Evaluate the ideas (2)

‘Shark Shield’ Shark Deterrent

People who like surfing, diving, and swimming will like this product. With these products people won’t be afraid of shark any more when they are diving, swimming, or surfing. It’s the new idea and with the technology, there won’t be a lot of competitors. So we find the U.S.P. and the way they sell products which is selling in internet is cheaper and easy to enlarge the range of products.
But the weaknesses are also obvious. In 2001 only 76 people attacked by sharks, there’re only 5 people died. How big the market is? What’s the probability of people can be attacked by sharks? And the price is $670. Will people pay for that price only for a little probability attacked by sharks?
I think on beaches, we can rent these products, that’s much cheaper and maybe more people will use it.


Cheeseburger In A Can
This idea is not bad. For people who camping and travelling in the wild it’s convenient. And the price is acceptable. But as a food the one of the most important things are tastes. How can they ensure the taste of the food which isn’t fresh and cold. The main customers are the people who camping and travelling in the wild. So that’s not a big market.

Evaluate the ideas

Sugar Jewellery
These products are for children. As the sugar the most important thing is taste. Using beautiful shapes to allure children is really good idea. While children eating delicious sugar at the same time they are enjoying the good-looking sugar. So the U.S.P. of these products is the shape.
However the weakness of these products is lethal. Low technology makes competitors very easy to copy. So the new U.S.P. is meaningless. Because everyone can do it, so I think it’s not going to be a long term.

Air-Powered Car
Nowadays more and more people have cars. Especially in the developed countries, almost everyone has a car. Except the different shapes and capability, the motivity of the car are the same. So this new car will have a new market for sell. And also the price is only $5000, it’s quite cheap. That means it will have a larger market. With the new technology, competitors can’t have the similar car in short time.

Starbucks Hot Coffee Vending Machines

Hot Coffee Vending Machines are not new ideas anymore. But it's not very popular, so it still can make some profit. I think the problem is very difficult to make this business bigger. Maybe in school, office some people do like it, to be honest the market is not very big.

$100 Cup Of Cat-Poo Coffee

People drink coffee everyday, it's a very common product. How can we make it special? Here is a new idea: By mixing the extremely rare Kopi Luwak bean freashly 'expellded' from a rare Indonesian cat through its faeces into coffee, one London entrepreneur has created an exotic new coffee brew in London that sells for 50 pounds/$100 a cup. Would Ripley believe this?

I think it's a really good idea, the price will get attention for people. People will think why the price is so high? And then they will interest in it, they want to try it. If the coffee is really nice, they'll think it's worth buying it. So they add the value to coffee and low cost make more profit. It's easyer to break-even.

However, high price also can be weakness, it's very expensive for many people, so that make the market smaller. And if we want to make this business bigger, the fixed may very high, because they need to buy a lot of shops to sell coffees. So it's better to open shops in some big cities and in some developed countries. That means open shops which people have high income.

Edible Tablewate

It's a good idea, because it's good for protecting emvironment and people can save time. They don't need to clean forks, spoons, dishes.... I think this product has a big market. Everyone use these things everyday. These are also one-off products. After people have meals, they will eat these dishwares and next time we need to buy a new one. So that means if people use these products, they well buy a lot.
At the same time, there're still some problems. First is price, everyday one person use 3 forks and spoons. Then people will pay for 90 forks and 90 spoons a month. People may think it's very expensive, and they need always to buy forks and spoons.
I think we can make that Edible Tablewate more delicious, not only made of flour. They can have a lot of tastes like chocolate, cheese... so that maybe many children will like them.

Massaging Backpack

I think it's a nice business idea. Because it's a compelely new idea and don't have a lot of competitors. This product is for the people who travel a lot or use backpack a lot. While they find the U.S.P, at the same time the product has technology. So it's not very easy to copy.

But I think this product still has some weaknesses. First is how big the marked is? We do have some people need this product, but how many people like travelling and use backpack a lot? So I think the market is not very big. Another thing is, this product can't change the weight of the backpack,so do the people who carry backpack really feel comfortable? So there're still some problems we need to solve.

Mobile phone sale

Several days ago, I lost my mobile phone. So my host mother said she can give me an old phone, all I need to do is buy a new SIM card. Next day I went to a shop which called 4U to buy SIM card. The card is very cheap to call aboard. I just said I need a SIM card to salesman. Then he gave me two SIM cards and said 20 pounds. They didn’t ask anything even what kind of card I need where I need to call. I don’t know what’s going on at that moment. So after that I checked the card they gave me was the thing I wanted. I also can’t understand why they gave me two SIM cards, but I only need one. And they gave me 20 pounds for top-up (10 pounds each).
But unfortunately, I can’t use that card in that phone which my host mother gave me. So I have to buy another one.
I went to some mobile phone shop such as O2, Orange and so on, but most of phones are locked. That means phones which are in Orange only can use the SIM card in Orange. Finally I bought a phone in 4U. Again, they gave me a SIM card and I have to pay 10 pounds for top-up (this card is for making phone calls in the UK). Why it’s so hard to buy a phone? All I need is a phone.
So in the end I got 3 SIM cards
Selling is very important in business, businessmen use different ways to try to sell more products. But I don’t think sell phone like this is a good idea.

● They use B.O.G.O.F. to sell SIM card, but this product is not like the food, or other products, the more the better. One SIM card one number is enough. How can your friends find you if you have many phone numbers. Also nowadays SIM cards are completely free, just top-up first, so use B.O.G.O.F. to sell SIM card is meaningless.
● All the phones in Orange are locked, so if customers buy phones from Orange have to use Orange SIM card and network. Maybe it can make more profit, but at the same time they lose some customers. If someone has SIM card and want to buy a phone, he can’t buy a phone in Orange. So I think Orange should have some mobile phone not be locked.

So I think the way they sell phones is not a good idea, at least some customers are not happy with that. Maybe in a short time they can use this way to make more profit. But I don’t think the business which only think about to get more profit and never think about customers will be a long term. In other wards, in the long term think about customers first, then you can make more money.

The problems a British business faces in trying to do business in China (1)

China is one of the largest market in the world, 1.3billion people and cheap labour force. It's a place which full of opportunities.

I really don't know about business in UK, so I only can think of a few things. But I'll try to know more . After that I'll continue to write about this question.

I think language is a problem, some times we need interpreter if English people do business in China. But I think the problem is not as big as we think, nowadays more and more Chinese can speak English.

Compared with China,The consumtion level in UK is higher, if the products are too expensive and also don't have Unique Selling Point, that will be a problem in sales.

Most of Chinese people pay more attention to the practicability of the products, so maybe English is a bit different, if the businessman doesn't realise the difference, that also could be a problem.

The first week to study business

This is the first week to study business. It's a completely a new subject for me. Other subject such as maths and chemistry I've learned some before. So when I heard this subject, my first question is "what is business study?"

In the dictionary the business means: the activity of marking, buying , selling or supplying goods or services for money.

Then the second question is "how to learn this subject", compared with maths there's no question to calculate, and most of question have more then one answer. You can find many ways to solve problems and there's no formula to solve the problem. The only thing you can do is keep thinking and find out your way to solve problem.

But for a international student I think the biggest problem is language, hundreds of new words are waiting for us.

Step by step I believe sooner or later I will find a good way to study business.