Development of a New Product In a Globally Competitive Environment: Ice Cream Scooper - Case Study Example

The invention related to a scoop provided with a heating mechanism at the edge in order to facilitate easier penetration of the heated edge into the ice cream and prevent ice cream adhering to the scoop once it is emptied. Ice cream and other frozen confectionaries are usually solidified to such as an extent that makes it hard to scoop them by ordinary ice cream scoopers. As a result, this invention of a scooper with a heated edge will make work easier as the edge will readily cut into the ice cream.

In addition to the heated edge, the ice cream scooper will have the provision of improved means for controlling the degree of temperature to which the edge is heated. This will allow the scoop to form a perfectly formed scoop of ice created with no excessive melting that may result from an overheated edge. The source of heating of the heated edge will be electrical energy that will be safely connected to the heating elements within the scooping device; however, there will also be the provision of powering the edge with a battery.

This scooper is different from the designs of the previous art and conventional concepts. The estimated cost of initial production is approximately $1.6 million, which is expected to decrease gradually because at first, the company will have to purchase both types of machinery that will be used to manufacture the product. Furthermore, office types of equipment will have to be bought, especially for our first shop. We expect to make a profit during our first year of operation, which will increase subsequently.

Product design and manufacturing form the preliminary backbone of business development. Companies across the globe consider product design as the ultimate introductive platform for the pragmatic implementation of new ideas generated by innovative brains. In this context, The Legends considered the significant project of developing heated edge ice cream scooper as the new upcoming idea of winning the new market interests. Primary details of the project reveal that the heated edge of the scooper makes it easier to scoop the ice from the bowl thereby eliminating any physical force involved in ordinary scooping. 

Furthermore, the scooper provides the means of controlling the degree of temperature to which the edge is heated. The product is believed to fetch market in the renowned countries like the United States and China. This based on the fact that the two mentioned countries have established companies that manufacture ice-creams thereby forming ready markets for the scoopers. Facts state that in the year 2011, approximately 1.53 billion ice cream gallons were produced in United States. With these tremendous productions in Ice-Creams, it is realistic that the dream of marketing the scoopers can come true as long as the right product promotion strategies are placed into consideration.

The current state of competition in the defined markets settles on the wide market for the manual ice-cream scoopers, which lack the heating edge. Dominant players in the market include Zyliss, Jenacula, Vintage as well as M &M’s. The companies are said to produce a wide range of the ice-cream scooper models of which all of them are manually operated. It is beyond doubt that the product injection in the nearby market will win the long term interest of the customers. This ice cream scoop would be efficient in that optimize the total heat capacity of the scoop through the increase of the mass of the ice cream scoop.

It also increases the amount of liquid the ice cream scoop can hold. The common practice of service ice cream entails scooping out a measured amount with a basic spoon-like tool generally referred to as a scooper that is made of metallic material such as aluminum (Swift and Booker 129). In addition, at home, ice cream parlors and other similar businesses, it is quite common to heat the scoopers by holding them under a stream of hot water or placing them into a container of hot water. Such heating methods are used to enable the scooping device to cut more easily through the ice cream and they make the undertaking of serving, simple and less of a physical strain upon the individual serving the ice cream.

This practice is effective; however, it has its limitation, as it requires the scooper to be placed into the heating environment constantly and at times leads to some unattractive discoloration and in many events, leaves a slight amount of water or ice on the ice cream. Due to these limitations, the invention of an ice cream scooper with a heated edge will thus be a provision of improved means of reading cutting into the ice cream even when it is hardened by congealing. It is a common problem all over the world that the dispensing of a frozen product using the dispensing utensil requires a significant force in order to remove the same product from the frozen container.

This is most evident in the case where one wants to remove frozen ice from a container using a spoon or scoop; he/she is forced to use force to remove the frozen ice cream. Since frozen ice cream is hard, a significant amount of force is required to push the utensil in question through the frozen ice. The force is required since the frozen ice cream is considered hard because they are kept at a temperature that is significantly under the freezing temperature. To beat this problem, many attempts have been made to heat up the utensils beyond room temperature.

Through the heating of the utensils, the frozen ice cream melts when it is exposed to heated utensil thereby ensuring that the force used to scoop the product is relatively reduced. However, due to a number of factors, these methods have always proved to be unsuccessful. The primary problem has been the transfer of sufficient heat to the portion of the utensils that encounters the ice (the scoop portion of the utensil). Another common method that has been in use in the recent years has been the filling of the hollow portion of the utensils used for scooping with warm water that would in turn heat up the ice cream.

These types of hollow ice cream scoopers allow the heat from the liquid to be transferred from the handle to the scoop portion and thereby heating the scoop portion and ultimately the ice cream.