A key component of the marketing process entails pinpointing your target audience and the best way to reach it. McCombs and his team conduct 90-minute focus groups composed of 12 participants from their client's target audience. The groups are asked to analyze the product and give their first impressions about its usability, look, feel and smell. McCombs says he creates his client's marketing plan based on each group's feedback. McCombs, whose client list includes Prudential and the New Jersey Port Authority, screens potential clients by offering a free consultation, which may last from two to three hours, to assess their marketing needs.
Inventors can also use informal focus groups comprising family or friends.
However, Hodock warns that inventors must maintain their objectivity. Sometimes inventors fall in love with what they've created and it's blind love, because they don't often see how their invention can fit into the market. Now that you've determined who your target audience is, it's time to start massproducing your product. When an inventor enters into a licensing or manufacturing deal with a company, he or she gives that company permission to manufacture or market the product and receives a royalty in return. While a licensing company will also market your product, a manufacturing company does not.