CritBuns  

Nowadays
With increased student numbers, personally I tend to keep crits timed and smaller (often grouping them, and insisting students are there for their group only) I can't deny that students learn as much from the crits of their peers as their own.
Although I appreciate what you are trying to achieve,
I really can't imagine one of my students shelling out even more money on something to sit on once every few weeks, with probably nowhere to store it in their respective colleges/ universities..these are young people after all...they are very supple and adaptable.
consider yourself critted

reply
Thank you for the comments. It's retailed in three art school bookstores here in the US, and selling quite well. (The Pratt Store is the best account). I've had students comeback to me with feedback that it's not just used in crits, but when they are working in studio in general, on stools, chairs, benches, floor... some even use it in their dorm room.
Any comments on the site itself?
jg
http://www.critbuns.com

Hi Joe,
I am not going to repeat what robert 1960 mentioned already. If I remember well Ikea has a small foam seat for less than $5.00 and you could also get your friends together and cut one of these thin camping madrasses in small "bun-size" pieces.
This being said, congratulations with designing a product that has both character and personality. If there is something we have learned about products in an affluent society, it is probably that difference between a sticktly functional product and a functional product with added character. It is quite interesting to that the shape(at least I presume you sit on the convext side) is not only suggestive but also ergonomically correct in the sense that it gives the highest support where the pressure is the highest to.
The name says it all....but old school marketing people would have put a "K" in "Krit" There is this theory that brand names with "K" do well Kodak, Kleenex, K-mart, KFC, etc. But to me, it looks fien and it is probably safer Krit is too close to Kid and that combination would getr you in trouble...
I have to run, but I will get back to you on soem other aspects...so long!

Hi Joe,
Somehow the computer dropped a few lines so let me do this again...
I am not going to repeat what robert 1960 mentioned already. If I remember well Ikea has a small foam seat for less than $5.00 and you could also get your friends together and cut one of these thin camping madrasses in small "bun-size" pieces.
This being said, congratulations with designing a product that has both character and personality. If there is something we have learned about products in an affluent society, it is probably that difference between a sticktly functional product and a functional product with added character. It is quite interesting to that the shape(at least I presume you sit on the convext side) is not only suggestive but also ergonomically correct in the sense that it gives the highest support where the pressure is the highest to.
The name says it all....but old school marketing people would have put a "K" in "Krit" There is this theory that brand names with "K" do well Kodak, Kleenex, K-mart, KFC, etc. But to me, it looks fine and it is probably safer Krit is too close to Kid and that combination would get you in trouble...
I have to run, but I will get back to you on some other aspects...so long!

please
Call me Robert
Sorry Joe if I sounded purely negative, I see that now.
Well done on your product, and I wish you well, and if people are finding other uses, then maybe you should home in on those ?
Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate your website, and it's pinboard/blog style ?
To be honest, no student has ever complained of a sore bum from sitting too long, and like to think my crits are lively and enlightnening experiences.
I do, however, worry about my student's spending, and like them to focus on essentials.
But, and I think RISD have the same rule???..any student of mine caught working on the floor gets sent home !
Are you an ex RISD student?
I have a few on exchange visits to the UK, and found them all to be lovely, diligent, hard-working students..and have been an asset to any group I have taught . 😉

If CritBuns pads are selling, maybe you ought to move on to a CritBuns chair...
It seems crit chairing must be of very poor design to require a pad such as yours...good as your pads seem to be.
Now, I know you want feedback on your website, but I'll leave that to more saavy than me. I want to suggest: a CritBuns System Chair. The student can buy the pad and use it on any poorly designed crit chair. If the student wants, the student can by a folding aluminum chair frame for his apt. The chair frame is designed to optimize the bun pad. And it would be very cool to make the chair frame a kind of transformer that doubles as a pull behind gear cart. Fold it into a gear cart. Load the cart with your books and supplies. Go to class. Unload. Redeploy as a crit chair. After class, redeploy as a pull behind cart. Take home. Redeploy as a crit chair. I actually think students would love it. People forget that we have a couple of generations of kids who have grown up on Transformer toys. They are hard wired to be receptive to transforming, dual or multi function artifacts...if they work.
All the above said, I think you're missing the meat of your market entirely as regards the bun pad itself. These things need to be rebadged and marketed as "SportsBuns." You could sell millions of these things to people going to sporting events.
Also, look at marketing them to the military. They have a tremendous need for portable seating in troop transport planes and in transport trucks and just sitting on their buts in the boonies.
Send me a complimentary pair when you are a billionaire.

feedback
hey guys-
thanks for your insights, stories, and ideas. i'll add the idea of a crit "system" to the list, one comprised of crit-ponents that all work together (such as the critchair, ha!). I did attend RISD, class of '05. Sports Buns are already in the works. Much bigger market, as you mentioned. Stay tuned to the web site for more. Also added a feature that it sounds like you might be able to contribute to: critbuns.com/crit-isms.html
jg

Even if SportsBuns were not in the works...
it would be an excellent business move to say they were. 🙂

Okay, here's one more for you...HUGE market...
ZenBuns--Every Buddhist will have to have one or two for his/her ten minute meditation breaks during the day. Go global. The marginal cost in a global market can come down to about a quarter to fifty cents a piece. Produce it regionally and minimize shipping and warehousing costs. This is a bulky item, even though it doesn't weigh much.
If you respond to this by saying its already in the works, I'm going to begin to be suspicious, even though its the right business move. 🙂

i'll meditate on it
haha...i'm not discrediting your marketing prowress - they are great ideas. the zen buns is new, in a way. customers were writing to me back in october saying it found use in their yoga studio, so we're looking into that market as well. specfically for meditating is a new one though. the idea of local production and distribution, employing local people resonates well with me, nice suggestion.
my list of potential uses is long, but i don't know everything - keep the feedback coming.
jg

ooooh,
"My list of potential uses is long." I really like that one--vague, but inclusive. I'd hire you in a minute to protect my ideas. 🙂

May I pick up where I left?...
One of the many reasons why some stores might not pick it up, or not yet, is that you are a one-item-vendor. Stores know the extra costs of the one-item-vendor and try to avoid them. So your first task is to add to your assortment. In order to do so use your creativity, not your ability to associate the existing product with new and other uses...let the user and the product itself do that kind of work! Stay with products that have a different function but are somehow related to the existing one product "families" re-enforce your reputation and recognizebility on the market. Do not go deep! go wide! in other words no "new" functions for the same product but "new" products.
Your second task is to improve the production process. At this retail price you are either giving away huge margins to stores, agents, distributors etc. or you are not producing at the right costs. I can not see it from the picture, but if you are using anything else but injection moulded E.V.A., you are on the wrong track. The process requires aluminum moulds and these are not very expensive. Consider that the mould is substantially smaller than the product because part of the expansion is outside the mould. To use the right technology pretects you from copiers and gives you the possibility to attract retailers (stores, catalogues etc.) by offering good margins.
Your web site does not show any evidence of your I.P. protection other than a cicled R or TM with the name. Remember that in order to be protected you have to claim the protection. In other words, Patented + numbers, or Patent Pending or Design patent + number, on the packaging, in advertizing and on your web site. I would also change the "Press" page on your site. To publish those magazines that have already written about you only gives you satisfaction. It does not help you get more publications. (most magazines want to be first in showing new products) Instead make available high resulution pictures (not from the places where the product was initiated or concieved but look for larger uses. (To put ten dozen on the naked seats of a stadion and crop the picture in such a way that you see a few in close up and the rest of it as if the whole stadium is full, might be a photo shoot you want to call the local stadium for) Take al your pictures in a "standing" format. Wherever you will get squeezed into a column you will have the benefit of a larger picture simply because a standing format takes more space. make 3 text blocs available on a pdf format:
1- a caption of two sentences
2- a 10 to 15 sentences short story
3- the full story
Journalists love to "cut and paste" sorry let me re-frase this. Magazines love to have well written copy, that they do not have to check...and that comes for free.

cont.
I could go on like this for a while but what I wanted to say most is that it pleases me greatly to see your entrepreneurial spirit. The other day, reading Dick's post on who could help him with a logo for his soon to open store made me expect that dozens of graphics students would jump on the opportunity to add to their portfolio the graphic identity of a high quality kitchenstore in Sweden. To my surprise, nothing of that kind happened. So consider yourself one of these exceptions. I am sure you will succeed.
One last point maybe. On your site you offer other young people to help them out with making the first steps. There is never anything wrong with helping out, but do not spread yourself too thin. In order to succeed you will have to put al the energy and time into it that you can produce...I know I sound paternalistic, but at my age I should be forgiven.

on point
koen, thanks for your words of wisdom. some really solid points in there...your production, ip, marketing, and press comments are very good. i did add the to the FAQ that the CBBoD is available to apply our product development knowledge and experience to others with a product idea.