Wednesday, October 14, 2009

"Baby Guard" System ---by OEDI team

Project Proposal

Tomer Cohen, Dimitrios Tamparopoulos, Boris Gimond, Moseley Kibibi, Nanes Alberto, Dror Oren

Category Analysis – Baby Products

This category focuses on baby products which in recent years has benefited from social and demographic trends, such as later parenthood, in addition to a growing demand for safer and well-designed products[i]. Currently parents have the ability to pay more and increase the total expenditure per child. Also, when shopping for baby safety products, parents are less price-sensitive and make decisions based more on quality rather than price.

Companies have worked hard to build up the market through innovation and new product development (NPD). In addition, sophisticated marketing techniques, especially those utilizing new technology, have been employed to gain and retain the loyalty of parents.

The baby transport sector has redefined itself to an extent during the past decade (since the late 1990s), in response to some of the social and demographic factors that have been affecting the market. This has enabled the sector to maintain value and it showed steady growth since 2003.

 
Widespread coverage of the dangers (http://www.carsafety4kids.com/)

that may face babies in the car has

led to a growing demand for safety standards

and solutions. The Home Safely sector has seen

similar, and even stronger, trends which led to

innovative and profitable products solutions

such as baby monitors and child safety locks.
In search for baby products, [ii]a survey has

shown that more than seven in ten respondents

said that the wide range of baby equipment

makes it difficult for parents to decide which

items they need. Nearly three in ten said they

wished they had done more research or had

been better informed before buying equipment

for their baby. 
Today, most countries, and even each state in

the U.S.,[iii] have different laws and standards

regarding the manufacturing and us of car

seat for infants and toddlers. Currently the

hottest market trend for baby transportation

devices enhanced safety features. [iv]
Entering a period of rapid development

beginning 2000, China became the world’s

leading supplier of baby carriages and

related parts. The baby car seat segment

has yearly exports of over $280 million. [v] 

In 2006, more than $5 million worth of

infant car seats were sold on eBay.com

and it has been a rapidly growing market

since then.

Initial Product Positioning Statement

Babyguard is the ultimate child protection device for the modern-day parent because it combines simplicity of use with maximum accuracy and effectiveness.

Status Quo

The current status quo is that children are being left in cars with no product to prevent that. Although there have been several attempts to address the issue, we are not aware of any commercial product that is currently commercially available.

Concept Pros

We believe that our concept has several major strengths compared to the status quo: first, the proposed solution is addressing a wide market that values security. New mothers are under major stress and we believe that the product can reduce the cognitive load on mothers when they are in stressful transition phases.

Our plan is to rely on electronic features such as Bluetooth receivers and the car’s integrated alarm systems to create a standard solution that will apply to all cars and will reduce the solution’s price. We believe that by making the product relatively low cost, standardized and car agnostic, we make it more accessible in comparison to other car safety features that are usually hard to replace and require long and expensive installations.

We also plan to make the product seat agnostic by standardizing the interface of the product with the car seat. This will enhance the standardization and will allow mothers to use the product with different chairs as the child develops. Such separation will enable total freedom in marketing, sales and distribution of the product to the public.

Concept Cons

We think that a major disadvantage might be the low awareness of parents to the likelihood of such incidents to happen. Although statistics show clearly that kids are being forgotten and are hurt due to such events, we are not clear that parents perceive this to be a major risk in comparison to other safety issues.

Some parents might perceive the owners of such device (especially in the early stages when it is not widely spread) as parents who are not attentive enough, maybe even irresponsible. This kind of stigma might prevent parents from purchasing the device. However, this disadvantage can be overcome if the product is small enough and does not draw attention.

Evaluation Process

While developing the concept, we researched the status quo and the alternative solutions that exist in the market today, and tried to come up with the best solution for the presented problem.

After acknowledging the problem and validating the situations in which the problem arises, we looked (and are still looking) at different types of technological solutions. While evaluating the concept, we spoke with mothers and prospective mothers and created a basic prototype that will give us a sense of the size and main features of the product.


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