BIG Detective Shopping Hunt

Hunt Focus

1. Better products in areas crowded with mostly commodity options
   In commodity categories, there’s little or no qualitative differentiation between the various brands on the shelf. These brands can’t claim a unique feature or benefit, don’t heavily promote themselves, and price is a key factor in determining which product people choose to buy. Examples of typical commodity categories: hardware fasteners (screws, etc.), notebook paper, socks, paper clips, gardening gloves, and cotton balls.
   
   Products that are NOT commodities are those with distinctive features/benefits, brand promotion and recognition, plus a loyal customer base. Examples of some strongly branded areas: beer, cell phones, motorcycles, candy bars, and athletic shoes.
   
   To see how Big Idea Group successfully turned a commodity into a differentiated product through innovation and branding, review our Case Studies.
   


2. Simpler, cheaper products in areas crowded with overpriced, overfeatured brands
   We’re also interested in the opposite situation, where only big branded products seem to have space on the shelf and there might be room for a simpler, cheaper solution. For example, string trimmers go through a lot of string. Seeing expensive, branded spools on the shelves, some companies figured they could sell “universal” spools that would fit a number of different manufacturer’s models or just the string without a spool that you could load onto the trimmer yourself. These were more generic, lower-cost alternatives in a market with mostly overpriced, branded products.

• Fits one of our areas of interest: We’re focusing on products for hardware, lawn and garden, convenience stores, and grocery.
  
  
• Fills a consumer need, addressing a pain point or unmet need. Is there not only a gap on the shelf but one that consumers really would like to see filled?
  
  
• Appeals to a large market and offers high volume sales. Fly swatters fill a consumer need and are commodity products, but not many units are sold per year. Year-round products are best, but products that sell large volumes during certain seasons are also of interest.
  
  
• Simple for consumers to understand. A consumer will give the average package on the shelf less than five seconds of attention. In that time, you must clearly convey what a product is and why it will better fit the consumer’s needs.
  
  
• Limited development time and cost. We want products that can be quickly launched with low capital investment.
  
  
• Easy to manufacture. We’re looking for suggestions where the processes, technology, and machinery to produce the innovation already exist.
  
  
• Low regularity barriers: Some products like pharmaceuticals have extensive regulations for new products. We want to steer clear of such highly regulated areas.

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