Introduction
It is not doubtful that children are born every minute of each passing day. The birth of a child comes as a gift to many people because of the different cultures across the world that view babies as gifts from God. SmartBaby & Mom is a company that I feel will thrive in the baby market. The company seeks to produce and sell customized cradles for new-born babies. According to Kumari (2017), people or parents rather always want the best for their newly born and would go to the end of the world to make the day of birth a special occasion. It is precisely because of the above that I thought of the cradle manufacturing business.
Uniqueness of the Business
SmartBaby & Mom seeks to customize baby cradles for new-born babies. Apart from customizing the product, the business intends to target all people from the rich to the poor and have cradles produced specifically for specific babies. The business is different from others because it gives the parents the chance to create a description of what they want for their children unlike many other cradle manufacturers that provide parents with a limited creation from which to pick.
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The business will allow parents to create a design with the assistance of out experts and come out with what they envision as the carriage for their children. Kumari (2017), observed that the cradle business is a multi-million dollar business with many families especially the ones getting their first babies spending millions of dollars to acquire cradles and pleasantries for their children.
Market
Kumari (2017), contends that the global market for baby cribs and cots is to grow at a CAGR of 5.26% with the growing trend showing remarkable preference for the cribs and cots that are aesthetically appealing. The market is significantly high considering the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (2017), insists that 12.2 per every 1000 population gives birth every year in the US alone.
It is thus well to contend that there is a big market. As earlier mentioned, it is cultural especially in America for people to buy gifts for newly born babies. The most important is usually the resting place for the baby and parents always want the best when it comes to it. It is observed that parents today want convertible cribs with an aesthetic value. The SmartBaby & Mom will offer convertible cribs in the design that parents dictate to enable them get what they want. A single family will need between one to three cradles and summing up the numbers would imply that the market would demand approximately 119,000 cradles on a monthly basis.
Business Model
According to Corley (2018), the best cradles are those that offer safety and serenity to a baby. The biggest sellers in the market began with selling cradles from their stores and warehouses on orders. However, the trend has changed today and cradles and cribs are sold online. SmartBaby & Mom will offer different cradles at different prices depending on the specifications issued by the parents. However, a standing fee will be present for the standard size cradles already produced. Additional elements, designs that require extra material and urgency of the order will contribute to the final price.
BabySmart & Mom will have a physical store from where it will retail its products. The company seeks to distribute and sell its products without including a middle retailer in order to cut on price for the customers. Apart from the physical store, the company will have an online store that will allow clients to make their orders, instruct on their preferred designs and look at the products offered by the company.
Pricing
The standard price for the smallest or rather cheapest crib or cradle will be $ 112. That is the basic cradle and one that is simple in structure without many additions but one that offers safety and comfort necessary for the child. The average cheap price is $150 (Corley, 2018). As mentioned earlier, the prices of the cradles will vary depending on the urgency of order, design and materials the parents want on their cribs. The market mix will thus entail the product variation determining price and place of distribution.
Measures to avoid duplication by others
Well, the SmartBaby & Mom Company will have a copyright on its designs and will patent its idea of customization. This is a legal move that will prevent others from copying the designs. However, the model of business remains free for anyone to imitate and as such, the company will ensure to advertise its brand so that the market base understands its models making it hard for competitors to succeed using the same. Once the business has established itself as the one that offers the above privileges, any other company that tries to do that will be seen as a copycat and fail to gain market base of any portion because people will trace its endeavours back to SmartBaby & Mom.
Customer
The primary customer is parents that are having their baby for the first time. Kumari (2017) remarks that these parents get so indulged in the affair of having a baby that they tend to overthink and stress about every detail the coming of the baby. Such parents spend on cribs, baby rooms and toys and everything that is associated with new babies. These parents are everywhere and the middle class will be found in the suburbs and uptown.
Such parents respond to marketing strategies that speak or show proof of previous parents who have been satisfied by the services and products they received from a certain institution. Moreover, they tend to value products that come with recommendations from known and approved physicians. Therefore, SmartBaby & Mom will seek recommendation from a well-known doctor prior to the licensing federal board.
Turning a Profit
The idea can be turned into profit. First, the company will conduct a market research among pregnant women and ensure to secure at least thirty clients. The clients will thus be bound by the idea to come to the company for the baby cradles. The company will begin by taking deposits for those that wish to have customized cribs and cradles for their children and source out the rest of the finances from the company kitty. Afterwards, the company will send a kind request to the clients to make public their recommendation of the products on the company site. SmartBaby will then advertise its commodities online and ensure to attach the company site link on these social media pages so that interested mothers and soon to be fathers are directed to the company site.
Funding
Judging from the analytics and number of orders estimated for the business to start, SmartBaby & Mom will require a capital base of $ 4000 for the manufacturing, $1000 for rent and storage, $500 for transportation and $2000 for advertising. As it stands, the company has $3500 in its kitty. The bank has pledged to lend the business $2000 and the rest of the funding can be sourced from family and friends as contributions.
Expertise
I am self-driven, confident and ambitious and all these make the basic attributes of any person that is successful. I appreciate that I may have weaknesses in certain areas such as tolerating high levels of stress but with proper management and motivation I can pull through. Moreover, I have great knowledge and experience of business considering I used to retail coffee back in high school.
I thus understand the nitty-gritties of the process of having to acquire and deal with various clients. I am strong-willed and that makes me able to sustain myself under significant amounts of pressure in the course of an undertaking such as the following business venture.
Scope for Growth
Yes. The company has a great scope for growth considering babies will always be born. However, the scope is not on the one thing that remains consistent but rather the one that changes. Babies will always be born but under different conditions and in different generations. Time changes and so do people and that means that tastes will also change.
The world is slowly becoming technological and soon cribs and cradles will need to have cameras that allow parents to watch their children from far, sensors that allow parents to respond immediately to the need of their children and even recorders that make parents engage with their children while at work or any other place. Such additional inputs insist that the company will always improve and have access to newer and fresher markets especially with the new generations.
Conclusion
SmartBaby & Mom is a company that I feel will thrive in the baby market. The company seeks to produce and sell customized cradles for new-born babies. The primary customer is parents that are having their baby for the first time. These parents get so indulged in the affair of having a baby that they tend to overthink and stress about every detail the coming of the baby. Such parents spend on cribs, baby rooms and toys and everything that is associated with new babies.
References
Corley, H. (2018). What You Should Know Before Buying a Baby Crib. Very Well Family, 1(23), 1-5. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/baby-crib-buying-guide-294018
Kumari, N. (2017). Segmenting the Online Consumer Market By Online Purchase Behaviour In Eastern India Perspective (Doctoral Dissertation, Icfai University Jharkhand).
National Center for Health Statistics. (2017). FastStats. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm
