Idea Napkin 2 - Week 9

1.    My name is Jon Dasher and I am a first year mechanical engineering student.  Although my previous idea had to do with computer applications, I have decided to switch my idea to something I am more passionate about, which is cars.  I have always been fairly mechanically oriented, as I have worked on cars and various other machines with my dad for years.  I hope to be able to develop an exhaust system for more affordable sports cars that allows for variable sound.  If I were to make this product successful, it would allow me to work with cars for the rest of my life, and help make the car modification community less obnoxious to outsiders. 

2.    This system is already present in high end sports cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but when it comes to the middle of the line sports cars, there are very few options.  It is one of the biggest decisions for anyone who is looking to modify their car, whether they should get a loud exhaust or keep it soft.  Many people want to be able to really hear their engine sometimes, but when they are driving it on the highway, the sound becomes extremely irritating. This product would essentially have a remote so that when you want a sportier exhaust sound, all you have to do is press a button, and when you want a subtler sound, just press a different button. 

3.    I would design a system for a few different cars at first like the Hyundai Genesis, Ford Mustang, Honda Civic, and Subaru BRZ/Scion FRS.  I chose these cars because they are the most common choices of cars for people who are modifying their cars (16-30-year-old males).  With this age range, customers are often not able to afford higher end sports cars, but they still want to be able to have a car that sounds fast and looks good. It is not all about the high performance, rather the aesthetic.  They are willing to spend maybe a thousand dollars on a new exhaust system, but anything more than that would be better spent on other car parts.

4.    My company would be appealing to these customers because there is virtually no other affordable, quality, variable exhaust system in the world.  With this exhaust system, they would be able to cruise with a high performance sounding exhaust, but when they are on longer road trips, they won’t have to worry about the annoying drone commonly found in high performance exhaust.  This would allow for a steady base to start the company off and eventually allow for the development of systems for other cars as well.  It would take a few years to develop a product with high quality standards, but because I would only be working with a few models, it would allow for much more thorough analysis of the design and materials.

5.    I think my technical background in mechanical engineering really sets apart as well as the fact that I am a part of my customer demographic.  I have a personal interest in my product because it is something that I would definitely want on my car and it is something that I have looked for but never found. 

I think these elements all fit together pretty well, especially the idea of just limiting production to the cars I mentioned because they are the most common middle-tier sports cars in the country.  The biggest weakness in my business concept is proving the quality of the product.  There are already many well-established exhaust companies like Ark, HKS, and Magnaflow, so it would be very difficult to get customers away from the brands they already trust.  My biggest strength is offering something that none of the more established companies deal with. Although there are a few other variable exhaust systems, they are extremely expensive and more oriented around performance, whereas mine would be much more affordable because it is mainly focused on the idea of having a powerful sounding car. 

I didn’t really receive too much feedback on my first idea napkin, but the first point I noticed was that people respected my knowledge of the product and the amount of research I’ve done on it.  I tried to incorporate even more background knowledge and description of the product so that I could better explain it to people who have less technical knowledge in the area.  I also noticed that this product isn’t just appealing to the people modifying their cars, it can appeal to the people that have to be around that car because they don’t have to hear the sometimes obnoxious sound of the car starting up or driving by.  I tried adding more description in the Why Do They Care section to show that it isn’t just beneficial for the owner, but everyone associated with that person.  There was a concern over how I would be able to ensure the quality of the product, and I tried addressing that in both my talent section as well as the description of the product itself.  It is always hard to ensure quality, but because of my limited car model range, it will allow me to better ensure quality before I move onto other models.