| The
Dataproducts division of Hitachi was experienced in business-to-business
sales of their printing solutions.
But
they suspected there might be a market for their inkjet products
as well, but going up against the "Big Three" of
Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and Epson was pretty daunting. This
is a highly profitable market that no one's giving up without
a fight. Other vendors had tried, only to be sued for patent
infringement or trade dress copyright infringement. The money's
there, but you better draw between the lines...carefully.
I
researched the market, met with key retail and SME buyers,
and conducted customer interviews to find our what, when, and
why they bought, and how they determined what to buy. I then
wrote a complete business plan which was then funded by the
Hitachi Board.
My
teams and I designed packaging for 37 different products, and
launched the product line into accounts such as Staples, CompUSA,
and others.
Our
goal was $6,000,000 for the first year but we missed that target
by about 300%. We did over $20,000,000 in our first
year. And Dataproducts became the largest non-OEM
supplier in the inkjet market. Another "overnight" success. |
|
