Projector Screens
As digital projectors have increased in quality they have also dropped in price. Many homes are now able to afford to have a home theatre system including surround sound DVD systems and a projector, which offers a massive viewing surface when switched on but may be very unobtrusive when turned off.
Despite the fact that the projectors are falling in value many electrical stores make money on accessories such as the screens to project onto. The big players are charging upwards of $600 for an electric screen which does not fit well with a sub $1000 projector. Conversely you can build your own screen for less than $100 by following advice at www.projectorcentral.com/diy_screen.htm . Note that this is not our recommended route but does show the disparity in pricing quite clearly.
I believe there is a big opportunity here for mass distribution, but you would need to be prepared to focus and probably quit your day job. The big electrical stores will not be interested in your product as they would be cannibalising their own margins, but an outsider like a supermarket chain may be interested in a projector and screen package and could sell thousands of units. You will need to find the buyers and pitch your product to them but it is possible that the whole market price could move as a result of a play like this.
If you are not ready to take on the big players just yet then there are number of other approaches that should work for you. If you are only planning to sell a small number of units initially then you can keep more of the margin than if you approach a large chain. Average the difference between your competitors product price and your cost and you will be a cheap player with a worthwhile margin.
You can try the following distribution methods: -
EBay
Website
Other Websites
Small electrical retailers
Articles
EBay has 1400 items listed under projector screen; much of this is DIY material and/or cheap portable screens. By offering a luxury electric screen at an affordable price you should be able to shift quite a few units here
Whilst Google has about 16 million hits for the phrase <projector screens> there is definitely room for a budget player, using the words low cost, or budget along with the initial search term reduces the number of hits to 1.2 million. With some homework on SEO techniques and some dedication you can be near the top of this list in no time, or you could pay Google for advertising when these key words are entered. Every time you search on Google there are adverts on the right hand side which can be accessed through the adwords program, often very cost effectively. Read our pages on finding customers at www.ideas2earn.com/finding_customers.html for more information on building and promoting a website. There is also information about the techniques I have used to market www.ideas2earn.com on my blog at http://ideas2earn.spaces.live.com/
You may want to work with other websites to deliver your products to their customers. Examples might include successful blogs, or review sites. Write directly to them and explain that you are fed up with seeing people get ripped off on their projector screens and decided to do something about it. With the right pitch, and a genuine low cost offer you are likely to get some interest. You may allow them to take a percentage of your sales, or to transact the sale from their site with a mark-up on the price at which you are willing to supply. Note that you will probably need to take care of the shipping costs.
Even small specialist retailers like to offer special deals once in a while. Drop in on a Monday or Tuesday lunchtime when they should be quiet and have a chat with the manager or store owner. See if they are interested in carrying your screens for a limited period to pull customers in, maybe by making it part of a full home theatre package.
Writing an article around how the big players are ripping people off on home theatre by overpricing the accessories even for budget systems would probably get some interest from the mainstream press. Start by offering the story to a local newspaper or radio station, follow up with a press release or two online, and then offer your article directly to specialist home theatre magazines, or even Hi-Fi magazines. It is possible that other journalists will read what you are doing and follow up directly with you. But it should be possible to build some real buzz. Make sure of course that your web address is included in everything where you are quoted, and everything you write.
Finding a manufacturer for a projector screen should be pretty straightforward; www.alibaba.com has 339 listings under a search for <projector screen>. Many of these suppliers will be used to working with high end electrical stores and will be over charging for their product but the ark up will still be significant. Make sure that they are used to supplying customers in your market and focus primarily on electric screens as your product should be aspirational.
Once you are up and running you should take a trip to see your suppliers and whilst you are there investigate who else could supply the screens. This will probably allow you some more margin and having 2 suppliers is great as you can play them off against each other.
If you start to make major sales then others will follow, which might make this a short lived, but profitable business.
You can get set up for very little money and then trim your costs and improve your marketing.
Ultimately you would be doing a favour to whole home entertainment industry by bringing down the overall cost of a home theatre system.