We purchase products everyday by reviewing various details to ensure the quality, cost and certain features/functionality are what we expect. The purpose of product analysis is to provide manufacturers with the deliverables necessary to understand and perfect the product. The analysis ensures that the product is market ready, reaches the intended target market and achieves the desired results.
What is Product Analysis
What does product analysis mean? Product analysis breaks down the product from end to end analyzing everything from components, functions, technology, costs and demands to marketing materials, websites and sales approach. What the product does, should match what the company claims it does. Analysis on cost/quality ratios, alternative designs along with competition come into play to determine whether the product is cost effective while meeting the customer requirements. It is highly beneficial If the company can make small tweaks to the design and maintain the quality of the product while reducing their cost. This is an extensive process, but the results can aid the business in manufacturing, QA, logistics, and sales.
Product analysis is an excellent task to complete prior to submitting a product design and/or development technology for a patent. You will want to determine which patent is appropriate for a product prior to submission; design, utility or plant. Although a design patent may work for the appearance of your product it may not protect the functionality that would be a covered by a utility patent. For more information on patents, review our article on patents 101.
How to Write a Product Analysis
The first step to writing a product analysis is determining the end goal. Looking to simply analyze the quality or functionality of one product versus another? Trying to implement or improve on a design? Looking to decrease costs from the current design? Understanding the message relayed to see if it matches what the product does? Once the goal is determined for this product analysis one can start to form a set of questions to obtain the appropriate answers. If unsure of where to start, there are various product analysis templates and product analysis examples online to begin. After obtaining these answers, document the results in a product analysis report in order to update, change or slightly alter your current product and or message.
On the other hand, if you are looking to submit pieces of your product analysis to fulfill some of the requirements for a patent, our subject matter experts can assist you to conduct a patent search first and also provide additional details on how to build your IP Portfolio for the future. Our turn-key service provides intellectual property expertise and management support.
Product Analysis Example
A simple product analysis example could be a t-shirt. First, look at various factors of this t-shirt to analyze the quality. Some of the questions for this shirt would be:
- What is the material of the t-shirt? The quality? And what occurs with that material after it is washed.
- What colors are on the t-shirt? Will the colors bleed? If printed on, is the print ink of higher quality or not?
- Where is the t-shirt manufactured and is it easy to manufacture the product there?
- What are the capabilities of the manufacturer for future orders?
- What is the minimum order quantity (MOQ)?
- Is the manufacturer certified and audited for proper compliance?
After the desired metrics of the manufacturer are evaluated, a determination can be made whether to make changes to the process, the output or change manufacturers all together. Perform this assessment for each section and put together a report providing action items on problem areas.
If a product requires extensive technical assessment, a product teardown can be used to gather as much information as possible. The route from the analysis taken depends on the product demands and the resources available.
Regardless of outsourcing a product analysis or keeping it in house, the purpose of, and results from a product analysis are extremely valuable. Starting a product analysis at the inception of an idea can help determine the current market environment. We understand this process may seem overwhelming and you might have other areas you want to focus on. These steps do not need to be completed alone, our subject matter experts guide clients through each step and complete the extensive searches needed to avoid things such as patent infringement before you get started.