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| 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. 11
| 10/15/2007 CLASSIC COMFORT “Merging the past with the present” SWOT ANALYSIS This is a tool used to help describe the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of our project. It is done by objectively looking at the project and seeing what internal and external factors can cause the project to become favorable or unfavorable in achieving the goal of finishing the project. Figure 5. SWOT Analysis 12
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