Activity$/$Task

Stirling and Marshall first met when studying marketing at university. Both were ambitious and had plans to run their own businesses. Over time they decided to start a business together.

Initially they spent many months discussing what sort of business they should go into.

Obviously, they considered various service businesses, like consulting, business colleges, and various internet$-$based offerings. However, it was eventually an opportunity in the children's toy market that had quite good potential. They had observed that parents were becoming increasingly time$-$poor and, as a result, had less time to spend with their children. And to compensate for this, the parents typically spent large amounts on their children to entertain them. Obvious examples were the success of PlayStations, iPods, PC$\text{'}$s$,$ and even mobile phones. Stirling simply stated: "These are big ticket items. The level of spending on children is dramatically increasing $-$ and this trend should continue. Parents are simply looking for things to keep their children entertained for extended periods of time $-$ and the only solution is expensive electronic gadgets. If we can bring alternative games and toys to the market, we should fill a large market need and hit a competitive gap.

Needless to say, that Marshall also felt that this was the most viable opportunity that they

had so far considered $-$ and hence $"$S & M Toys" $($named after their initials$)$ was born.

Let us do some research.

Having set the direction for the business, the next step was to identify what products they could bring to the market. Not having children of their own, they called upon the expertise of their fellow student Majdi, who was a father of four young children.

Through a series of discussions over coffee, various ideas were canvassed, such as:

$$ Talking books that teach languages. That is$,$ touch a picture in a book and it says the word in different languages $($whichever one you want to learn$),$

$$ An interactive doll that can have conservations with the child. That is$,$ some sort of smart logic that allows it to make sensible responses $($like the 'help' function with software$),$ and

$$ A board game that you can play by yourself $($but not on a PC$).$ For example, you play Monopoly against pretend opponents that are built into the 'electronic' circuits of a sophisticated game board.

Although there were probably a few good ideas thrown around, both Stirling and

Marshall felt $($without doing any formal evaluation$)$ that they had not stumbled across a strong product concept.

The break$-$through

A few weeks after this first meeting, the S & M team met up with Julia and

Thomas, also students from their university classes.

"I like the S & M name", said Thomas, "It's really suitable for the kid's market. It's a play on M&M$\text{'}$s$,$ which is a well$-$known chocolate. Therefore, you might be able to leverage some sort of connection there, to help launch the brand".

"Yeah, good idea $-$ didn't think of that connection. We might be able to do something

with it down the track", said Marshall. Launch plans were one thing, what was lacking now was some strong product concepts, and that is where they thought Julia and Thomas might be able to help.

After discussing their various ideas to date, and highlighting that they just felt that them

ideas were just too technical $($which was not their expertise$),$ they admitted they were

becoming a little concerned whether they could take advantage of their chosen

opportunity.

"Just an idea", Julia said after a few moments silence, "But aren't most of your ideas

targeted at smart kids?"

Stirling and Marshall nodded and told her that they believed that parents would spend more money on 'gifted' children, and even most of the private educational services appeared to be targeted at smarter kids.

"But aren't you guys after a gap in the market? You should look at Non smart kids instead!" said Thomas.

"Look, these are not the right words, but something like 'simple toys for simple kids' is

the right approach", said Julia.

They all laughed. It was not the right words, but the idea sure seemed right!

After that breakthrough, the group of four quickly went into a productive ad hoc brainstorming session. Some of the ideas generated included:

$$ Scrabble with extra vowels and zero points for hard letters,

$$ Table tennis tables with bigger racquets and bigger slower balls, and

$$ Ugly dolls $($to make ugly kids feel beautiful$).$

Let's NOT roll the dice

However, the one idea that seemed to stand out, as the one to go ahead with, was a board game with an electronic dice system. This dice system would be programmable, so that selected players would always get better rolls of the dice.

This would mean that the 'selected' child would win more often $($rather than parents pretending to lose$).$ This would, of course, be more fun for the child and they