29A- Venture Concept No.2
Opportunity
Little do some know, paper towels was invented in 1907 by Scott Paper Company in Philadelphia, PA. They introduced the concept of paper towels in order to reduce the amount of germs spread after washing your hands. In the early 1930’s they were introduced to be used in the kitchen and have been widely publicly used ever since. It has been estimated that it take approximately 10 seconds to achieve 90% dryness and a hand dryer takes 40 seconds to achieve similar dryness. What about that extra 10% to achieve 100% dryness. This estimation also does not factor in how many pieces of paper you need to use in order to achieve that dryness. From personal experience it could take anywhere from 2-4 pieces to achieve maximum dryness. Although paper towels are convenient, they are not very efficient and pose a significant threat to the environment.
This provides an opportunity to combat not only the lack of efficiency but also the harm to the environment a paper towel creates.
Everyone purchases paper towels. Whether it be in your home or for your public business. They are a necessary aspect and are expected to be supplied in a kitchen and/or bathroom.
Demographic wise- This product could be more geared towards millennials since they are known to be significantly more environmentally cautious as well as impatient. It should also be positioned towards whomever supplies the home with its necessary products as well as business owners.
This product has 2 key environments in which it would be used in: the home and the business (public restroom)
It seems important to prioritize the business because this could create a ripple effect in which someone would use the product in a public restroom, enjoy the product and then purchase themselves for their own home.
Innovation
Since its inception, paper towels have grown exponentially. They are used in almost every home and every public business. Its innovation however has somewhat stagnated. Although some have tried to move towards electric hand dryers to combat the environmental issue, it just doesn't try you hands as well. What happens if there is a spill? Or when the electricity goes out? These are all questions that have led me to the idea of my product.
Whenever I go to a public restroom I am constantly annoyed at the fact that it becomes such a process to do such a little thing like drying my hands. This made me think about why it takes so long and how it could be improved.
At first I thought this was something that only bothered me. But as I complained to more people about it I found that a majority find this an annoyance as well.
Therefore, I tried to think of something that would tackle not only the annoyance of drying your hands but also a way it could help save the environment as well.
I decided to propose a paper towel that is made with a much more absorbent material. This would allow consumers to only use 1 sheet of paper towel to dry their hands rather than about 4-5. Just using 1 sheet of paper towel will significantly reduce waste and kill less trees in the process. Picture when you go to a very fancy restaurant and you go into the bathroom and they have those super thick paper towels. I am aiming to create something similar to that but using a different material other than paper or a combination of paper and another material in order to reduce the paper content.
In order to make money, I figure that firstly, most of my focus needs to go into perfecting the product and testing it in order to make sure it works. Secondly, I would like to focus on the marketing aspect and figuring out what the consumers wants and how to market this product to the in order to create the most sales possible.
I would market first and foremost to businesses’. I chose marketing to business’ because I feel as if a consumer goes to a public restroom, uses a paper towel that they like. They may want to purchase it for their own home and word of mouth would continue and sales will increase and so on.
I have also considered giving business a “free-trial” of this product in order to get the word of mouth sales going and to create that circle of sales.
I would sell these rolls at about $50 a roll since they would last much longer than its competitor products.
Venture Concept
Consumers will buy my product because it is a simple solution to an everyday annoyance that is efficient and has an added perk: it helps save the environment. In this day in age I think its important for a product to have to benefits: one that is obvious (what it is made for) and a bonus(something consumers were not expecting that makes them feel better about purchasing the product). For examples, many millennials are known to purchase products from another company that are the exact same thing as another for more money just because that company has a sustainable message or the product goes to a good cause.
I think that it will be pretty difficult to get business’ to switch to this product. Since it is something that is used everyday. A business would have a contract with a supplier already so it may be difficult to penetrate this segment at first.
My main competitor would be Georgia-Pacific whom I believe is the main supplier of paper towels to large business’. Their weakness would be their lack of efficiency and lack of environmental sustainable product.
Packaging plays a huge role. I think it will need to look sleek and futuristic. This packaging needs to say that it will be the paper towel of the future and will revolutionize the industry.
Customer support and customer experience will be very important in order to spread word of mouth. Business location will be irrelevant at the start of the business because we would need to move around a lot regardless.
I would organize the business as a CEO, a VP of Marketing, VP of Finance, VP of Operations and a VP of sales. We would have about 40-50 employees to start with some working in the factories and others in the headquarters.
My most important resource will be that my product is unique as well as a necessity. I would like to create a very sleek paper towel dispenser for this product. Whats next? In five years this product would be launched and I would be signing my recurring contracts with large business’ domestically. As an entrepreneur I want to make people's everyday lives better. Whether making them easier or just more fun.
Feedback: My feedback was very positive. Those that read my venture concept talked about how it was very nice to understand some of the history to the paper towel industry so they can better understand my product.
How I’ll adapt: I believe that on my product I should make the paper industry known especially about how this paper towel will be saving the environment from deforestation etc.
