tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2897050813909607851.post6799911613186951125..comments2024-03-20T14:04:09.588-04:00Comments on THE ORDINARY OBSERVER: Poly-America, L.P. v. API Industries, Inc., - Identifying the Ordinary ObserverL&Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04783942826331605756noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2897050813909607851.post-65547050476206724972014-08-15T09:59:17.576-04:002014-08-15T09:59:17.576-04:00"Unlike the sprayer shroud in Arminak, which ..."Unlike the sprayer shroud in Arminak, which admittedly would not be noticed by most retail consumers . . . " <br />A few moments spent observing products in the cleaning aisle at the supermarket contradicts the judge's dismissive and uninformed statement. Consumer product components are not designed in a vacuum, and commercially successful products aren't created by picking random components out of a bin as this quote suggests. Thousands of drawings, hundreds of designs, scores of prototypes, and deep psychological and neurological research inform every millimeter of consumer product design at this level. (Although perhaps not that much for the product at suit here, very much so for sprayer shrouds).<br /><br />The laser focus of product design, which by definition is going to have "components," is whether it appeals to the final purchaser or end-user. If consumers don't purchase the product, wholesale buyers won't either because they'd lose their job if they did. The best wholesale buyers know the consumer in their market niche, and will choose the product that is positioned correctly for their customer, which is based on brand and price plus design. If the price of the copycat product is a little cheaper, and the designs are similar, the cheaper one may pass through the buyer's gate.<br /><br />Rarely is the copycat the better design because copycats don't hire the best designers. There is a direct correlation between talent and cost. The business problem here is that the copycat's sunk costs in design are much less, and their lower price will beat out the more innovative company that takes design risks, such as P&G in the cleaning products aisle. <br /><br />As a designer and manufacturer of consumer products who sold both wholesale and retail, I never considered the wholesale buyer's perspective when designing a component because buyers aren't demand drivers. The first question I had to answer was, does the component work with the product as a whole? The second question was, does the component make the product more attractive to the consumer than that of my competitors? Well, I got a design patent on that component, and I can proudly say that the product design was so successful, it's been knocked off continuously by different manufacturers for the entire life of the patent, which expires in two months.<br /><br />Flann Lippincott, esq.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04483819175832389949noreply@blogger.com