White Paper - Capstone Experience - Texas A&M University

| 10/15/2007
CLASSIC COMFORT
“Merging the past with the present”
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
Socio-Cultural Forces
In American culture, restoring and working on cars is both prevalent and socially endorsed.
There would be very little cultural resistance to our product, since it simply allows the restorer of the
classic car the ability to add modern features to their vehicle.
Competitive Forces
Most companies that work with automotive electronics deal with one of two aspects: add-ons
for current cars, or wiring harnesses for older cars. Since our product is a hybrid of the two, allowing an
older wiring harness to work with new functionality, we could avoid direct competition with the
established dealers. The aftermarket car parts business is a market area where competition is fierce. It
can be safely assumed that shortly after introduction into the market, a competitor would be trying to
release a similar product. Thus, it is imperative to capture market share quickly.
Economic Forces
Currently, the price of an entire wiring harness can run, at the low end, approximately $250, and
can rise steadily as the cars become older, more complex, or both. Our product price range is between
$75 and $150. The product we are producing will increase the quality and add features to this wiring
harness adding value to their investment. Since our product costs so little and adds such great features,
those who would already be considering spending several hundred dollars on a wiring harness would
find making the investment and purchasing our product as well, an attractive proposition.
Political Forces
At the moment, there are no strong opponents of aftermarket car parts, since the parts are safe
and have caused little to no injury.
Legal and Regulatory Forces
Our product would have to be tested and approved so that it can be shown that there are no
product defects that could cause harm to the consumer. The main federal agency that would be
involved in this process would be the Consumer Product Safety Commission. While there are few direct
regulatory forces, a company’s name attached to a certain product lends credence to its quality. A
company could quickly lose the trust and business of a customer if it was to put out an unsafe product.
Technological Forces
The technology to create our product is available and has been for some time. The product is
not hard to create; it simply has not been made.
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