Business Idea Report: Smart Backpack

Business Idea Report: Smart Backpack

Yanbo Cheng

February 27, 2018

Table of Contents

Introduction to Idea & Personal Overview ……………………………………………………… 3

Business Idea & Rationale ………………………………………………………………………. 3

Competition ………………………………………………………………………………………5

Target Market …………………………………………………………………………………….6

Proposed Marketing Plan ………………………………………………………………………... 6

Future Outlook …………………………………………………………………………………... 7

Reference ………………………………………………………………………………………... 8

Introduction to Idea & Personal Overview

Otsuki and Raybin (2009) assert that quite a good number of people leaves home with backpacks and spend the whole day with them until they get back home in the evening. Backpacks are important for carrying books, laptops, or any other material used in places of work or schools. Nevertheless, backpacks are not only used by people going to their places of works and students but are also used by many other people including hikers and travelers based on the convenience. Moreover, I have personally come across and used many backpacks properly designed and shaped to reduce injuries and other health problems, but still are useable in an improper manner including overloading and poor tightening of the trap. This implies that backpack is an important accessory in people’s daily lives; however, should be maintained smart and as convenient as possible for the safety of the user without causing any injury (Siwak, & Gorga, 2008). Therefore, this report presents a noble business idea about a smart backpack with the capability of measuring and establishing the actual weight of its content. The report has therefore focused on the detailed presentation of the business idea, market competitors, targeted market, projected market plan, general product outlook and finally the summary.

Business Idea & Rationale

The backpack is weight sensitive such that it enables the user to avoid putting too much weight on it for the sake of his or her safety. Majority of student globally have been found to develop severe back problems primarily from carrying around with overweight backpacks (Brody, 2012). The weight of things usually carried in backpacks such as notebooks, binders, textbooks, and others quickly adds up. Most often people also carry laptops leading to rapid weight accumulation which is capable of creating a recipe for the development of a bad habit of the backpack. According to the United States Commission for product safety, in the year 2013 over 23, 000 people were treated for severe injuries due to backpack overweight (Almalki, 2014). The report submitted that this is caused by improper usage of the backpacks. Back pain, muscle spasms, scoliosis, spine damages and neck and shoulder strain. Moreover, Parker et al (2013) report that each day, heavy backpacks carried by over 75 million individuals in the US have a very high potential of causing low back pain that most often only come to last during adulthood.

It can, therefore, be you or your child/loved one who becomes the next victim as a result of improper use of the backpack. As a solution for this particular problem, I thought of the smart backpack which is made up of weight sensor to enable the user to avoid inappropriate uses. The device simply measures the forces around the body parts indicated in figure 1 below.[pic 1][pic 2]

The backpack utilizes a simple technology of load cells; a sensor used in the calculation of the load capacity of elevators, cars, or bridges. Similarly, when the load cell or weight sensor is added to the backpack, one will be able to know the maximum weight he or she can carry without suffering long health damage to the body.

To justify the idea of the smart backpack, intensive research based on selected five research questions was conducted. The question focused on establishing health problem faced by frequent users of the backpacks; thus, a college school where nearly all the student use backpacks daily were preferred. Five students were selected and issued with the questions each. The various common responses were also recorded as indicated in table 1 below.

Table 1