This past weekend I was very excited to pick up my latest skiing accessory. My dad came back raving about his new neck warmer, which was strange. Ski racers and coaches don’t really use neck warmers, masks or any other face covering. We typically bury our faces in the tall collars of our jackets and tough it our. The main problem with the existing solutions for a cold face is the moisture of your breath makes the covering wet, frozen and just plain cold. Bandannas is another solution although much less common because they just aren’t warm

CHAOS has finally provided the answer. A bandanna that s fleece lined. You can easily pull it up when cold on the lift and make it disappear when not wanted, preventing it from getting too wet. Besides they come in lots of interesting variations, mine has skulls and crossbones on it.

Just taking two different solutions and putting them together worked soo well… Hello Synergy! What solutions can you put together?

Personally, I have been in a bit of a blog slump.  It isn’t that I don’t have a ton of interesting stuff to write up, but time constraints, the holiday season and playing catch-up have landed the blog at the bottom of my to do list.  Having realized this and thinking about recent project slumps, I thought I would share some thoughts on getting inspired.  I have been thinking that being in a slump is like having your car stuck in the snow.  For those who live in snow free areas, do some visualization.

First, we help a lot of inventors out of slumps and I love that.  They have been thinking about this idea for years, working on it here and there but have been stuck in a certain stage.  We can step in and provide direction for the next step, essentially towing them out.

Second, we often get stuck.  There is one project in perticular that has some compliated design issues.  We have been sketching, duck tape prototyping and brainstorming trying to get a clear solution.  Unfortunately, we keep getting more and more complicated, when simplicity is what we are striving for.  So we asked one mechanical designer to step in and provide some new insight, essentially getting someone to help push.

Thirdly, what I am going to try to do with this blog… Do it on my own.  Now this strategy is probably the hardest, because it really requires some umph.  I am going to spend a ton of time over the weekend developing new material including what I have previously promised from Jamey Bennett.  I even think it might be my new years resolution to keep up the effort.  This is kind of like getting sand and putting it under your wheels.

Often you get an idea, you work it hard for quite some time then things come up like other ideas, friends, family etc and it gets lost in the shuffle.  These three strategies can help with ideas and even blogs!

As we all are dealing with the Thanksgiving leftovers I am reminded of two recent product launches by Ziplock and Reynolds focused on freezing leftovers. At first when I saw these ads I thought they were focused on saving money, given the questionable economy but now realize that it was really focused on Thanksgiving perhaps the most leftover meal of the year.

The new products suck the air out of the plastic storage bag (ziplock has become the product name similar to Bandaid). However, many of us remember a similar product that has been around for years that does the same thing from Food Saver. But why has food saver never broken into the mass market and who will win between these two new products and why? The short answer is retail price. The longer answer involves, technology, product features and price sensitivity.

Of course there is a way to do it without any products…

How To Vacuum Seal A Ziplock Bag – The best bloopers are a click away

While the option to go it alone without any help exists as demonstrated by the above video, below you will find one of the benchmark products of Food Saver. The below model is sold for $180 and can vacuum seal many different size bags. The price includes a variety of bag sizes that can be used, but the price is just too high for most consumers.

The proclaimed replacement for the Food Saver, the Reynolds Handi-Vac is being well reviewed by consumers across the internet. Although the price point is lower than the Food Saver by less than 10%, I do believe that the $10+ price tag will put off consumers, especially next to the Ziploc version which is considerably less.  The reason for the increased price: electric vacuum pump.

The Ziploc version features a non-battery powered pump and at $10.75 from Amazon also features a number of compatible bags (actual pump costs less than $2). Although the Amazon reviews are not flattering, I do believe that with its price point it will in. It will win in price because of the easy technology, the lack of battery requirements and the existing brand equity in plastic storage bags.

Although I am unsure of who will win in effectiveness, I am confident that the lower retail price point will attract more customers to the Ziploc version.  Of course there is always the DIY option.

Well not so scary but given the spirit of Halloween, lets talk about trick or treat product development.  Where is the product development in that you ask?  Well every costume has accessories and these accessories are products that need to be developed.  Whether it be the reaper’s reaper or the doctors syringe or in my case the pirate’s hat these are all new products that are introduced seasonally around Halloween.  Besides the costume angle, I think the major and somewhat unique product development that surrounds Halloween is the decorations.  We have all seen these products that go booo when we walk by and steam with scary fog.

I would put these decorations in two categories, outdoor and indoor.  The indoor variety are more based around parties, foyers or front porches and other small potential for abuse situations.  The real potential problem is the outdoor decorations durability.  I saw too many skeletons with light up eyes turned decapitated on November first.  This is an unfortunate part of Halloween but it can’t be ignored.  I would be quite upset if every year I had to buy new skeletons, ghosts, Draculas for my front lawn because of vandalism.  So I believe there is an opportunity to create more durable outdoor Halloween decorations.

A few weeksI attended two different events that as an inventor / product developer I thought I would pass along.  The first was the Yankee Invention Exposition and the second was the Harvard Square Oktoberfest.

These are two wildly different events, one geared strictly towards inventors and one with a broad market appeal. The Yankee Invention Expo featured 55 or so booths containing inventions while the Harvard Square event had well over 500 booths featuring everything including artists, food and local businesses.

My upfront position is that if you are looking to bring your idea anywhere, you should do as much as possible to get exposre.  You can never tell where your next product champion, investor or key team member will come from.

A big question I always ask inventors at exhibits is WHAT DO YOU WANT OUT OF THIS, or in other words what is your MOTIVATION.  You could want to sell / license your idea, get investment, get a trial for get customer feedback, most want something along these lines.  These are all gets, and I always wonder about giving, give a great presentation, give inventors inspiration, give your vision to the public.

The nice feature of the invention focused show is that you can make better educated guesses about your potential audience.  They will be product scouts, fellow inventors, service providers and people looking for some fun over the weekend.  However, at the Yankee Invention Expo on their weekend day mid afternoon (should be the busiest) there was maybe a hundred people there.

The nice feature of the general show or festival is the amount of traffic.  There were thousands of people there and I would want high traffic over a focused and small group.  Of course this festival was named for beer, but it was instead filled with artists, food and music.  It was a great area of creativity, just not product based but I would expect that a great invention would have fit in nicely.

Although the lines between sales and marketing have been blurred recently, the entire action of actually getting the invention sold is the most important function. Especially early in an invention’s life, getting earlier buyers, customers and supporters can be very difficult but if achieved a lot of other operational requirements are easier. I was inspired by Brian Daigle’s recent post on Successful Marketing for Successful Inventions and remembered a section of a sales book I read a while back. Although Zig Ziglar’s The Secrets to Closing the Sale is not aimed specifically at inventions, I think you will enjoy this section, called I Am a Salesman:

I am proud to be a salesman because more than any other man I and millions of others like me, built America.

The man who builds a better mousetrap- or a better anything - would starve to death if he waited for people to beat a pathway to his door. Regardless of how good, or how needed, the product or services might be, it has to be sold.

Eli Whitney was laughed at when he showed his cotton gin. Edison had to install his electric light free of charge in an office building before anyone would even look at it. The first sewing machine was smashed to pieces by a Boston mob. People scoffed at the idea of railroads. They thought that even traveling thirty miles an hour would stop the circulation of blood! McCormick strived for fourteen years to get people to use his reaper. Westinghouse was considered a fool for stating that he could stop a train with wind. Morse had to plead before ten Congresses before they would even look at his telegraph.

The public didn’t go arounding demanding these things; they had to be sold!

- Author Unknown

The peice does go on to talk about how the everyday actions of salesmen around the world keep businesses turning, but I think you get the point. The best time investment for an inventor is to learn how to sell.

I attended the Yankee Invention Exposition this past weekend and was saddened my the many inventors who had traveled a long way, invested heavily in their product and had given up their time to go to a show that they were unprepared for. There are many companies that sell trade show services (for a hefty price), but that is not how we do things. We’ll share some low cost effective methods to help your next show be great

Consistent Message

One of the most important aspect is to deliver a consistent message. We will talk about engaging the senses, but if the brain gets confused by different messages the effectiveness will be lost. Having a consistent method will help prepare materials, pitches, responses to questions and all in all make for a better show.

Senses Matter

A trade show attendee, whether a visitor, buyer, investor or product scout experience the show through all 5 senses, so use them! Use color in your booth! You don’t need fancy banners, color printouts can be stitched together and be very effective without spending hundreds on a display. Pitch Loudly. Be excited and enthusiastic about your product. Make people who are walking by your booth want to stop and hear what you have to say. Think about walking down a city, (for me it is Harvard Square) and hearing a street performer that has a crowd and is making noise, I always stop and check it out. Try and get attendees involved with demos, let them try the product.

Represent Your Product

I don’t mean no fighting, but be at your booth mentally and physically. The best way to do this is to have atleast two people at the show. You are going to need a bathroom break, eat lunch and want to see other booths but if you leave your booth unattended, you might as well not be there.

Memorable Materials

Shows are somewhat hectic by nature. So when the attendee sits down later at home and is thumbing through the materials, make yours stand out. Have a brochure, make it in color. You can design your own easily and get it printed up very cheaply. Include your contact info and have a website behind it that builds on the same message. Giving out business cards is not really worthwhile, they just get lost in the mess. I still have a few of the materials from my first invention show, three years ago. That is memorable. Remember to protect your materials with a copyright notice.

Proven Message

Make sure that your message works. Practice pitching and make sure you are making sense. If you are not the person to make these pitches, then get someone else to help. A bad pitch can kill an show, especially if all of your materials are consistent with the pitch. A good pitch is a longer topic, but as a rule of thumb listeners should be engaged, and when it is over (yes pitches should have endings and not ramble on) you should be getting questions. The old saying about giving a talk and not having any questions means that no one understood (or is asleep) is true with pitching too. Being audience focused can be difficult, because there are many different types of attendees which is even more reason to keep practicing, revising and practicing some more (on real people)

Have a great show!

The decision of what to invent is more conscience than most believe. Inventions often revolve around your life, work and interests. It is an important decision to make because you will end up spending a lot of time in a specific industry doing research on companies, competitive products and trends. If you are going to be spending days of internet research and lots of money to understand a market it should be transferable into future inventions.

Our clients want to make money on inventions. This is often dependent on the market as much as timing, product features and any other variables. Choosing an area to invent in where the typical customer will feel a problem, look for a solution and be able to pay for a solution is important.

We also invent to make the world better, easier and more fun (or a different positive like safe, affordable etc.). This drive to make the world better is what draw me into my second invention industry child safety. The better the cause, the easier it is to build a team, get early financing (not necessarily large, later financing) and the better you can feel about it.

So where would I invent next??? I am not exactly sure but I’ll give you some idea…

Hobby or Fun: I love to ski, am a very good skier and so hanging out on a ski hill and talking to skiers about a product would be a blast. Same with sailing and golf, although my skill level is not as high.

Safety: I am still drawn to the safety market although I think I would focus on emergencies and weather issues.

Modern Life: What I mean is the information overload and tools to help organize the hectic life that we all live these days.

Environmental: I’d like to do something with the greening up of the world, but not exactly sure about what to do. I’d be in the “bringing technology to consumers” area, not developing the technology.

Where would you invent next?

This past weekend I attended the Taste of Rhode Island festival in Newport. Besides leaving with a full stomach, some great pictures and I better appreciation for different seafood, I left with a backpack full of promotional products (even the backpack).

The basics of promotional products from wikipedia: One of the most notable means of promotion today is the Promotional Product, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver.

While we all enjoy these souvenirs, they do serve an important function for the company MARKETING.  These products create an experience with the brand for free.  Very notable at this festival versus other promotional product give away events was the existence of the competitions / games.  These games like spinning a wheel similar to The Wheel of Fortune (Southwest), Bags similar to horse shoes but with bean bags (Naragasset), Putting / Mini-golf (Mirassou winery) and audience voting (Sam Adams) are just the beginning of the experience.

Besides the experience the customer enjoys, they provide exposure for the brand.  All of these products feature the brand name prominently on a related item (or just a high use item).  In order to get exposure they need to be used a lot or stand out.  The blow up airplane hat from Southwest is noticeable, acceptable to wear at the event (somewhat) but won’t last much farther than that.  I doubt I’ll ever use that Frisbee, but the cozy will get some use.  I’ll probably use the ball marker, because of the magnetic aspect and all my golf gloves no longer have the button.

Could your product be a promotional product?

Does it feature a spot to show off a brand?

Is it noticeable?

Is it a variation of a high use item?

Does it supply an experience?

Can you make it for a few dollars?

After recently watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory reminded me of a classic case of forgotten competition, customers make it themselves. The beginning of the episode feature Sheldon folding his clothes with a shirt folder similar to the Flip Fold Shirt Folder available at Nu-Era.

I really like this product because I find folding laundry to be tedious and the end result is never as nice as when you go into the store. But before I spend $19.75 plus shipping to get a plastic one, I might just as easily embark on building my own. Without dimensions, trying this might be difficult but that is not the issue anymore.

While I find the music abnoxious, the plans are there to make your own.  This does not necessarily mean that customers will make their own gizmo that is your invention, but they make something that works to fulfill their need.  To know if this is the case, talk to customers about the problem and find out what their existing solution is.  If it is a homemade version, your job is to provide value beyond their homemade version.  Also remember that the customer may actually enjoy building their own solution, so the value of not having to build it is actually a negative.