STATING THE PROBLEM ACCURATELY IS CRITICAL - CAPTURING THE PAIN POINTS

 

STATING THE PROBLEM ACCURATELY IS CRITICAL

A PAIN POINT is a problem that people have with a product or service that might be addressed by creating a modified version that solves the problem more efficiently. Once a pain point is identified in a firm’s own product or in a competitor’s product, the firm can bring creativity to bear in finding and testing solutions that sidestep or eliminate the pain, making the innovation marketable. Examples of pain points can be found at every step of our lives.

DOMESTIC EXAMPLES

THE KITCHEN CUTTING BOARDS

PAIN POINT – These flat cutting / chopping boards are good for dry vegetables, but a pain in the neck when it comes to juicy fruits & vegetables. All the good juice flows out & down the board on to the table & then on the floors.

EUREKA MOMENT – It is now proposed to manufacture cutting boards in the shape of a Dish on the lines of a hollowed in plate dish. This way all the juice will be forced to collect inside the caved center of the board, which can be easily emptied out later after the cutting process is done. It is further proposed to provide four notches at each side of the board to facilitate the draining of the juice from the depression of the board.

 

THE COMMON KITCHEN KNIFE

PAIN POINT - The sharp little knives with colored handles are pretty good at cutting vegetables but they are LITTLE to get a full grip on them. The 4-inch blade with a 3-inch thin plastic handle is cumbersome to hold, grip & cut with full force, because your fingers hit the chopping board before the knife slices through the vegetables.

EUREKA MOMENT – A 6-inch blade with a 5-inch thick wooden / plastic handle is now being proposed as an innovation to the above predicament. The handle will be knurled for a firmer grip & raised by 2 inches above the cutting board following an elongated Z configuration. The handle will also have a flat space for the index finger positioning & pressure area for prolonged effortless cutting.

 

WARDROBES & CABINETS

PAIN POINTS – The valuable vertical & depth space is often wasted in every case. The Air rights in pantry cabinets, kitchen cabinets & bedroom wardrobes go underutilized even when offered by thoughtful Interior designers. An average person can comfortably handle heavy stuff at 6 ft height maximum. With 8 ft ceilings what do we do with Air-rights from 6 ft to 8 ft. How practical is rear space on a 24-inch-deep shelf.  It is a big loss that we bear with a grudge.

EUREKA MOMENT – It is now proposed to install Ferris Wheel style moving shelves in elliptical motion, in every cabinet & wardrobe to maximize the Air rights available & achieve the convenience of getting every item / clothing at eye level for viewing & handling. Additionally on fixed lower shelves we can go for lazy Suzane by the dozen. I am proposing horizontal elliptical lazy Suzans on kitchen shelves to maximize the depth space utilization. 

KEEPING THE FOOD WARM AT NO COST

PAIN POINT – First we spend energy to cool / freeze the food. Then we spend more energy to warm it up / thaw it before cooking & consuming it. Simultaneously the refrigerator is transferring the heat from inside to the outside environment making it warmer & uncomfortable.

EUREKA MOMENT – It is now proposed to reengineer the common household appliance named Refrigerator. The Heat sink which is today spread out at the rear of the appliance is now proposed to be compacted, boxed in & positioned on the top / bottom of the fridge. This will be used as a food warmer / thawing purpose, to save on the total energy consumption & mitigate the heat being dissipated into the rooms / home. It can also be used for fermentation, yoghurt making & slow cooking too. When it is not in use, the box would open for ventilation of the heat sink.

THE USUAL MEN’S SHAVING BRUSH  

PAIN POINT - This contraption was designed long ago when the shaving soap would come in the form of a round hardened cake piece sitting in a round plastic box. To get started one would wet this 2-inch brush of coarse bristles, nested in a 2-inch wooden/plastic handle & start the process of extracting the soap. The soap bubbles would spill on to your fingers & thumb making the gripping of the smooth small handle cumbersome & surely painful. 

EUREKA MOMENT - Today the soap cake piece has been replaced with gels, shaving soap in tubes & foam cans for quick & easy applications. But this brush has not changed at all. It is now proposed to move on to a long handle with camel hairbrush for easy spreading of the foam / tube soap. The author uses the wonderful painter’s brush 1-inch wide with camel hair for effortless soap application.

 

THE UNDER GARMENTS

PAIN POINT – The stitched seams of these intimate garments get into the crevices of the body the normal way everyone wears them with seams inside. The irritation caused by these protruding seams makes you uncomfortable to the point that you keep pulling out the underwear every now & then, also adjusting the bra from time to time.

EUREKA MOMENT – The author wears his undergarments inside out. This way the silly seams are outside & not getting onto my crevices ever. I think the original designer had this in mind but failed to convey this fact / secret to the buyers / public that they should wear them INSIDE OUT. Many designer Jeans, shirts & jackets also come with seams displayed outside & the good part inside.

 

HEALTH & MEDICAL EXAMPLES

 

PAIN POINTS

 

Our gullible society is always obsessed with their HEALTH. In 1700 AD many smart pharmacists thrived on this NEED of the people. In the past people, eminent & otherwise often suffered from POOR DIGESTION. Sanitation practices were hit and miss even in the best kitchens. Fresh fruits & vegetables were unavailable in the off seasons. Well off people could eat vegetables preserved in salt and sugar, poor people did without them. As for STRESS, work hours were long & usually physical. A typical workday was 12 hours, and the work week was 6 days with the only day of rest being Sunday. Many concoctions and pills were originally created as medicines.

 

URREKA MOMENTS

 

In 1791 Johann Jacob Schweppes, a German watchmaker turned soft drink entrepreneur, began mixing carbonated water laced with Quinine. This tonic water when mixed with Gin became a very popular drink throughout the British Empire. It helped solve the Malaria problem unknowingly.                        

In 1870 Dr. Thomas introduced Eclectic oil patent medicine. It could be used internally and externally. The secret concoction included spirits of turpentine, camphor, oil of tar, red thyme and fish oil. It was claimed to cure tooth ache in 2 minutes, earaches in 5 minutes and deafness in 3 days.                                 

In 1885 the first patent medicine was put on the market for our gullible public, who can be found in every part of the world at any point of timeline. It was Lydia Pinkham’s vegetable compound laced with alcohol which made it the subject of an efficacious drinking song, the ballad of Lydia Pinkham. It was another version of natural mineral waters considered to be beneficial to drink for one’s health. Millions of people were curious to find it out for themselves, so they all tried it, and many got hooked on it for life and future generations.

In 1889 a trained pharmacist invented a sticky sweet beverage and sold it from Hood’s Drug stores in Lowell Massachusetts. His mesmerizing slogan was “For that tired feeling take Hood’s.”  He also advertised in Globe and Mail a second slogan “Hood’s Sarsaparilla the surest way to have good blood.”

In 1890 a young enterprising George Taylor Fulford bought a patent medicine formula from a local doctor William Jackson for $50 and made it into a multimillion-dollar empire. The secret formula was mostly Iron oxide and Epsom salts. These ingredients addressed the two most common ailments of the time, Anemia and Constipation, but the advertisements claimed to cure everything. “Pink pills for pale people.” Fulford sold 40 pink pills for 50 cents a box. He thrived because he was lucky in the days of reliable postal system and mass media of numerous dailies.

THE COCA COLA STORY

In 1902 perhaps the greatest patent medicine turned soft drink success story is the tonic invented by John Pemberton. He was an ex-confederate soldier turned pharmacist who wanted to find a cure for the shattered nerves of ex-soldiers experiencing combat stress. Pemberton, like many Civil War veterans had become addicted to morphine after being wounded in battle.

In Europe, a French chemist by the name of Angelo Mariani fortified Bordeaux wine with cocaine from cocoa leaves and marketed it under the name of Vin Mariani. Queen Victoria, Roman popes, and Thomas Edison were known fans of Mariani’s tonic, which of course inspired many imitators. 

Pemberton supercharged Mariani’s formula by adding a strong dose of caffeine from coca pods and called his elixir Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. Although the cocaine was soon dropped from the formula, one of Pemberton’s business partners came up with a fresh and catchy brand name COCA-COLA.

This medicinal elixir failed to break through, therefore Pemberton sold the formula to Asa Griggs Candler who switched his marketing slogan to target the young healthy urbanities, and rest is history.  In 1906 the American congress passed the pure food and drug act requiring all drug manufacturers to be truthful in their advertising and to list all addictive ingredients on their labels. Ironically, Coca-Cola ran afoul of the new US law for not having cocaine in its drink as implied. The case was dismissed, and Coke was allowed to remain cocaine free, but the caffeine is still there.

Now for some frightening concoctions that the gullible public has been a target of; Presque’s Uranium Wine was marketed to the public as a guaranteed cure for Diabetes. The secret formula was Bordeaux wine and uranium nitrate.

Dr. Batty’s cigarettes were marketed to people suffering from Asthma, bad breath & Bronchial irritation. How paradoxical is this claim and no one saw through it. Then there was the Microbe killer that consisted of tap water, red wine, and trace amounts of Sulphury acid. This too was a success with the public.

In 1914 The Loyd manufacturing company of Albany, N.Y. advertised Cocaine Toothache Drops as an “instantaneous cure” for the teething children. It was sold over the counter drug.

In 1920 Seven Up was created as a hangover cure even during the height of prohibition. Seven Up’s slogan was “Take the ouch out of the grouch.” It contained lithium citrate, a known mood stabilizing drug. The trend continues unabated with Red Bulls, Gatorades, and Vitamin waters. Today the health freaks and their industry are worth $ 50 billion a year for weight loss products and services alone because they have gullible customers to satisfy and deceive.

GARLIC & ONION ARE POTENT MEDICINES TOO

We have been consuming these powerful items by using them as primary starting points in our daily cooking, influenced by celebrity chefs & media advertising. It is much worse than consuming coke cola or any of the above drinks based upon crude medicines. Garlic cures many acute & chronic ailments, so why do we take it as food on a regular basis. The answer is ancient stone age beliefs handed down by our ignorant forefathers. What we eat becomes a part of us, therefore why do we want toxic Garlic to be a part of us as toxicity. A large part of our population like Jains, Brahma Kumaris, Radha Swamis, & other learned people do not consume these toxic medicinal foods, ever. Think before you eat this next time.

 

ROHIT KHANNA     IN-DEFATIGABLE

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