Is My Iterative Product Improvement Business Model Feasible?

I know any business can be profitable, but I’m curious whether this is a viable business model to test the waters. My idea is to produce items that are innovative, low on complexity, but bring something new to the market—possibly improving on existing products. I’ve considered hand-making these items initially, and if they gain traction, then moving to a manufacturer. The idea is to keep on producing as many items as I can and see what hits and what misses, I’ve always had an inventive mindset and have no issues coming up with how I could improve current products.

My plan involves having a list of improvements for the product. Once it gets copied by a competitor, I would implement the next set of improvements and put the previous version on discount. Rinse and repeat. I have no intention of patenting anything unless it gains enough traction, as I heard you will likely just have someone make a slight variation on said product then they don’t need a patent; I have no idea if this is the right choice however.

My question is: how feasible is this model? What should I be looking at in terms of marketing costs? Are we talking a few thousand or a few hundred dollars to test the feasibility of an item’s saleability? I understand I’d need to establish a brand and trademarks before starting to prevent other sellers from jumping on my listing, right?

Previously, I have only sold media: books, DVDs, records etc., so advertising has always been done for me. My idea is to have two types of products: long-term and short-term. The short-term products would be more trending items that I innovate on, expecting an influx of competitors eventually, so they may not be forever products. The long-term products would be niche items that solve unique problems and fill gaps in the market.

I’d rather not spend much beyond $4,000, though would be willing to spend 10,000 in advertising. I don’t mind breaking even learning but obviously would prefer not to lose any cash.

So to summarize:

  1. How can I effectively gauge initial market interest for my products without significant upfront investment?
  2. What are the best practices for protecting my intellectual property beyond just trademarking/branding?
  3. What are the most cost-effective marketing strategies for a new product in its early stages and how much can I expect to spend?
  4. Are there any specific online platforms or marketplaces that would be particularly beneficial for launching products over Amazon and what would initial investment costs look like there?
  5. How can I build a loyal customer base that will follow and support the evolution of my products?
  6. What are the potential risks and challenges I should prepare for in this business model?
  7. What metrics should I track to evaluate the success and viability of each product iteration?
  8. Is my short-term and long-term product ideas viable?
  9. Is my not getting patents for the less complex stuff just stupid?

I think that covered everything. I don’t expect anyone to answer anything fully. but if you have some two-sense you’d like to give, it would be greatly appreciated.

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I mean it’s feasible, but will it work on amazon? It would be a new asin every improvement. Ugh

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I could be wrong, but doesn’t amazon allow you to link to the newest version of products from the old ones now? I know that wouldn’t always be seen by buyers and lead to conversions, but I also wasn’t expecting to have provide a new improvement every month, more something like every 6 months to a year. Never been in charge of an ASIN so I’m not sure on this. I just know within the book categories, often amazon will say there is a newer version available.

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If that is indeed possible, my idea would be to trickle the buyers over to the new listing until the momentum has shifted to the new product, then rinse and repeat come 6 months to a year.

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Yes you can, but you loose all ranking and reviews.

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Yeah, not sure why/how that slipped my mind. I do believe I could possibly convert the ranking given a bit of time, by using the previous listing as almost pseudo-advertising, I suppose it’s the reviews that would be the difficult part. I believe it’s possible to just update ASINs with very minor changes, but these would likely be more than that. I guess I could treat it like a trickle effect, but yeah, this is an issue. As someone who gets a seller account review roughly every 400 sales, this does seem like it could be an issue unless I underpromise and overdeliver in some aspect with the products I’m listing, whether it be packaging, an add-on ‘gift,’ a handwritten thank-you note, or otherwise. I can see how releasing a new product every 6 months to a year would impact the momentum largely.

I guess my question then is, could the ads/marketing not make up for that? I’m really at a loss regarding doing my own marketing, the cost and efforts associated with it, and how I would go about seeing if any of the ads would actually convert for these products. All I can think of doing in reality is creating multiple ad campaigns, seeing what hits and what misses, and continuing with what is successful. I’m just at a loss on what I should expect for costs in this regard and if there is a way to see what ads are working/converting for others and emulating those efforts but applied to my own product.

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So that’s the wildcard question. Depends on so many factors that it is very very difficult to even begin to answer here. Also depends if there is room in the item’s budget for it

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My plan involves having a list of improvements for the product. Once it gets copied by a competitor, I would implement the next set of improvements and put the previous version on discount. Rinse and repeat.

The problem is this is not a novel idea. I think this is what most big companies do - auto makers, phone makers, etc. They don’t introduce every improvement they have all at once. They save improvements to roll them out every year so we want to buy the newest thing. As soon as their competitor catches up, they roll out the next improvement in the pipeline.

Your competitors are probably already doing this. As soon as you introduce your improved product, they will introduce theirs. They have a leg up in that their operation is all set up and they are ready for you. Are you ready for them?

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I guess my question then becomes, if you have knowledge on the subject: What is a realistic spend on a single item in regard to an ad campaign to see if the idea would float? I’m assuming a campaign would have to run for at least two weeks to a month to get any worthwhile data. Is there anything you would recommend? Should I start small, like $5 a day, and would I be able to track how that converts to larger-scale with budgets of something like 100-200 dollars a day. Or, is there anything that prevents that from happening within amazons algorithm?

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I will say, this seems to be working off the premise that we have the same improvement in the pipeline. I’m working off the premise, possibly egotistically, that someone is going to copy my improvement. I would say from observation that electronics, in general, have a more linear pathway, Moore’s Law, in regard to improvements, hence more predictable. I’m more focused on functional mechanical improvements on non-electronic products. I’m not disputing the fact that competitors may come up with similar ideas and products and have similar distribution pipelines—they likely do. Just that if I’m doing quite a few product we can’t all be coming up with the same unique improvements. I hope.

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I’m possibly missing something though. Does this just seem an impossible or unrealistic pursuit to you? It didn’t seem to be from the outset, at least from my perspective, but I’m well aware I’m coming at this from a frog in a well perspective.

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Yes your strategy can work.

There are already sellers who use that strategy.

You need to be careful about infringing on the IP rights of others.

You might consider a provisional patent application, in case you have a winner it gives your 12 months to file a patent application, and qualifies for first to file.

The fee is modest.

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My worry was more along the lines of creating a product, then someone else patenting it after the fact and not knowing they had copied and patented it, then calling down ‘their’ IP on you. I’ve always thought provisional patents made more sense to me once the product has paid for itself/ is gaining momentum/traction, then you have the year to see if you want to get the full patent. I kind of thought the problem with this sort of thing was/is how someone can make a slight modification to whatever your products is. This for example:Link is simple and could be functionally modified almost entirely to make it completely different looking product I can also think of about 3 improvements that could be made for it.

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Is there anywhere you can point to these sellers within the forum, any former posts talking about this I may have missed? I’d be interested in seeing their thought and processes in regards to this?

Provisional patent applications are cheap and simple.

Your fear of a copyist trying to patent and use it to attack you is real.

You cannot implement your strategy if your attention is distracted by litigation.

I have friends who are inventors who file a Provisional application whenever they get what they think is a novel idea. Sometimes they sell their rights without even prototyping the product.

I have never seen anyone post this as a business strategy online. Most of my friends who invent would never share strategies. I know what they are doing because I have helped in some cases to refine their ideas.

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Blockquote
Your fear of a copyist trying to patent and use it to attack you is real.
You cannot implement your strategy if your attention is distracted by litigation.

Yep, you’ve convinced me on the provisional patents front. Wish I wasn’t so gosh darn frugal; I really need to be sure somethings worth it before I spend the money, and wasn’t sure it was at this stage.

Blockquote
I have friends who are inventors who file a Provisional application whenever they get what they think is a novel idea. Sometimes they sell their rights without even prototyping the product.

You’re not talking about a variation on a product or an improvement unless said change completely transforms the product and, as a result, the market. You mean something truly novel and never seen before, right?

Out of curiosity, if it isn’t giving away to much detail, do your friends mostly do Mechanical Inventions or Electronics/Tech Inventions? And are they doing their selling on Amazon or looking to external markets? Are they doing this fulltime or is this more of a side-income?

Blockquote
I have never seen anyone post this as a business strategy online. Most of my friends who invent would never share strategies. I know what they are doing because I have helped in some cases to refine their ideas.

By strategy are you talking about my statement in regards to: “The short-term products would be more trending items that I innovate on, expecting an influx of competitors eventually, so they may not be forever products. The long-term products would be niche items that solve unique problems and fill gaps in the market.”

The long-term one seems more in line with what you where saying but I am unsure if that’s what you where getting at.

Lastly, If it isn’t to much.

As someone who has helped and has friends who do this any advice you are comfortable giving you can think of outside of what you have already given?

I really appreciate your responses. Its encouraging knowing that its at least feasible for others.

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Did some further research and got most of my questions answered. Sometimes just writing things out clarifies things for me and others catch what I’ve missed, like the provisional patent thing being worthwhile for truly novel inventions I wish to sell. Not that I could even get a patent if it wasn’t “novel” but I’m sure you know what I mean. I appreciate the advice on the provisional patent.

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Any tips or insight that you can share for future benefit?

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