.com/pure-imagination/infomercial-production-company/infomercial-production-company.htm Intellivision Inc. Email : [email protected] http://www.dmtelevision.com/ Producers Direct. Email via http://www.producersdirect.com/contact/ http://www.producersdirect.com/ Warren Direct Email via http://www.warrendirect.com/contact/contact.php http://www.warrendirect.com/infomercial.html The Marek Williams Entertainment Organization LLC. Email: [email protected] http://www.markwilliamsent.com/testimonials.htm Lieberman.com Email: [email protected] http://www.lieberman.com/ Infoworx Email : [email protected] http://www.infoworx.com/ How much does an informecial cost? http://www.qnet.com/~palmsong/cost.htm ------------------------------------------------- 8. Promoting your website to major buyers. Techniques like direct mail, freebies printed with your website address and press releases are good ways to promote your site. See question 5 for addresses. Links to a number of techniques can be found at http://www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=mp_Promote-Gen ----------------------------------------------- 9. Web domain name suggestions. Kwikcamp.com Kwiktent.com Campfast.com Campquick.com Easykamp.com Kampdirect.com Kampingdirect.com Letscamphere.com Ezeetent.com Tentnow.com Fasttent.com Easytipi.com Easyteepee.com You can try out different names here to see if they are available. All of those listed above are available. http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/index.jhtml;jsessionid=M3SJF5VAWX4L0CWLEAMCFEY?_requestid=163970 ------------------------------------------------- 10. Military The Department of Defense has a website which provides information on how you can sell to the military. http://www.defenselink.mil/other_info/business.html This online handbook describes the process of selling to the military. http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:ObFwP6_-2oEJ:www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/publications/selling/part1.htm+%22selling+to+the+military%22+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 ------------------------------------------------- 11. Trade and consumer shows. Outdoor Retailers Summer Market Salt Lake City, Utah August 12-15 2004 http://www.outdoorretailer.com/or/summer/index.jsp Regional camping shows. Details of camping shows in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. http://www.campnca.com/campingshows.htm Camping-RV Expos in Washington and Richmond. http://www.royalshows.com/RV/Default.htm Maine Camping Shows February and August http://www.campmaine.com/industry/camping_shows.php RV & Camping shows. Four regional shows in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Altantic City. http://www.macevents.com/RVShows.cfm?show=rv Springfield RV, Camping & Outdoor Show http://www.springfieldrvcampingshow.com/ List of exhibitors. http://www.springfieldrvcampingshow.com/exhibitor.html Details of trade shows in 2004. http://www.sportinggoodsbusiness.com/sportinggoodsbusiness/business_resources/industry_events.jsp Getting the email addresses of the exhibitors. Some of the sites indicated above provide lists of the exhibitors and links to their websites. It is also possible that some of the organisers may sell mailing lists. You could try sending an email to the organisers asking if they sell mailing lists. ----------------------------------------- 12. Marketing internationally. Europe?s major trade show for camping product is the European Outdoor trade show which is held in Friedrichshaven, Germany, July 22-25 2004. http://www.messe-fn.de/fairs/outdoor/index.php3 Last year it featured 300 tents from 35 international manufacturers. http://www.sportstrader.co.za/archive_outdoor_tents.htm Exhibitors list http://www.messe-fn.de/fairs/outdoor/visitor/exhibitors.php3 Canada Salon Camping, Plein air, Chasse et Peche (Open air, hunting and fishing). February 26 ?29 2004 Place Bonaventure, Montreal http://www.campingquebec.com/atcq/eatcqacti.shtml#salons This report says that Europeans tend to choose top quality camping equipment. http://www.geocities.com/ptera_dactyl/cultureshock.html -------------------------------------------------- 13. Licensing This site explains licensing and the issues involved. http://www.thepatentguys.com/pages/licensing.htm Finding licensing opportunities. The NSGA Buying Guide lists more than 8,000 manufacturers of sporting goods products. http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=841 ------------------------------------------------- 14. Advertising. Magazines Camping life Read by 75,000 family camping enthusiasts. http://www.campinglife.com/ Advertising information. http://www.campinglife.com/site_page_939/index.html Outdoor Business. Trade magazine. http://www.sportinggoodsbusiness.com/sportinggoodsbusiness/OB_index.jsp Family Camping. http://www.familycampingmagazine.com/ Outdoor Life http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/ Willings press has a data base of magazines throughout the world. They offer a free 48 hour trial. http://www.willingspress.com/ --------------------------------------------------- 15. Temporary housing. United Nations Procurement Division. http://www.un.org/Depts/ptd/ The Tent Place is a company that sells to the UN. You can see the sort of products that they sell on their website. They are registered with the UN, NGO?s and different government organisations around the world. http://www.tentsplace.com/refugee_tents.htm You can register as a vendor here. http://www.un.org/Depts/ptd/venreg.htm --------------------------------------------------- 16. Suggestion for a low-cost trial. Arrange a camp site trial with a campsite owner. Take the tent to a camp site and solicit the residents to try it out. Get them to fill in a questionnaire with the details you need and offer them a freebie for taking part - a pen, mug, t-shirt or baseball cap with your website address printed on it. Alternatively put all the filled questionnaires into a draw and offer a prize for the selected winner. If your questionnaire also asks details about the customer, name, address, when they intend to buy a new tent, how much they intend paying etc. you will get the relevant details needed for a direct mailing campaign. ---------------------------------------------------------- 17. The market for tents. Manufacturer sales of camping equipment were $1.38 billion in 1994. http://www.funoutdoors.com/research.html According to the National Sporting Goods Association Americans spent over $1 billion on camping equipment in 2002. http://doityourself.com/outdoors/campercalltoaction.htm U.S. market. According to Columbia Sportswear, the tent market is worth approximately $337 million at retail. http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2003/08/04/daily39.html Camping equipment purchases by age and gender. http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=165 Camping industry fact sheet. http://www.pahaque.com/news_info4.html Car camping in Japan. http://www.jinjapan.org/trends96/honbun/tj970510.html Quebec http://www.campingquebec.com/atcq/eatcqstat.shtml A study by the Outdoor Industry Foundation found that 42 percent of Idaho residents went car camping. Utah came second in the car camping league. http://www.standard.net/standard/news/print_story.html?sid=00031104201521444899 In 2002, over 421 million campers visited the National Parks. http://riroads.com/archive/campingequipment.htm ------------------------------------------ Numbers of campers. There are over 64 million campers in the U.S. More than 34 million people say they enjoy tent camping. http://www.funoutdoors.com/research.html An estimated 30 million Americans camp each year in the nation?s National Parks. In 2001 2.5 million people camped in Ohio?s 57 state parks. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/news/mar02/0328gocamping.htm In Europe there are over 36 million campers. In Germany there are 4 million and in the Netherlands over two-thirds of the total population participate in camping. http://homepage1.nifty.com/asia-pacific/lars.lecture00.html Quest tent has also targeted the family car campers. According to Quest Tents, family camping is a growing segment. These campers look for higher quality products with the emphasis on comfort. http://www.pahaque.com/news_mag12.html ------------------------------------------ Competition. Major players. According to Warburg Pincus, North Pole has a 56% share of the U.S. tent market and a 35% share of the market internationally. http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2002/12/02/story1.html Kyongjo ? leisure tent market. $18 million per year. Exports to USA, Japan, Australia, Canada and Europe. http://www.kyongjo.com/introduction/greeting_e.html This report says that there is increased competition from China. http://www.globalsources.com/MAGAZINE/SGOE/0201/TENTS.HTM New product ? inflatable tent. http://www.thethinkpad.com/news4.html ------------------------------------------ 18. Demographics. A study by Dean Runyan Associates found over half of all campers have no children at home. Over 8 out of ten camping households have two adults. The majority of campers (58%) are aged over 50. 84% of campers have had some college or graduated from a trade school. Over two-thirds of campers earn over $50,000 a year. Over three-quarters of the camping population is white. After friends and family, 18.1% of campers report that magazines influenced them to participate in camping activities. http://www.deanrunyan.com/pdf/cacamp00.pdf According to KOA the average camper is 52 years old, has an average income of $69,000, probably still working and is travelling without kids. http://www.koapressroom.com/storystarters/KampingTrends01.pdf According to Marburg, the average hiker is 45 years old, educated, has an above average income, likes activity and travelling and is extremely willing to spend money. http://www.sportstrader.co.za/archive_outdoor_tents.htm ----------------------------------------- 19. The state parks attracted 59 million campers in 2002. http://naspd.indstate.edu/statistics.html The national parks attracted 3.4 million tent campers and 2.5 million RV campers in 2000. http://www.discoversouthcarolina.com/documents/National_and_State_Parks.htm Lake Mead Park just outside Las Vegas has 8 million campers in one year. http://www.americandaily.com/item/1945 South Dakota State Park had 670,000 campers in 2002. Yosemite had 3.4 million campers in 2000 http://www.yosemite.org/newsroom/clips2001/august/081201.html 1 million visitors camp in South Carolina. The top destination is Myrtle Beach. http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:YsX2C-D0jr4J:www.discoversouthcarolina.com/documents/RV_Camping.htm+%22national+parks%22+campers+million&hl=en&ie=UTF-8> ---------------------------------------------- <Additional links> <The World Market for Tents Made of Textile Materials: A 2004 Global Trade Perspective. This 111 page report costs $795.00> <http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productID=919020&xs=r> <Search strategy:> <"car camping" million> <://www.google.com/search?q=%22car+camping%22+million&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1> <"camping equipment" million> <://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22camping+equipment%22+million> <"domain name registration"> <://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22domain+name+registration%22> <"leisure tent market"> <://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22leisure+tent+market%22> <"market for tents"> <://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22market+for+tents%22> <campers demographics> <://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=campers+demographics> <"un procurement"> <://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22un+procurement%22> <Hope this helps.>