As you know, I've been working on designing and making my own line of 60cm tall dolls called Smart Doll. What I didn't reveal is that the code name for the project is called "Dollmination" - a word created from "Doll" + "Domination."
Dolls are great but up until now they have only been marketed to a niche market of either current doll owners or fans of anime. Smart Doll changes everything - it will change the global doll market forever. Smart Doll is the game changer.
The target audience of Smart Doll is not current doll owners - neither is the target anime or game fans either. Smart Doll is not even targeted at fans of Mirai Suenaga which is why she doesn't come in her Summer School uniform by default - Smart Doll is for *everybody* and today I will talk about how project Dollmination exposes Mirai Suenaga Smart Doll to people who have not discovered the world of 60cm tall dolls.
The first step of Dollmination is to create exposure of Smart Doll to folks who have either not discovered or know little about 60cm tall dolls. The way to do this is to work with non otaku-specific mass media.
The first step is printed publications. Just out today in bookshops and convenient stores across Japan is the latest copy of Weekly Ascii - while it does contain some otaku stuff - it's mainly aimed at the technology lifestyle crowd and unlike niche otaku magazines, Weekly Ascii is readily available across Japan.
The two page article covers who Mirai Suenaga is and what Smart Doll does.
Their cameraman came over to take some really nice photos of Mirai-chan ><
GQ Magazine is another non-otaku magazine targeted at a more mature male audience. The December 2013 edition featured Smart Doll.
The latest version of lifestyle magazine Tatler in Malaysia also had an article on Smart Doll.
Spoon fed will lead to vegetablism and this is why.
Apart from a load of international online sites, newspapers are also featuring Smart Doll - this is a tabloid in Singapore.
The Star Newspaper in Malaysia featuring Smart Doll.
One of the requirements of project Dollmination is to make sure that Smart Doll gets TV coverage too which immediately reaches millions of households. This is Japanese prime time TV show Ima Kono Kao Ga Sugoi that featured Smart Doll.
Do note that this face design back then was a prototype.
Mirai Suenaga Smart Doll featured on KTLA TV in America. Yep - this was the prototype face design.
Mirai Smart Doll featured extensively on Bloomberg News worldwide.
This post contains a video, click here to view.
Another part of project Dollmination is to ensure that Smart Doll is also given exposure at non-otaku events.
In February I attended the worlds biggest mobile conference - the Mobile World Congress which attracts all the telcos, device manufactures and content providers.
I gave a talk about Smart Doll and bootstrapping and even though I wasn't looking for investment, many folks who believed in my product approached me interested in investing in the future doll market.
Having not seen anything like it, Mirai seemed to be a popular girl throughout the event. Looks like the world had been waiting for something new and different.
The ironic thing is that 60cm tall class dolls have been around for ages - its just that they have always been isolated to a small niche market.
After several meetings with various angel investors, I accepted an investment of 30 million USD for a 15% share of Mirai Robotics. I will maintain full autonomy in regards to business and financial decisions under the condition that I sell 1 million Smart Dolls by Feb 2018 and the points below cover exactly how I'm going to do this.
- 2014/05: Smart Doll Manual version is released.
- 2014/07: Smart Doll OuterShell (外皮) factory setup complete for vinyl pulls.
- 2014/10: Smart Doll OuterShell injection molding design complete.
- 2014/11: Acquisition of doll wig and apparel studio in Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Barcelona.
- 2014/12: Launch of Smart Doll Injection Molded OuterShell version in time for the holiday Christmas season worldwide. Expected number of units sold is 20,000. Mirai Robotics staff numbers reach 200.
- 2014/12: Smart Doll Automatic version is released.
- 2015/02: Open Smart Doll stores in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New York, Tokyo, London.
- 2015/12: 200,000 units of Smart Doll sold. Mirai Robotics staff numbers reach 450. Smart Doll stores open in Seattle, Vancouver, Moscow, Manila, China, Korea.
- 2016/12: 500,000 units of Smart Doll sold.
- 2017/06: Open Smart Doll Stores in Dubai, France, Milano. 800,000 units of Smart Doll sold
- 2018/02: 1 million units of Smart Doll sold. Total staff count at this time is 950.
The injection molding process of the OuterShell and acquisition of accessory makers will ensure that growth will be agressive.
Smart Doll Manual version will launch in May 2014 at a retail price of about 600 USD.
Smart Doll Automatic version will launch in December 2014 at a retail price of 900 USD.
To be able to produce more at a lower cost (but incur initial high setup costs) - we will be injection molding the OuterShell. This will enable us to pass on the savings to the consumer and recuperate costs within a very short time.
The injection molded OuterShell version will retail at 100 USD and look exactly the same as the current model.
The following photos are taken around the world of folks who have either not seen 60cm tall dolls before or - have seen before but do not own one.
Through speaking with these folks, I can confirm that the is a huge untapped market worth billions (and billions) of USD that will be acquired by Mirai Robotics within the next few years with the support of my new investors.
Wifey and I out to conquer ^o^
