Advice on how to find customers. Truly unique solar product

**mk3gtr** · 08-04-2010 05:37 PM

Hi guys,

A friend in the far east started a company doing OEM/ODM projects using custom shaped solar panels. AFAIK, this is a completely new cutting process that currently no other company has. I am currently in charge of finding customers in the US, but the process has been very slow. Our initial marketing plan was to release press releases thinking that companies would be knocking our doors to integrate this new solar panels into their products. I have too few posts, so I cannot post a link to our PR. If you are interested I can PM them to you.

We've had a few leads, but nothing really good. We've released 4-5 PR to build awareness in the industry. Bloggers have picked up on them, but it seems that companies are not interested? We've collected email list of consumer electronics companies and their contacts using jigsaw.com, and we are thinking of cold-emailing them to introduce ourselves. Do you guys think that is a good idea? I don't think spamming is the way to go, but I am not sure how to reach out to these people. We plan to attend a few solar tradeshows including CES. What else do you guys suggest? I've talked to a few counselors at SCORE. They gave good advice, but were pretty vague as well.

Thanks

**Gaulkin** · 08-04-2010 09:38 PM

You cant eat solar panels.

**mk3gtr** · 08-05-2010 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Gaulkin

You cant eat solar panels.

Sorry..I don't get it

**CKrecicki** · 08-05-2010 02:11 PM

He's telling you to go spend you money on food, you waisting time in the solar industry, it is: dead.

**mk3gtr** · 08-05-2010 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by CKrecicki

He's telling you to go spend you money on food, you waisting time in the solar industry, it is: dead.

Why do you guys think its dead? We are not really focusing on the PV rooftop installation that is heavily dependent on govt incentives. Our products are more focused towards BIPV, and the consumer products with solar panels. AFAIK, that market is still growing. Apple is already working on integrating solar panels into their products. If history is any indication, the other companies will try to do the same.

**Gaulkin** · 08-05-2010 06:35 PM

You seemed to be confused on your target market, find it and move forward.

**lucygreenlucky** · 08-06-2010 03:54 AM

advertising is a way.

**Encrypted** · 08-06-2010 04:49 AM

Solar energy is limited.. that market's full/dead already. There's only one source of revenue, and that's solar panels for houses. There are so many downfalls to solar energy though (night, clouds, dirt/dust, etc).

The nextgen energy is going to be something that has zero emissions and can be renewed. For example... Deuterium, or "heavy hydrogen", is abundant on Earth and on our Moon, we just don't have a way of efficiently collecting it yet. Deuterium can be used for nuclear energy with ZERO radioactive waste.

If you want to become successful, find a way to gather this stuff. It won't be easy, but you'll go down in history.

Read more about Deuterium at Deuterium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**akula** · 08-06-2010 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by CKrecicki

He's telling you to go spend you money on food, you waisting time in the solar industry, it is: dead.

that's a joke right?

**mk3gtr** · 08-06-2010 11:16 AM

You guys are right that we are still not 100% sure what industry to focus on. Our main selling point basically that the solar panel can be designed to look nice and look more seamless. We are focusing on consumer electronics first as all products now basically stick the usual squarish dark colored panels. If they were to integrate our products they would immediately stand out from the competition. Like I said before, Apple is working to integrate solar tech into their products, and I think the rest of the players will be playing catch up again. Thanks for all the comments so far