Essay on Product Market

The market of kitchen home appliances is expanding, and although a large number of devices have already been created, there is plenty of space for designers and innovators for adding new products, features and functionality. Even 100 years ago cooking was a significantly more difficult and time-consuming occupation due to the variety of processes like beating, folding, mixing and whipping. Nowadays these functions are performed by electric mixers. There are two basic types of mixers: handheld and stand mixers (Cole & Browning & Schroeder, 2003). Both of these devices include a handle which is mounted over an enclosure with motor driving several beaters. Invention of the first electric mixer belongs to Herbert Johnston and took place in 1908 (Lidwell & Manasca, 2009).

Both stand mixers and handheld mixers are popular at the market. Hand mixers are quite handy when easy and quick mixing jobs are required (e.g. ice whipping or preparing cupcake batter); these mixers consume less space and are easier to clean. In general, they are good for the occasional mixing processes and for the households where baking is not the primary form of cooking. Primary markets for handheld mixers thus are middle-class households not specifically focused on baking and small cooking companies where a handheld mixer can be used as supplementary device (Cole & Browning & Schroeder, 2003).

Stand mixers are more powerful and can perform a larger variety of functions than handheld mixers. There commonly are different bowl sizes, attachments and weights offered for stand mixers, thus making this type of mixers essential for small and medium firms engaged in banking as well as for large households or the ones where home baking is highly important. It is recommended to choose stand mixers with large bowls (4-5 quarts) (Saxena, 2005). Modern mixers also have different speeds and different mixing motions. Commercial mixers also rotate the mixers around the bowl in addition to the rotation of the mixers themselves. Conventional models have only fixed mixers. The latter models are recommended for household use, while models with additional planetary motion are better for manufacturing purposes (Saxena, 2005).

Product Specification

The considered model is a typical stand mixer (generalized most popular model by KitchenAid). Electrical requirements for this model are the following: 350 Watts, voltage – 120 A.C., amps – 3.0, 2/5 horsepower, and 60 Hertz frequency (KitchenAid, 2006). These requirements are based on the functionality associated with maximal load, and it should be noted that on average this type of mixer consumers less power than the above-listed requirements.

The mixer can perform the following operations: whipping, creaming, folding and kneading. Functional characteristics of this mixer are the following: bowl size – 4.5 quarts, associated yield of bread – 3.75 loaves, yield of cookie – 6.75 dozens, yield of mash potato – 6.5 pounds (KitchenAid, 2006). Weight of the mixer is 29 lbs, the functionality includes 11 speeds, with 6 of them being key speeds (0 (stir) for slow stirring, 2 – for slow mixing, 4 – mixing and beating, 6 – for beating and creaming, 8 – for whipping and fast beating, and 10 – for fast whipping), and 5 of these speeds are used for finer adjustment (KitchenAid, 2006).

The major parts of the mixer include a motor head, accessory hub with a hub cover and an accessory knob, bowl lift handle, a lever for speed control, a screw for height adjustment, a spring latch and a bowl pin for locating the bowl, locating pins and a beater shaft. The mixer also includes such accessories as dough hook, flat beater and wire whip (KitchenAid, 2006). Stainless steel bowl and a bowl support are located in the lower part of the mixer. Several stand mixer models also include the overload reset button, which pops out in case of an overload after the mixer automatically shuts off. For security purposes, the speed control lever should be set on the lowest speed (“stir”). The mixer uses a direct-drive transmission and can perform planetary 67-point mixing, which makes it very convenient for commercial use (KitchenAid, 2006).