KENYA · GUIDE 0872 · EDITION 4.2
Resin coaster making in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
desk and gift buyers The offer to test is: Resin coasters with original designs and stated care limits
Design coaster sets around repeat dimensions, level contact surfaces, and a documented finish, checking product suitability with competent advice before making heat or food related claims.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Produce a small batch using competent material handling
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Record material batches, process observations, surface defects, finishing time, set consistency, and buyer feedback about table contact while keeping unsupported heat resistance claims out of promotion.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Compare every sample on a flat table, inspecting edges, surface defects, rocking, and underside protection, then verify that decorative inclusions remain enclosed in the finished construction. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Design coaster sets around repeat dimensions, level contact surfaces, and a documented finish, checking product suitability with competent advice before making heat or food related claims. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Show gift retailers finished coaster sets, original design records and a care sheet that avoids unsupported food-contact or high-heat claims. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Fully finished stable surface without tackiness |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. A coordinated set loses value when individual coasters vary in thickness or rock under a glass, even if each decorative pattern looks attractive in photographs.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional resin-craft batch: cast eight plain square drink coasters in two sets of four, using a manufacturer-documented casting system and mould cavities nominally 100 × 100 × 4 mm. Geometry gives 40 ml per cavity and 320 ml for eight, before mould shape and process losses; budget 400 ml of mixed system provisionally. Mixing, working limits, ventilation, protection and curing come from the exact product documentation, not this guide. Exclude hot-pan use, food contact, children’s products and embedded unknown materials.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | A locally listed generic resin is not automatically equivalent to the ArtResin reference; do not borrow another brand’s ratio or cure time. |
| Output to inspect | Sticky, soft or persistently odorous pieces are held for manufacturer advice and never sold as usable coasters. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Surface stays sticky |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Review product identity and recorded measuring, mixing and cure conditions against the actual instructions.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.