Designing New Pet Products

An introduction to designing new pet products.

Designing new pet products can be an exciting and highly rewarding journey. The market is large and growing with a real hungry for a new generation of pet products that are eco-friendly, better designed and use highly quality materials. It is also great fun testing and trailing product ideas with animals and there is lots of room for innovation in the sector.

It is often very easy to get carried away with new ideas and the excitement of the development journey. We see this with businesses large and small but it pays huge dividends to take a step back at the beginning of a project and to work out what is really going to be viable.

The fundamental aim of the Commercial Viability stage of work is to ascertain whether or not the project is feasible. To do this vital assessment there are several important factors to be considered:

Does the product fulfil a ‘real’ need?
Is there a potential market for the product?
Can the product be patented or protected through other forms of intellectual property?
Is there similar technology available and if so how applicable is it to the product? Can this technology be used? How much research and cost would this technology require to be fully utilised?
What are the costs associated with producing the product?
How much time and budget will it take to develop this product?
What are the key competitors for the product and how does this new concept stack up against them?
What would be a minimum viable approach for this project?
What will be the key marketing messages?
Can we tie down a really precise, clear project brief?

Inevitably some of this work you can do inhouse but some elements might be professional services such as patent searching, market research and ball park costing work. The key is to assess how much it is worth spending to limit your risk for the remainder of the project.

Product design consists of transforming an initial idea into an appealing and viable product that can be manufactured. It is often necessary to commission a professional product designer with strong creative ability and an excellent knowledge of engineering materials and manufacturing techniques in order to develop an idea.

The product design process should involve:

Research into materials and processes for manufacturing the product
Detailed consideration of technologies for the key functional requirements.
Developing innovative concept development through sketching and initial Computer Aided Design (CAD) models
Functional design development giving full consideration to the environment where the product will be used.
Full consideration of usability and ergonomics
Product styling
Functional mechanical or electronic development, if required

Product design refines and improves how an idea works and is therefore often integral to achieving strong patent protection.

This process should result in a detailed design, either CAD or sketched diagrams for textile products, that can then be used to move into prototyping where the design will be developed and refined further.

We’ve worked with a number of clients to bring innovative pet products to the market.

If you would like to carry on reading more about designing new pet products click here.

If you’ve got a project for a pet product but don’t know how to go about developing it, contact us today and we can arrange a call to discuss it.

Let us help you bring your new product to market.

If you’re looking to develop a new product or re-design an existing range but lack the in-house capacity or expertise to make it a reality, get in touch with us today to discuss your requirements.

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Client Testimonials

What people say

D2M are excellent. The team responded quickly, listened to what was required and then in a very short period were able to turn that into a workable design. I'd thoroughly recommend them to anyone wanting rapid and innovative design work. A great group of people to work with!

Phil and his team are the ultimate professionals when it comes to developing a product and I recommend him to anyone wishing to take advantage of his services. Furthermore, his commercial awareness is second to none.

Phil and his team were fantastic to work with. Phil in particular really took the time and energy to engage with our project, allowing for an open collaborative space to innovate, bringing a great end result. highly recommended and looking forward to working with Phil and his team again.

The team was able to put together a varied and imaginative set of product designs. They were able to suggest manufacturers for the different stages of the development. Their design was able to cater to the electrical and heat constraints of the product, while being visually striking. They are a knowledgeable crowd

Having worked with several design consultancies in the UK, Germany, France and the USA, I have been struck by D2M’s ability to punch well above its weight in terms in a highly intelligent way, always taking into account our specific limitations and preferences as a client, to provide effective solutions at both the strategic and tactical levels.

Expert Knowledge

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