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.
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