4. 2 Abstract
Abstract
With smartphones being the something that
everyone owns nowadays, being unique and creative
with a product that everyone owns is something that
many people are looking to do. Due to this, phone
cases have become more popular with the rise of
smartphones with the purpose being to have a stylish
phone case with a design that you want or to protect
your phone case from drops or any type of harm. The
addition of new technology allows a wider variety of
smartphone designs and allows the creation of differ-
ent designs that are very unique.
Also, with the increase in research of phone
and accessory protection, more phone cases are being
created that can protect your phone from any harm.
This proposal will outline the problem that is facing
traditional phone cases and how to better them using
more modern technology. Moreover since phone pro-
tection is at a premium due to smartphones being very
expensive, protection for smartphones is also an issue
that needs to be addressed. This business will include a
way to address these problems with a proper solution
as well as come up with a plan and then it will review
the cost and benefit of the plan in order to analyze the
situation completely.
5. Introduction 3
Introduction
In designing this product we were inspired
by the japanese trend of over the top ornate Decoden
phone cases. Decoden is simply a portmanteau of
decorative and denwa (the japanese word for phone)
and the trend supposedly evolved in the mid to late
1990’s from ‘blinging’ items in equally complex designs
with swarovski crystals and rhinestones. While one
can easily purchase stick or iron on rhinestone designs
decoden style phone cases are much harder to make.
Decoden kits are available online and in some craft
stores for those who are feeling creative, but most peo-
ple lack the time to design and make their own phone
case. Decoden is still an art like sculpting, and some
people may feel they are not creative or skilled enough
to be able to produce a phone case they like. Everyone
has seen the galleries of Pinterest craft fails, and Diy
disasters that prove just because something may look
easy doesn’t mean it is. This results in phone cases
that are mostly produced individually and by hand,
a highly limited variety of cases, and prices than can
reach up to forty or fifty dollars. These professionally
made phone cases may have quality artwork but this
is almost always made on cheap plain plastic iphone
cases, which offers little protection to the phone.
However protecting one’s phone has become
even more important. If you break your phone you can
lose access to important family, emergency and work
contacts, or cut your fingers on broken screens. The
cost of replacing your smartphone can be huge. People
purchase their smartphones with prices that are pricier
than a 49-inch TV (LG: $412); however, the lifespan of
smartphones are way shorter than TVs, and people can
break them easily just by accidentally dropping their
phones on the ground.
(Decoden aesthetic ranges from the super cute, to the
grotesquely creepy, and everything in between)
According to a survey that was done in 2013 in
UK, almost half of the participants broke their phones
by dropping them on a hard surface. Since smart-
phones are tools that are expensive but also necessary
in people’s lives, adding a quality case to their smart-
phones can significantly reduce the chances of acciden-
tally breaking them. Phone cases made for durability
rarely come with any diversity, and are usually held
to simple one or two tone color palettes and maybe a
printed design at best.
6. 4 Introduction
People are always looking for ways to differen-
tiate themselves from the others. People on one hand
might dress differently in order to show their unique-
ness, and people on the other hand might use prod-
ucts that are rarely used by others in order to show
they have different lifestyles. Most of the smartphone
companies like Apple and Samsung do not allow their
customers to personalize their own smartphones so
they can keep their products consistent. Opening the
option for customers to customize their phone case al-
lows them to present who they are through the gadgets
they use on a daily basis.
We wanted to move away from this strict divi-
sion between fashion and function by using 3D-print-
ing to create phone cases that combined the best
elements of both sides. Using an online customization
tool and state of the art technology we wanted to offer
a range of shock absorbing phone cases and design
elements that could be added to any of them according
to an individual’s personal taste.
Today, we will introduce smartphone cases with
a break resistant custom case. Since our target market
is young adults who have active lives with phones and
carry them all the time, they would have higher proba-
bility than other segments of people to drop and break
their phones. Our products do not only give a protec-
tion to smartphones, but also has fashionable designs
for our customers to choose and create.
According to Business Insider’s survey that was
taken in 2013 among young adults who has phone cas-
es, nearly 60% of people answered that the main reason
of getting phone cases is to protect their phones. Since
many of our target market, young adults, are financial-
ly dependent, they want to avoid the cost of repairing
their smartphones. So here, our phone cases are cheap
(around $20-30) compared to the repair cost for young
adults to be able to afford, and protect their phones
from breaking.
On the same survey, the second most common
aspect young adults are looking for on their phone
cases is the design of it. For those people who carry
their phones around all the time, the design of phone
cases is very important, and many think that it reflects
a person’s personality. In order to meet everyone’s
wants, our service let our customers to customize their
phone cases however they want. With our service, cus-
tomers no longer have to look for phone cases that are
designed the closest to what they want because they
can create one entirely based on their preference with a
reasonable price.
7. Machinary 5
Machinary
In the creation of phone cases and phone case
designs there are two major software machinery used
by the majority of companies that create phone case
designs. These two are 3-D Printing and CAD Software
(Computer-Aided Design). 3-D Printing being the
more popular of the two software is very easy to utilize
and originates its software from CAD, however, it has
advanced the technology and made it better. Therefore
3-D Printing allows for household creation of phone
case designs without having to purchase anything.
CAD Software is an older technology compared to 3-D
Printing and has more basic design principles com-
pared to it.
Computer Aided Design Software also known
as CAD Software was the basis of how phone cases
were made before 3-D printing became common. They
use both the same principles of allowing users to edit
and add designs to their model however it does not
do it in 3-D (Wells, 2014). It also does not produce
the finished product in a printed fashion and requires
the model to actually be made and can create many
remakes of the models in order to ensure the finished
product is ideal since the model sometimes can be
different than the software laid out. Therefore this
software is not used as much in the phone case design
industry right now.
3-D Printing is a process for making a phys-
ical object from a three-dimensional digital model.
Because of this ability it is very popular when creat-
ing phone cases and phone case designs as you are
able to customize so much of the design as well as the
phone case itself. Additionally being able to print the
model right away allows for creation in households or
small scale companies to be very effective and efficient
(Wells, 2014). Even 3-D Printing may require some re-
prints but the actual printed model usually is satisfac-
tory within a few prints since the software pinpoints
and shows exactly how the model will print out.
We had several criteria that we chose to focus
on ins selecting the kind of 3-D printer we would use
for our business. Speed was one of our most important
factors, we wanted a printer that could work quickly
so customers who came to the store could design their
product and receive it in the same day within hours
or minutes if possible. The system also had to create
as little waste as possible in order to ensure that our
product could be offered at the lowest cost possible. A
printer that could produce complex shapes and designs
was integral to offering our customers a full range of
options and personalization to their product and is the
core goal of our company. Finally a consistent product
be produced every time to limit post-production work
on the product, and to match the consistent sizes pro-
duced by major cell phone distributors. We examined a
full range of alternate methods of 3-D printing.
8. 6 Machinary
Due to the manufacturing process products
created with this method often have visible layers,
each row having hardened completely before the next
is added creates a distinct layered texture similar to a
clay rope bowl. This may appear unfinished to con-
sumers and could require extra work after creation to
ensure the product has a more polished appearance.
According to Desimone and a independent speed test
of a variety of 3d printing methods Fused deposition
modeling takes about 3 hours to produce an object
(object in question is a six inch model of the eiffel tow-
er) (Desimone), other sources say Stratasys has new
machines that could decrease this time by as much as
20%. (3D PRINTERS) While this may seem like a long
time I would not discard this option because of that.
Our storefront business model is ideal for allowing
customers to come in create their product and then
shop around at other stores before returning to to pick
up their product in which case the time difference
could be beneficial.
(Retreived from cmu.edu)
This method is also known for creating incon-
sistencies due to mechanical error, which will interfere
both with creating a detailed design and a standard
shape. While studies have shown this error can be
accounted for with predictive software programs this
represents an extra cost in both the original cost of the
software, and time and training to run said program
(Song). Fused deposition modeling offers a wide range
of options in machinery. Stratasys the foremost com-
pany in this field of 3D printing has machines ranging
from $6000 to 750,000 (3D Printing Price)
FDM
Fused Deposition Modeling is likely the most
well known method of 3D-printing. This method cre-
ates items one layer at a time by depositing thin strips
of molten material on top of each other until a product
is created. The materials usually used in this kind of
modeling are long coils of metal or plastic which are
fed through the machine and melted in a similar man-
ner to a hot glue gun. (Types of 3D printers)
9. Machinary 7
SLA
(Retreived from CustomPart.net)
Stereolithography creates items in a liquid
pool of the material (usually polymer resin) the prod-
uct will be made from. Each layer of the product is
hardened until finished and then the entire product is
lifted from the pool on a grate. If an irregularly shaped
item is to be created with this method premade ‘stilts’
are required to support the structure. When the item
is completed it is submerged in chemicals to remove
excess material and baked in an oven to harden.(Types
of 3D printers)
The cost of this method of manufactur-
ing can be as much as $250,000 for the machine itself
and an additional $50-60 per gallon for resin. Because
the vat of resin must be large enough to submerge the
entire product in a lot of the raw resin on the surface of
the vat is constantly exposed to oxygen and light which
can cause the resin to harden or break down before it
can ever be turned into a product. Recently a smaller
and much quicker version of stereolithography print-
ing has been pioneered, the machinery for which costs
about $2500, but the cost for resin remains the same
(Krassenstein). However the ability of this method to
create complex shapes is deterred by the need for extra
supports, and the tendency of the designs to warp due
to the vat rocking and the effects of gravity before it
can be hardened. A desktop model of the stereolithog-
raphy machine that is supposed to be better at produc-
ing complex shapes is also available. This small printer
costs is significantly expensive at $100,000 each but for
certain designs it can feed at 50 in per minute a note-
worthy trade off in time for the price of the product.
(Solids modeling)
10. 8 Machinary
Other concerns raised by this method of man-
ufacturing are the unusually long average production
time 11.5 hours to produce the same eiffel tower model
mentioned in the Fused Deposition Modeling section
(Desimone). A length of time this long to produce
would make a storefront almost entirely irrelevant and
would still require customers to return to pick up their
phone on a different day or have it mailed to them, and
it would limit our production capabilities. Spending
nearly half a day printing a single phone case would
prevent our company from ever turning a profit un-
less multiple machines were employed and would still
make staff costs to man the machines while they are
printing extraordinarily high. A different study says
that in 20% of production runs the resulting product
has over a 10% margin of error (Campbell). If such an
error were to occur the entire case would have to be re-
printed due to the high level of standardization need-
ed for a phone case. Resultingly we can assume that
with this method of 3d printing there is a 20% chance
that it will cost us double to produce a single product.
SLS
Selective laser sintering is a process similar to
stereolithography. A product is submerged in a con-
tainer of the same material it will eventually be made
from, in this case however the material is finely ground
or powdered. SLS most commonly used metals as a
base material, but plastics could also be used. The lay-
ers are bonded into place with a laser as they continue
to be submerged until the product is completed. This
method also differs from stereolithography in that an
irregularly shaped product is already kept in place by
the dry material surrounding it and does not require
extra supports. (Types of 3D printers)
This method escapes on of the most glaring
problems of Stereolithography in that it reduces waste
to almost nothing. Dry material does not degrade in
exposure to oxygen like raw liquid resin does, it does
not require special cleanup or storage to keep its condi-
tion and since it will not decay the powder can be used
in the machine indefinitely.
While this method may not have the same
issues with warping as stereolithography the quality
of the product is greatly affected by the materials it is
being made from. If the material is too porous surface
irregularities may be created which will require post
production polishing.(Butler)
Last year a compact selective laser sintering
system that aimed to be available to the public for
less than $115,000 was in beta stages and available for
less than $20,000. The Snow White as this system was
dubbed was created by Sharebot and the final price for
such a system was slated to be around $40,000.
SLM
Selective laser melting is similar to both Stere-
olithography, and selective laser sintering. Outwardly
it would appear to be the same as the sintering meth-
od; an item is created submerged in a container of
dry powdered material while the item is formed by
lasers, it even uses the same materials. However in this
method the material used to created the item is melted
rather than bonded. An important distinction when
considering the quality of a product, since melting the
material will change the structure and density of the
material. This can be used for instance to strengthen
some materials, or remove porosity, but will only serve
to make others brittle and prone to breakage.(Types of
3D printers)
This method has the added benefit of being
able to ‘polish’ products as they are being made. By
creating each layer and then subsequently re heating
the product the layers are fused together (Yasa), which
could even in some cases be used to increase the over-
all strength of the product. It would certainly create
a more finished aesthetic appearance and require less
sanding by hand after productions. However there is
the chance that this re-melting method could deform
the product out of specification with the phone it was
designed for and create a case that will not fit the mod-
el it was made for in which case our company would
have to pay for the phone to be remanufactured and
likely finished by hand anyway.
11. Machinary 9
According to Rickenbacher the SLM method
can be optimized by building several components at
once, to an average increase of 41% when compared
to an un optimized run. Given this model the most
efficient way to run our business would be to take
orders throughout the day and produce phone cases
all at once to cut costs, this would interfere with our
proposed business strategy by potentially creating long
or even overnight delays in receiving the product.
SLM-solutions offers selective laser melting systems
and appears to be the only major provider of such
systems. They do not offer compact or desktop sized
machines, their only machines are several meters in
length and height and mostly appear to be for indus-
trial rather than commercial use. Prices are not readily
available and are offered upon request only.
(Retrieved from Carbon3D.com)
CLIP
Continuous laser interface production is a rela-
tively new method of 3D-printing. CLIP made a splash
with a popular TED talk and a viral video of an Eiffel
tower figurine being created from resin via this meth-
od. This method again require a large pool of liquid
material but instead of the item sinking layer by layer
into the pool as it is created the item is drawn upwards
from the pool of material. At the point where the item
is just touching the surface of the pool of material a
UV light projects images onto the resin hardening
it and creating the item. An oxygen ‘dead zone’ or a
membrane that controls the flow of oxygen to the resin
helps keep the resin ‘fresh so to speak and slows the
decay of the resin which occurs naturally upon contact
with oxygen (Desimone)
12. 10 Machinary
One of the most recent forms of 3-D printing
is continuous laser interface production (CLIP) which
is gaining the interest of the manufacturing commu-
nity due to its speed.. CLIP can create in six minutes
a product that would take stereolithography eleven
hours. (Desimone) It can create both products from
both rigid and flexible materials, with a surface that
is microscopically smooth and will require little to
no post production work to prepare for the customer.
While similar to the Stereolithography method this
process has another notable improvement, aside from
speed; the object does not need to be submerged and
theoretically an entire object could be drawn from a
pool of resin fractions of s centimeter deep so long as it
new material was heated and added regularly enough
through a mechanized process. This has the signifi-
cant effect of limiting waste material and by having
less resin exposed for long periods prevents degra-
dation. Using Continuous laser interface production
both rigid and flexible products can be created, while
other systems were previously incapable of printing
from flexible materials (Desimone). Products with this
method could be made using rubber or latex jelly for
improved grip and padding.
Our Decision
Ultimately it was decided that the CLIP print-
er’s speed and ability to print from multiple materials
were invaluable to our business model, and that it was
the best option currently on the market.
The Carbon3D CLIP machine has only recent-
ly become available to the general public at a price of
$40,000 per year to rent (Carbon3D). While renting
this technology will cost more than if we were to sim-
ply buy a different printer the $40,000 per year in-
cludes software upgrades, repairs to the machine, and
improvements. Since this technology is still very new
it is likely that even within the next five to ten years
many improvements to the machinery will be realized,
or minor bugs and errors in the software will be found.
By including the cost of repairs in the yearly rental
fee we are also saving money because we do not have
to train a worker to be able to repair our printer and
given that we expect it to be operating for ten to twelve
hours a day it will need a significant amount of upkeep
repairs just from wear and tear.
13. Marketing 11
Marketing
Target Market
We are strongly confident to set our target
market to young adult males and females aged between
14 and 25. From the research, it is found that they
have the highest demands on fashionable 3D printed
phone cases in all segments of people in the market.
One of the main reasons is that they are the segment
that possess smartphones and cases the most. From
here, Business Insider’s research reveals that two main
reasons why they are purchasing smartphone cases are
to protect their phones from breaking or cracking as
dropping them and to make smartphones look more
fashionable (figure 1). Moreover, Cover & Carry, a
company where sells customized cases for electrical
devices, shows their research that young adults aged
between 14 and 25 is one of the biggest buyers in all
ages since many of them carry cell phones and laptops
(Moore 7). All those strong reasons and evidences
make our decision on target market more valid.
Repairing broken or cracked smartphones is
very expensive and it is painful to people especially
young adults because most of them do not have jobs
that pay them a lot of money. Sadly, however, peo-
ple have relatively high probability of dropping their
phones since they carry phones around in a daily bas-
es. Protection is very important to save their phones
from breaking, and also save lots of time and money.
And more importantly, our 3D printed phone cases are
great for protecting smartphones.
Creating a marketing plan and having a clear view of our business is the most crucial step we take as sell-
ing our products efficiently and making the business more profitable. Our decisions on our target market, price
range, location, and customer preference, give our sponsors or companies a better understanding of the strengths
of our products and services and how profitable they are as well as fascinate customers to enjoy our service and
to keep buying our products. Since we have a rigid marketing plan based on market researches and people’s voic-
es, which I will introduce in the following paragraphs, we know the direction we are going for as starting a new
business and be able to sell our products efficiently.
(A histogram showing reason of choosing case by
gender)
14. 12 Marketing
However, there are some companies that are
specialized in selling protectable phone cases. So what
makes our products unique to stand out from other
companies in the market? You can see it as we compare
our products to some products from other companies.
Here is, for example, some cases from OtterBox, which
is one of the most popular phone case brands in the
United States, are specialized in protecting phones and
have many repeaters (Figure 2). There are some brands
also produce phone cases for the protection such as
Apple brand, Speck, and Belkin and their cases work
very well for the protection. All those companies have
great technology and skills to make valuable products,
however, many of them are not highly designed to
catch teens’ hearts. So, in order to be different from ex-
isting products in the market, we sell phone cases that
are made for the protection as well as looking fashion-
able to get many young adults’ interests efficiently.
Designing is very important to sell products to
young adults because they are more likely to care about
how they look as well as their belongings, and possess-
ing fashionable items is a prestige for many of them. So
here, our service fits very well into demands and wants
because we let them create what they think looks fash-
ionable or however they like, and there is no risk for us
to have leftover inventories to hold as a cost. Reducing
the cost of continuously making a lot of new designs
and holding inventories allows us to spend more
money to improve our business such as purchasing 3D
printing systems that have higher qualities or better
places for the store front. Hence, young adults are the
best market segment for maximizing our profit and it
eventually leads us to extend business more easily.
(Protection specialized cases from Otterbox)
Price Range
Pricing is one of the most important keys to sell
products when you target a market. We cannot make a
good profit without knowing how much the market is
willing to pay for a product. For stating a price range,
there are two main strategies I would recommend that
are trustworthy and relatively easy; one is to give sur-
veys, and the other one is to observe other companies’
pricing that sell similar type of products. In addition,
adjusting price range by considering our products’ fea-
tures to make it best fits to our products is necessary.
Before considering about people’s voices and
competitor’s price ranges, we need to remember about
the main purpose of our business. The price should be
reasonably low for our target market that cannot afford
paying very expensive repairing fees as they drop their
phones. In addition, our phone cases are all custom-
ized, so customers can design their cases however they
want, which can be a little premium because of being
able to personalize phone cases and the satisfaction
they get from our service.
15. Marketing 13
As a company to look at the price range for
the phone cases, I chose Otterbox, which is one of
the most famous phone case companies in the United
States. According to Davis, a Marketing professor of
California State University, the average price Otterbox
offers is about $28 to $33, and phone cases are sold “at
a relatively close price to competitors because that way
we can build value and credibility before we increase
distribution” (Davis 28). So, around $30 to $35 is a
reasonable price to state for now.
Also, there are many companies and stores
where sell 3D printed/decorated phone cases (Figure
3) targeting the same segment of market in Japan. Al-
though the currency rate is different in Japan and the
US, it could be a useful measurement to set our prices
because we have a similar target market; their target
is females around 30 years old. At Yamada Denki Co.,
one of the largest electricity retail companies in Japan,
they offer phone cases and decoration services at the
“prices start from about 3,000 yen ($34) for a phone
professionally adorned with stickers, and from about
10,000 yen ($114) for beading” (Yomiuri Shimbun 1).
Here, they sell their relatively high quality products at
$34 and goes up to $114 for adult females where many
of them have jobs and are independent.
(A histogram of how much people spent on their last
phone cases)
(Customized phone cases made in Japan)
By looking at two sources from Otterbox and
Yamada Denki Co., we can create our own price range.
Since our focus group is younger than Yamada Denki
Co.’s and most of them are financially dependent, we
should set our price range lower than that. Their phone
cases are also customized and hand-made, so they are
expensive compared to regular phone cases. On the
other hand, Otterbox is more specialized in protection
of smartphones and the design is relatively simple, so
they can mass produce their products. This is why their
price is set relatively low although their target market
is about the same age as Yamada Denki Co.’s, and also
both females and male.
As we know how other companies state their
price range, we can now considering about how much
consumers are willing to pay. According to Business
Insiders, the most popular price range is around $20 to
$29 and then $19 or less follows (Figure 4) (Kiersz 1).
This research is for any smartphone cases, so it in-
cludes regular simple phone cases. Since we are selling
customized 3D printed phone cases, the price range
can be a bit more expensive is the most efficient to
meet the demand.
16. 14 Marketing
Here is another data about how much cus-
tomers expect to pay for customized products on
e-commerce. On top of this graph by Bain & Company
shows that the price premium of the range of market
offering to customized products online is between ten
to 60 percent (Spaulding 2). In this range, a sweet spot,
where customers think is the ideal, is a little greater
than 20 percent (Figure 5). So, we can consider about
setting our price range around 20 percent above what
Kiersz by Business Insider shows above.
Using all the information I provided above, we
can set our own price range. I would say that the price
range of $20 to $35 depending on the design is the
most efficient to state for starting up. The reason why I
went a little higher range than what people are willing
pay is because we are conducting mass customization.
According to Anthony Flynn, the author of “Custom
Nation,” people would still buy products when they
custom and personalize them even at more expensive
price (Flynn 21). So, even though it is still a little bit
high of the price range for phone cases, customers
would still pay for it since they can create a product
exactly the way they want. The best part of customiz-
ing a product is that customers can adjust how much
they pay depending on the amount and the types of
parts they put on their cases. If they wanted to make it
cheap, they can make it simple or use cheap parts but
the looks of the cases are still based on their preferenc-
es. Hence, the price range of $20 to $35 is appropriate
and also profitable for our products considering our
target market as well as remaining as one of the cheap-
est investment to keep their phones from breaking or
cracking.
(Sweet spot for customized products on key dimen-
sions)
Location
The location of the store determines the op-
eration and the style of our business. As we market
customized 3D printed phone cases to young adults, it
is important to consider where the most effective place
to sell them is. As thinking about where they are likely
to shop the most and the effectiveness of operations,
we decided to have a storefront in the mall as starting
the business dealing with young adults especially teens.
Demographically, moreover, we decided to have our
first store in California since it is the state where many
trends have been created. Although the cost of having
a store in California will be expensive, however, it is
still worth having our store there. This is because we
get higher chance to be famous and make enough prof-
it to extend our business by looking at the population
of California, and the fact that it is a center of the trend
in the United States.
17. Marketing 15
There are many reasons for getting a store-
front at first especially as targeting young adults as the
main market. The main reason is that many of them,
especially those people in middle school, high school,
and college, do not often shop online. Instead, they
go to the malls, and find what they would like to buy.
There is a research from Pew Research Center shows
that many teen actually have used online shopping
system, however, when Piper asked teens whether they
preferred shopping online or in stores, 78% of girls
and 75% of boys said they’d rather go to actual stores
(Desilver 1) (Figure 6). Having a storefront is much
more efficient for our business to maximize the chance
of getting as many customers as possible as well as re-
ducing the cost of the shipping and the website mainte-
nance. Moreover, because it involves in customization,
which not many of our customers are familiar with,
many of them would not try our service since they are
not sure how to do it. By thinking about that, having
storefront and designing phone cases physically with
some instructions and examples makes many custom-
ers want to try it.
Having the storefront at the mall can be more
efficient to sell our products and services to young
adults than having an individual store. According
to Chain Store Age’s survey, it shows that “teens and
young adults visit large shopping centers more fre-
quently and spend more money there than at any other
virtual or physical shopping venue” (Wilson 1). What
attracts teens and young adults as a storefront in the
mall is to have pretty, fashionable, amusing, cute, or
something outstands from other stores. It can be said
for not only the storefront, but beautiful things and
colors catch people’s interests. Moreover, since we use
one of the latest technologies, 3D printer, as we pro-
ducing the phone cases that customers design, we can
make it visible in the store so that we are able to get
many people’s attentions.
(Survey about teens’ online shopping)
Customer Preference
Customer preference is a key for any business
to succeed. A marketer need to know what his custom-
ers like and want in order to sell products. Although
a certain type of product is very popular in one area,
it is not always true that the same product is going to
be popular in the different area. Indeed, for example,
sushi rolls in Japan does not look like sushi we see in
the US. Japanese sushi rolls are wrapped by seaweed,
not by rice like American sushi because when Japanese
brought sushi to the US first, Americans did not like
their food looking black. This is why American sushi
is so much more colorful than Japanese sushi, and this
happened because of the difference of customer pref-
erence. On the other hand, some products does not
need to be changed to go to other market. So, it is very
important to make sure that we understand customer
preference as we bring in new products to the other
areas of the world or to the different markets.
18. 16 Marketing
As we sell 3D printed phone cases, the idea
comes from Japanese Decoden (decorated electric-
ity), which is all about kawaii (cute) concept. Since
many Japanese young adult females like cute things
such as Hello Kitty and Disney, those phone cases are
very popular and highly demanded in Japan. Now, we
need to think about the preference of both American
young males and females and see if those phone cases
can be a hit. Japanese subculture such as anime is very
popular all of the world. Indeed, “the Japan animation
market was estimated to be worth about $13 billion
U.S. dollars in 2011, of which 20 percent comes from
oversea markets” (Rungfapaisarn 11). This proves that
Japanese anime culture is very big in the United States,
too. There are many famous Japanese anime charac-
ters that are popular in the US such as Hello Kitty and
Pikachu. Hence, using anime characters is definitely
a good idea as well as other options such as ribbons,
races, rhinestones, and also something simple or sports
teams, school logos, and Greek letters to give both
males and females many options.
Adopting cultural products like our 3D printed
phone cases, from already popular culture in the US
such as Japanese, has the higher probability of being
succeeded and less chance to fail badly. This is because
it is new to the US market, so it is unique but we can
look at how Japanese phone case companies did their
business, and use them as resources. Since we change
our choices of decoration parts and business style con-
sidering about what American people would like more,
it should be very sufficient and trustworthy business as
a starter.
Market Values
After knowing the success key of product
differentiation is simply being different, let us look at
couple ways how companies can convey their products’
uniqueness to their customers.
1. First in the market
Putting emphasis on you are the pioneer that
started everything basically tells your customers your
products are better than the others that follow or mim-
ic you. Coke and Pepsi will be a good example here;
Coke stresses they are the first company that brings
Coke into the world, so Pepsi has to occupy a different
niche in the market.
2. Unique Attribute
Letting the customers know the features of the
products or the company is another way to distinguish
yourselves from the others. “Just do it” is the slogan
from Nike, and people develop connections with the
brand since the idea matches with their personal val-
ues. Volvo is the type of car that people will get if they
value on safety since it is the safest driving machine on
the road.
3. Market Specialty
Specializing in a particular technology or stay-
ing focus in a particular playing field give a company
the potential to be viewed as an expert in the industry.
Rather than trying to sell all sorts of apparels, Nike and
Under Armour focus on athletic outfits; which makes
them to be perceived as the stores for athletes.
4. What’s Hot
Consumers are not sure about what they truly
want. People usually follow the lead of the others and
go with the flow. Being a trend leader allows a compa-
ny to stay ahead of the game and have better control
over the market. The launch of the Galaxy Note 1 in
2011 put Samsung in a great advantage, since it was
the first company that generated huge profit by launch-
ing big screen smartphones. Now, the majority of the
smartphone companies are following the trend that
started by Samsung, and manufacturing their own
types of big screen smartphones in order to attract
customers.
19. Marketing 17
5. How a Product is Made
Showing the customers the unique manufacturing
process of your products can also be a great way to
set you apart from competitions. Does your company
have a different way making the product compared to
the others? Is there a specific technology you use when
manufacturing the product which your competitors do
not have? Lindt demonstrates their expertise in choc-
olate by showing how they make their chocolates in an
advertisement, which sets them apart from Hershey’s
and M&Ms.
For our phone case company, “market special-
ty” and “how a product is made” are tactics we decide
to use. As one of the first companies who uses the 3D
Printing technology to make phone cases, we have to
stress this aspect to our customers since it represents
our expertise. An example is like putting Pepsi and
Coke side by side, and people will know which one is
better. Also, we will show our customers the process of
how we make their customized phone cases with 3D
Printers. Just like some shoes commercials showing
how their shoes are made, the method allows us to
present how professional and technological our com-
pany is.
E-Commerce Strategies
This section is devoted to explore different
strategies for online businesses. In addition, some un-
successful strategies are going to be mentioned here, so
similar errors can be avoided in the future.
Griffin Roer—a specialist in ecommerce classifies some
tricks that marketers commonly used into 5 categories:
1. Creating Urgency with Scarcity
2. Loss Aversion
3. Risk Aversion
4. Abandonment Issues
5. Assurance
Creating Urgency with Scarcity
There are 3 ways that businesses can evoke the sense of
urgency with scarcity in their customers. The first
method is to show their customers only a limited num-
ber of inventories are left in stock. People come across
with this method all the time if they are frequent shop-
pers on Amazon; the merchants from Amazon take
advantage of this trick by keeping their inventories
low in order to generate the sense of urgency in their
customers.
Creating Urgency with Scarcity
There are 3 ways that businesses can evoke
the sense of urgency with scarcity in their customers.
The first method is to show their customers only a
limited number of inventories are left in stock. People
come across with this method all the time if they are
frequent shoppers on Amazon; the merchants from
Amazon take advantage of this trick by keeping their
inventories low in order to generate the sense of urgen-
cy in their customers.
Showing the customers there is only a limited
time left for the offer is another prevailing trick among
marketers. Putting a countdown clock or timer next to
the deal are ways to pressure the customers making the
purchases, since they allow people to actually visual-
ize how much time they have left for the special deal
before it goes away.
20. 18 Marketing
Giving its customers a specific arrival day of
the product if they order today is the third method
companies use. A message like “Order this today and
get it by Friday” does not simply convey the date of ar-
rival, it also creates imaginations and desires of having
the actual product among their customers. A person
might have a special event to attend on Friday, and if
the arrival date of the product is Thursday, the custom-
er is going to have such thought: “Umm, if I get this
today, I can wear it on Friday.”
Loss Aversion
Online retailers realize how easily people are
affected by the “FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)” mind-
set when shopping on the Internet (Roer). There are 3
methods retailers often use when trying to entice cus-
tomers, and people have seen these tactics all the time.
One way to do this is to put the original price
and the discounted price of the product side by side,
and point out the savings at the same time. This ap-
proach is effective by leading the customers into the
thought, “The price is so reasonable after the discount;
I’ll be dumb if I don’t get it.”
Putting the best value option along with the
other price options is another way to play with the
aversion of loss in customers. When companies put
this into practice, customers are actually purchasing
what the companies want them to purchase, since the
decisions that the customers make are actually guided
along the way by the marketers. People usually avoid
the most expensive and cheapest options when shop-
ping for goods; therefore, customers will naturally go
for the price in the middle of the spectrum.
Offering free shipping to customers that reach
certain dollar amounts when checking out is a success-
ful way to increase sales. In general, customers do not
like to pay the extras for shipping. This tactic is com-
monly used by apparel retailers like H&M, Finishline,
and Nike. If a customer is eligible for free shipping if
he purchases $50 of goods, and he has already pur-
chased a $42 jacket, then the chance of him buying an
additional t-shirt is high since he can get the shipping
service by hitting the $50 checkmark.
Risk Aversion
Purchasing goods online associates with risks
and customers know that. After a period of time wait-
ing for the shipment, the final product might come
with defections or people no longer want the items.
Marketers understand the mindsets of the customers,
and they find out offering customer guarantees is a way
to generate profits and retain customers. Guarantees
can come in the forms of warranty, full refund, and
free return. Zappos’ has a great reputation in their car-
ing customer service and lenient return policy; because
of that, 75% of their sales come from repeat customers
(Roer). From this example, we can tell customers feel
more comfortable to purchase and return to the same
company if guarantees are provided by the company.
21. Marketing 19
Abandonment Issues
Online retailers realize not all the customers
are going to place their orders at the end, so they come
up with different approaches in order to deal with the
issue. One of the methods is providing their customers
the express checkout option. Express checkout allows
customers to purchase goods just by a single click, and
people do not have to go through hassles like typing
in address and billing information. Amazon uses the
express checkout option extensively in order to reduce
customers abandoning their shopping carts.
Another way to get customers back is sending
them follow up emails. People usually receive this kind
of email when they have an unfinished quote or aban-
doned cart. Sales Cycle did a research on the effective-
ness of follow up emails. It found out that nearly half of
these emails were being opened, 13.3% of these emails
were clicked, and 35% of these clicks leaded customers
back to the site and purchased the items they had not
checked out last time (Roer). The example above shows
that sending follow up emails to customers is a great
way to motivate them purchasing items in their shop-
ping carts.
Assurance
People look at the reviews and the ratings of
the products when they are trying to decide whether
or not they should purchase something. According to
a research did by iPerceptions in 2011, it showed that
customers are 63% more likely to purchase items from
sites that had user reviews (Charlton). The statistic
illustrates that companies should pay more attention to
the product reviews by the users, rather than over sug-
ar-coating their official descriptions of the products.
Ineffective Tactic
Giving the customers the option to enter a
promo code at the checkout page has been proven to
be an unsuccessful way to entice consumers. Compa-
nies start taking the seemingly effective tactic off their
websites, since it actually leads their customers away
from making a purchase. According to a study that did
by PayPal, “27% of online shoppers cited searching for
a coupon as a reason for cart abandonment” (Roer).
22. 20 Marketing
After Tom spending 45 minutes shopping for a
pair of shoes that he likes, he makes up his mind and
gets to the checkout page. Everything starts going the
wrong direction when he sees the promo code input
box; he immediately opens a new browser and starts
looking for a promo code elsewhere, which might
bring him to a site with better deals. The above exam-
ple shows how the promo code approach might not be
a good way to attract customers.
3 strategies will be employed by our company.
We’ll be providing our customers a specific arrival day
of their orders, providing them assurance, and giving
them guarantees on the products they buy. By provid-
ing our customers a specific arrival day of the product,
people can possibly imagine themselves having the
phone cases on their phones since a concrete day is
given. Just picture a guy named Tom just cracked his
phone case, and he has an important event to attend
next Friday. Because of that, he goes on to Amazon
and starts looking for a replacement. A stylish phone
case captures his attention, and he finds out it can be
arrived by next Thursday. Since a specific arrival day
is given, Tom knows he will get his product on next
Thursday and use it during the event; therefore, he is
most likely going to make the purchase.
We provide them assurance by setting up cus-
tomers’ reviews section, so people can go in and look
at the comments from other buyers before making a
purchase. Guarantees come in the forms of full refund
and free return. People sometimes make mistakes on
their purchases and we totally understand that. By
giving them a 7-day grace period after the purchase,
people feel more comfortable to make purchases, and
they will be willing to spend more since they can sim-
ply get their money back if they are not satisfied with
their decisions.
Social Medias
In the business world today, it is a necessity
for companies to have multiple social media accounts.
When social medias are being effectively used, they
can actually “[level] the playing field” in business
(Hyken). Small companies can now compete with big
firms since they can get customers engaged in a nearly
costless way, and still be able to generate the impressive
results like the other big firm do. In this part, 2 main
topics will be covered:
·
1.Statistics regarding different social medias
· 2. Mindsets that companies should have when inter-
acting with customers on social medias
Statistics
In general, companies usually have Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts for their businesses
since these are the social medias that their customers
usually use. Business are always finding ways to make
themselves unique among the others, and using the
same social medias that the others use is not a produc-
tive way if their target is to break the norms. However,
what are the options for companies if they want to add
another social platform into their arsenal? Here are the
top 7 social media sites:
1. Facebook
· Largest social networking site
· 1.04 billion active users
(Facebook’s Newsroom)
2. Twitter
· The mobile app generates around 81% of the
company’s advertising revenue
3. LinkedIn
· Professional network site
· 2 new members signing up for each second
4. Google+
· Relationship marketing
· More than 300 million active monthly users
5. YouTube
· Largest video sharing social site
· 1 billion videos watched on mobile phones per
day
23. Marketing 21
6. Pinterest
· 70 million active users
· Women are the majority users (80%)
7. Instagram
· Platform for visual stories
· Extensive used for business marketing
(Sareah)
The majority of the companies know the im-
portance of engaging their customers through social
medias, but they often lack the knowledge of how
they can effectively interact with their target groups.
Shep Hyken, a well-known customer service speaker,
provides some powerful ways for businesses to engage
their customer through social media on his personal
blog. Here are the techniques that he listed on his site:
1. Social Service
2. Content Marketing
3. Repurposed Content
4. Article Consolidation
5. Guest Posts
Social Service
Monitoring the reviews or comments from
the customers are crucial to the growth of a business.
Customers will always tell you what their expectations
are, and what they are unsatisfied with; which can be
extremely helpful if companies are trying to improve
themselves and create a better shopping experience for
their customers. Speaking of which, assigning a partic-
ular person to check on different social media sites can
be constructive to a business, since the thoughts and
feedbacks from the customers will be heard. The task
of the monitor team is simple but significant, they ba-
sically reply both the positive and negative comments
from the customers in a polite manner, and make the
customers feel that they are being valued by the com-
pany.
Content Marketing
Shep considered content marketing as “one of
the strongest social media strategies” (Hyken). Content
marketing is actually just posting information about
the products of your company and industry; however,
a thing to keep in mind here is not to be “self promot-
ing.” Just picture a company always sharing informa-
tion related to their own products with their custom-
ers, and claiming their products are the most reliable
ones in the industry, how are the customers going to
feel? They might feel the statements from the company
are no longer credible, since the company is always
focusing on itself instead of the needs of the customers.
Good content marketing requires skills
and experiences, companies should definitely
promote their own products when participat-
ing in content marketing; additionally, they
should also keep their customers updated on
the new technologies or knowledge in their
corresponding field, since those insights are
the true values that the customers are seeking
for.
24. 22 Marketing
Repurpased Content
Engaging customers through social medias re-
quires times and efforts. Often times, companies might
face situations like running out of ideas on what to
share with their customers, which can be devastating
since the stagnation can potentially hinder the inter-
actions between the companies and the customers.
Luckily, Shep pointed out by using repurposed content,
companies can always turn their old posts into infor-
mation that the customers might be interested in.
Repurposed content basically means creating
some new contents by referencing old ideas; compa-
nies can do this simply by looking into their old posts,
and create a new post on Facebook or Twitter based off
on that old article or post they looked into (Hyken).
Another way that companies can participate in repur-
posed content is to turn valuable statistical data into
graphics that are understandable by the customers,
which can be helpful since it enhances the likability of
the company in the minds of their customers.
Article Consolidation
Knowing what is happening in the field is
crucial to the success of a company. It puts the com-
pany ahead of the game, and it is also a good way to
connect with its customers. One good method to keep
the company updated is to set up alerts for news that
are related to its products or industry. By knowing
the latest news in the industry, companies can trans-
form the information into resources that are helpful to
customers. When we look at gigantic firms like Nike
and Apple, they always share the newest and hottest
technologies in their industries with their customers;
it is an effective tactic to keep their loyal customers at-
tached to the brand, since people know they are being
valued by the companies they support.
Guest Posts
Being different in the eyes of the consumers re-
quires unique approach. One way to act different is to
post news related to your competitors on your website.
Guest Post is a variation of what we talked about (con-
tent marketing and article consolidation); nonetheless,
it takes more courage to put it into action, since the
company might be biting its own tail when promoting
its competitors. Honda and Toyota are great examples
of companies that utilize guest posts; they often share
those new inventions of their competitors with their
customers.
When used correctly, guest posts can be a pow-
erful tool since the customers are going to view your
company as something special. This is because you
share whatever your company knows, instead of trying
to hide the information from your customers since it
might potentially hurt the company.
Without a doubt, our company brings the cus-
tomizing phone case culture all the way from Asia to
the United States, but the process does not simply ends
there. We strive to make the shopping experience a
better one by utilizing the method of guest posts. Guest
post simply means paying attention to the latest infor-
mation in the field, and share them with our custom-
ers. We will pay attention to the latest skills and styles
from Asia, and make them available to the customers
here in the U.S. By using this technique, our customers
have access to the newest trends in Asia, and they will
also know our company is trying to keep up with the
culture there and make those new styles/patterns avail-
able to them. Social service will be the other strategy
we focus on, it is basically just keeping an eye out of
the reviews from our customers and responding them.
We choose this method because it is the most direct
way to communicate with our valuable customers. By
spending time looking at and replying the comments
from them, we will be able to know more about the
strengths and weaknesses of our company and make
corresponding adjustments in order to fit the needs of
our customers.
25. Costs 23
Costs
We predict the startup cost for our business will
be $207,000-265k. This total cost is based on the cost
of machinery and software, hiring artists to design the
cases, purchasing a storefront and an initial marketing
campaign. Continuous Laser Interface Production
machines are currently available for leases of $40,000
per year, we should also expect to spend about $5,000
purchasing computers on which to run our phone
modeling program and creating a product website.
Using the budgets of crowdfunded projects with a sim-
ilar theme to ours (a highly customizable 3d printed
accessory), we predict the cost of hiring artists to come
up with an initial range of phone cases and different
elements available to customize them will be between
$150,000-200k (Bennett). Purchasing a storefront in a
shopping center or mall in a major city will likely cost
$40,000-60k per month for 1,000 sq ft of retail space at
a popular mall. This because most malls and shopping
centers sell retail space based on a percentage their
total revenue per square foot (Rueger). However a mall
kiosk usually costs between $2,000-10k in upfront
costs and are usually $2,300 per month or 15% of sales
depending on the agreement and which is higher (How
to start a….). The standard for marketing for many
companies is 6-7% of revenues for that period, seeing
as we do not yet have revenue, and we are also intro-
ducing an entirely new product we predict the total
cost of an initial marketing campaign will cost around
$10,000 (How much should…).
Given our recurring costs if we sell phone cases for
$25, our business will reach a break even point at the
sale of eleven phone cases per day.
(Startup Costs)
(Cost per Year)
26. 24 Conclusion
Conclusion
Creating design phone cases with up to date machinery and technology may have significant upfront
costs however the overall long term benefits outweigh them significantly as in the future this type of business is
becoming more popular. Due to phones being one of the most important things that a person owns in today’s
society it is a good idea to invest in a business that protects and promotes smartphones. Since the technology
that will be used helps in multiple aspects such as protection and design there is not much competitors can do to
match the level of quality that our product can. Incorporate that with the ease of making the product it is easy to
see why this business can be a success.
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