Musings on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Friday, July 07, 2006The Long Tail of Things
...Or How to Start Your Own Consumer Products Company Without Leaving the House
In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson describes how changes in the technology of bits has revealed the long tail of demand for music, books, and video. In the coda to his new book, he focuses on the "Long Tail of Things." He envisions a world in which digital designs are stored "on the infinite" aisle and "delivered to your home via optical fiber." There it will be materialized [using 3D printer] technology, "coming full circle to atoms again at the point of consumption."
Whoa, Chris. Have you been dipping into the techno-utopian sauce a little hard? The range of choice in the digital world of books and music might number in the hundreds of thousands or even millions, but in the relatively crowded aisle of, say, food storage products at Target.com, I count just 19 products. In the world of tangible products - even relatively simple one offered online - the tail looks relatively stubby. Maybe Anderson is experiencing experimenter's regress.
On the other hand...maybe he's onto something. Just because we don't have "the ultimate manufacturing technology for the Long Tail of things" installed in our homes doesn't mean that Anderson's suppositions regarding the extention of choice in the world of tangible products may becoming less dependent on the inventory choices made by Target.
What if I had an idea for a food storage product that wasn't available at Target? What might I be able to do about it from the confines of my home office here in Bozeman, Montana? Well, in less than an hour, I was able to pencil in the following action plan:
- I'd buy a copy of Jump Start Your Business Brain from Amazon.com in order to hone the presentation of my concept. Then, I'd spend some time on Google to find out what comparable products might already be available.
- In order to make a quick check to ensure that I'm not infringing on somebody else's patent (and to see if there might be a chance for a patent of my own), I'd go to FreePatentsOnline.com.
- Before jumping into prototyping (and wary of my own susceptibility to confirmation bias), I would want to do a little consumer research. I could learn how to construct research at MarketingProfs.com; I'd create my survey using SurveyMoney.com; and I'd have the folks at GMI submit my survey to one of their online consumer panels.
- If I'm still in the game at this point, I would look to create a physical prototype in order to see if my product could deliver on its promise. I'm neither a designer nor an engineer, but I can find one at Guru.com or LinkedIn. In particular, I'm interested in finding somebody skilled in the use of SolidWorks 3D modeling software and who has access to a ZPrint or Solidscape desktop prototyping machine.
- With a validated design and CAD files in hand, I might have a few (or few hundred) of my products made by QuickParts.com or some other contract manufacturer.
- Time to sell. Fortunately, eBay and Amazon.com Marketplace are waiting to help. UPS would be delighted to handle the shipping for me.
- Google will help with advertising. Who knows, I might even go old-school and test free-standing magazine inserts.
- If sales are promising, I might check with the folks at Respond2 regarding the viability of a more aggressive direct response program.
A skeptic would be right to point out that the preceding strategy could take tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars (and a whole bunch of time) to execute. On the other hand, 10 years ago, there wasn't even a Target store in my hometown. I can now shop at Target.com or create my own consumer product company without leaving the house. Though I may not threaten Rubbermaid, it's at least conceivable that I could make a profit on low sales volumes given my cost structure. Furthermore, there is a non-zero chance that my product could be a real hit, and Rubbermaid just might want to buy me out.
Maybe the long tail of stuff will be revealed more quickly than we think - even if Anderson is off by a few dozen decades in regard to on-demand manufacturing in the home. What's your long tail strategy? My EIP colleagues and I are sure thinking hard about ours.
