To check the market interest of a new product/service. 

This is a real simulation, in which the participants are divided into several groups: one of them represents the market, the others the companies competing within it. 

"We are under Christmas, and the market for paper Christmas stars is booming. Like good trend-hunters, you have spotted the chance to be a key player in this boom. Analysts estimate that demand could double this year, and forecasts predict double-digit growth rates for years to come. There is no time to lose, some trains only pass once in a decade." From this idea, business groups must enter the market. They have an initial budget, a price list of materials, and finally the papermaking tools (the good old scissors+paper) to start producing the snowflakes to offer to customers who will buy the products at any time during the game, with prices that are set according to objective parameters and a hint of unpredictability. In fact, the group representing the market has a list of characteristics hidden from the others with which to evaluate the purchase price or reject the product altogether. A snowflake taped or stapled shut, for example, will not be bought at all, while a flake made with red paper will be worth much less than one that is completely white. At the same time, perfect symmetry is not necessarily always the best solution, because the market sometimes rewards originality. 

The objective of the other groups is to arrive at the end of the game, which lasts about an hour, with the largest amount of money. Sometimes the laws of the market are simpler than they seem, and Snowflake Game succeeds perfectly in telling the story. Both groups of companies, for example, threw themselves into the creation of a complex product that took a long time to develop. Time that could have been invested in creating more snowflakes, thus potentially selling more.

Sheets of paper of various colors, adhesive tape, paper clips and several meters of string, scissors, markers, wall for snowflakes sharing