Creating the Next Novelty Gift Item
Consumers are always looking for the next big idea. Novelty items have always been able to find buyers in a market of people who are looking for unique gift ideas. Items like the Snuggie, pet rocks, or even the Chia Pet all started off as a hopeful idea in the mind of some entrepreneurial genius.
If you have ever wondered how you could get your big idea into the marketplace, you are not alone. Lots of people have great ideas that they let die in their imagination simply because they never took the time to find out how they could bring their ideas to fruition. Let’s take a look at the first few steps that could get your million dollar novelty idea into the marketplace.
- Do your research. Before investing big money into creating a product, it’s a good idea to make sure that your idea doesn’t already exist. While doing your research, think about patterns you see in the marketplace. What kinds of items are people buying like hotcakes? What are the gaps that you observe?
- Create a prototype. Once you have done your research, draw a few designs on paper or use a computer designing program. If you cannot do either, contact your local college to see if you can find a student who can do it for you in exchange for a small fee and an item they can put in their portfolio.
- Decide on your materials. Your materials are very important to your idea because they can affect the price you pay to manufacture the product. Will you be using metals or acrylic in your product? Acrylic tapping tends to be much simpler to do than welding metals. Acrylic tapping is much cheaper and lighter than assembling via other avenues.
- Find a manufacturer. Manufacturing companies are located all over the world. It is up to you to find the one that will complete your job in the time you need, at the price that works best for you.
- Locate a distributor. Now that you have product to sell, you must find a distributor that will find markets for you to sell your product in. Consider selling your novelty item in gift shops, magazines, or on websites. There is no limit to where and how you sell your items.
Seeing your idea be created, from conception to reality, is a wonderful thing. People have made fortunes off of items that were seemingly silly at first. However, the people that made them were able to find a marketplace for them. You can do the same with your idea.
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