Fathers: Marketing Inventions
It's a quintessential American Dream: creating something new and then marketing it to the public. But what route does an invention travel to get to the marketplace? For Mike W., Joe B. and Wayne M., keeping their day jobs was essential, so each engaged specialized firms to handle the essential "4 P's" of marketing: product, pricing, placement and promotion. "I woke up from a sound sleep with a start one night and the idea just came to me," said Joe B. "I grabbed a pencil and started sketching out the model right away before I forgot it." Joe B.'s prototype is a fitness aid he calls the "Twist". Designed to make exercising less of a chore and more fun, "Twist" is an easy-to-use item to wear and "twist" to music to work out. "It's great for women, kids and men - and you don't need to 'learn' anything to use it properly.
Just put on some music, and by twisting to make the ball hit the paddles you're getting in shape." Joe B. got in touch with Advent Production Development Inc., based in South Carolina, last spring after his wife brought the firm to his attention. "They do it all - advertising and promotion, cost estimates, patent searches - and they keep me informed all along the way," said Joe B. For a fee, a firm such as Advent does the legwork involved in getting a potential new product to market. The process from initial contact to final manufactured product being sold on store shelves can take years. "Joe B. is now at the stage where a licensing agent is starting to research the product with manufacturers," said an Advent spokesperson. Publicity and promotion efforts have been underway for several months, while a patent search has already been completed. Joe B's invention, and many others, is instantly accessible at numerous mega-trade shows like the National Manufacturers Week, held each March in Chicago.
"Our team takes our catalogue and CDs of our inventors' prototypes so that manufacturers can view various products in any category," said the Advent spokesperson of the biggest business-to-business trade show in the country. Both Mike W. and Wayne M. signed on with a firm to be their eyes and ears in the complex marketing process. They each chose Invention Technologies Inc., based in Coral Gables, Fla. "I watched my son playing with his toys and thought, there's so much clutter and kids are always wanting new toys. Why not take one basic toy truck chassis and market it with a collection of add-on parts?" Said Mike W. "This way, the child has the creative function of converting one truck to a bigger bed-liner, or adding a new snow plow to the front and the parents aren't always having to buy yet another toy truck." Mike W. has christened his invention the "Wee Man's Build-A-Truck Kit". "My wife and I started talking about this after going to a nephew's birthday party a couple of years ago," said Wayne M.
"We saw so many beverage cups go to waste because the kids lost them, forgot where they'd left them and the parents holding the party are too busy to match up which cups belong to which kids." Presto. The idea for the "Scribble cup" was born. "And it has applications for big college parties, block parties - any big gathering," said Wayne M. "The idea is to produce disposable cups that can be 'marked' with a name or a drawing for identification. "It's good not only for the savings - a party host doesn't have to buy as many of them, but - especially for little kids' parties - if a kid or two has a cold, the germs aren't spread to others." Wayne M. has worked with Invent-Tech since last fall. "The Internet has made it so much easier to find this kind of company," said Wayne M. "They've been very good about contacting me about each step of the process. I hear from them by phone, via e mail.
They call me a lot to keep me up-to-date." Mike W. found Invent-Tech and a host of other firms - on the Internet through a Google search. "I checked up on all of them and ran them all by the local Better Business Bureau too. Everywhere I checked, Invent-Tech came up with the best ratings. "I'm very pleased with what they've done for me so far, freeing me up for my job and my family," continued Mike W. "They're sharing my prototype at the big trade shows and they've set up a Web site space just for manufacturers to register, log in and view my idea." "They're working on your behalf in every way to get your idea out there, with the potential that someone will sign on to actually manufacture it and distribute it to stores," said Mike W. "It's a long, long process and there are no guarantees that your product will be picked up, but they've helped me step by step."