Background Costing Research

Whilst trying to figure out the rough cost i should be aiming for i considered several factors:

• The crane would need to be as cheap as possible without reducing the quality overmuch.
• The crane should be no more expensive than our competitors unless there are features on our crane that are specific to this design only and thus making it worth the extra money to the customers.
• Our main target audience is relief aid organisations and governments where there is a high risk of natural disasters such as earthquakes etc. Generally speaking, this type of customer will have minimal financial resources available and so the crane will need to be cheap enough to accomodate this.
• Whilst deciding the material, the costs involved will need to be considered as the better quality, stronger/lightweight materials will be more expensive.

With these sorts of factors in mind, i decided to research our competitors and see how much they are selling their cranes for. I managed to find 5 gantry crane companies both located in England and in America. Their selling prices ranged from £2000 to £3500 approximately (this does not include delivery costs). This tells me, that i would ideally be aiming to be in the cheaper half of this range but not the cheapest as we have an added market advantage of being one of the few cranes on the market that has a high level of portability.