Team Design Fair Prep and Deliverables

Update 4/22/22: Due to a mistake around pricing of a 24x36" poster from Campus Copy Center, students are allowed to print a 18x24" poster instead, which will cost about $36 printed right onto foam core at Campus Copy Center. 

THE DESIGN FAIR WILL TAKE PLACE WEDNESDAY APRIL 27TH. THE EVENT TIME IS 6:30 - 8:30 PM AND PRODUCT DESIGN STUDENTS SHOULD EXPECT TO ARRIVE AT 5:30 AND LEAVE AT 9:30 FOR SETUP AND BREAKDOWN. THE LOCATION OF THE DESIGN FAIR WILL BE IN HOOVER LOUNGE, FIRST FLOOR OF VANCE HALL, 3733 SPRUCE. 

The Design Fair is an event at which several hundred Penn students will "shop" for products and express their purchase intent. 

• You will be provided with a 30" round table, a table cloth, and an easel. The easel does not have a back to it, so whatever you place on the easel will need to be self-supporting. We recommend printing a poster and then mounting it on foamcore with sprayable adhesive (the foamcore and adhesive can be purchased at Plaza).  If you must have power, please bring an extension cord and we will work to find you a space with access to power.
• Your display (usually on your poster) must clearly state your product name and the retail price. You may offer exactly one version of your product at only one price.
• Bring about 100 "sell sheets" to hand out to interested customers. An 8.5x11" sheet cut into four quarters is an easy way to accomplish this. Your sell sheet can be a small version of your poster. 
• Bring a printout exactly 5"x7" (this can be the same as your sell sheet) to be placed on the ballot boxes for voting.
• Play fair. For example, it would not be fair to recruit friends to vote for your product, to bribe consumers (with anything more valuable than, say, a small trinket, and food is not allowed this year), or to otherwise influence the purchase intent process by means other than the compelling quality of your product and your enthusiastic explanation of its benefits. (Over the years we have developed sensitive means of detecting cheating. Such behavior has unfortunate consequences for everyone. This is another reason to play fair.)

• Upload to this assignment by 10 AM on April 27th:
  • Your final poster which you will print yourself, mount on foamcore, and bring to the fair. It should include: 
    • Product Name 
    • Price
    • A picture or rendering
    • attributes/benefits/how it works if necessary 
    • can be portrait or landscape but must be mounted on foamcore! 
  • Your final 5x7" version of your poster for the voting box, which you will print yourself and bring to the fair 
  • Your final 8.5x11" sell sheet, which you will print many of and cut into quarters yourself and bring to the design fair 
  • Your completed cost-rules spreadsheet. DO THIS VERY CAREFULLY AS IT WILL BE AUDITED. (I asked you to hand a preliminary version for the class before the Design Fair.)
    • The cost model should be of your product as designed for production, USUALLY NOT AS YOU FABRICATED IT FOR THE DESIGN FAIR.
    • Only parts used exactly as purchased should be shown as catalog components. If you use a purchased component and modify it to make a custom part, then you should simply model this part as a custom part (e.g., weigh it, figure out the material, etc.)

Your gross margin is calculated in the cost rules spreadsheet as (0.70 x Price - Cost). This accounts for the fact that a retailer requires some margin (in this case we assume 30 percent for the retailer). The cost comes from your cost model. Your gross margin percentage is just (0.70 x Price - Cost)/(0.70 x Price). We calculate your "profit score" simply as your share of "purchases" at the fair times your gross margin percentage.

(DETAILED EXPLANATION FOR THIS: This calculation allows a comparison among products with very different prices. Because there are only a given number of "purchases" at the fair, inexpensive products can not garner significant nominal profits. For this reason, we look at their gross margin percentage only. In a real market, inexpensive products would sell a lot more units on average -- that elasticity is not reflected in the way the design fair purchases work.)