Lice Prevention with a Hair Dryer

The Problem - New Product Strategy

Head lice is a common problem in schools every years. Lack in education is a main reason why it is hard to keep this condition under control. You can get lice by sharing any helmet, hat, hoodie and scarf - so many activities and places that children are usually involved in or at have the potential to spead head lice. There are preventative measures to take in helping to ensure your child does not get head lice. The main way you can prevent the spread of head lice is education on how to keep safe from it - from not sharing hats, scarves and helmets to keeping belongings seperate from others so head lice cannot be passed. There are also shampoos and conditioners that they make for children which are supposed to help prevent picking up head lice. Studies have also shown that head lice are repelled by tea tree and lavender oil. After brainstorming and trying to figure out a way to protect yourself from getting head lice, I came up with the idea of creating a hair dryer that is infused with lavender and tea tree oil so the vapors will be pushed out with the air in the hair dryer and on to the scalp and hair. This would help in discouraging the head lice from wanting to jump on to your child hair if contact was made with them.

Idea Generation

I came up with this idea from watching a friend of mine battle the fight with head lice with her 4 children. This mother takes huge, preventative measures every day to ensure that her children do not come in contact with head lice. From rubbing oils into her childs scalp and putting their hair up every day to washing their jackets every day after school, there are no boundries to what she will do to prevent lice. I'm sure she is not the only mother who is battling head lice and I thought that having an extra tool to help stop the spread of these little critters.

Business Analysis

*Demand - The demand for a hair dryer that would help prevent head lice could be huge in every school if parents were educated on the problem with head lice and how this dryer could help their child not pick them up. Once the dryer was introduced to the test market and available for parents to see how well it worked I can't imagine that every parent wouldn't want it in their house.

*Customer Benefits - Parents would benefit from this dryer because it would help prevent a child from getting lice. When children get lice it also makes them slightly sick and unable to attend school. It would also help eliminate the possibility of all the cleaning, washing and trying to rid of head lice in the house if your child picked them up.

*Risk of Failure - Sicnce there is a risk of failure with any product, there is a possibility of this hair dryer not making it. With the proper development and concept test run, I can imagine that the dryer would be popular with every parent.

Development

I would start the development of this product by talking to a company that produces hair dryers and propose my idea. Then I would help them put together a dryer that had two areas to pop in small bottles that contained tea tree and lavender oil. The oils would would be disbursed into the childs hair with the outflow of air when drying. Each time your child would use the dryer you would put in new bottles because the dryer would only hold bottles that had enough of the oils for one dryer use.

Test Marketing

I would start with going to local schools and meeting with a small group of parents and showing them the dryer and its benefits.

Competitor Results

I don't believe that there is a product out there like this, so maybe people would try to follow my lead and creat a similar dryer.