Is the world ready for this? At long last, "it" will be unveiled tomorrow...
 

A few months ago, some of us on this forum were trying to guess what "IT" - otherwise known back then as 'Ginger' - was going to be.

Well, our wait is about over. Tomorrow morning on the Good Morning America tv program, the vehicle which is described as a "complex bundle of hardware and software that mimics the human body's ability to maintain it's balance" (from www.drudgereport.com) will make it's long awaited debut.

"IT"s proper name is SEGWAY and it is a people mover with a cost of more than $100 million to develop according to the early breaking report.

At long last.... just a few more hours and our curiosities will be duly satisfied. Wonder if "IT" will really change the world as it was hyped to do when some intriguing pieces of info began to 'leak' out last year and led to a lot of speculating about what "IT" could be...and do.

Maybe there will even be some peripheral business opportunities associated with "IT". Hmmmm.....

Ought to be an interesting morning tomorrow...

Cheers ~
Amber S.

Two very interesting inventors.... Dean Kamen and Ron Popeil....
 

Hi Amber,

I also can't wait to see what "IT" is! It has a lot of advanced publicity to live up to.... I wonder of it will live up to it too! Nevertheless, I'm sure it will be interesting and exciting.... :)

By the way, Dean Kamen and Ron Popeil (who I mentioned in my response to Gordon below) are two interesting people. Both consider themselves to be inventors first and foremost - but they have two different approaches to surviving as an inventor.... For those who have an "inventive" bent, these two are fascinating!

(When I was a kid, one of the things I wanted to be was an "inventor".... :) )

Here's an interesting article about Ron Popeil, with some good links too.... Ron Popeil says in this article (last paragraph), "I'm an inventor first and a marketer second"....

And here's an interesting profile of Dean Kamen....

- Dien Rice

Interesting fellas to hang out with, don't you think?
 

Ideafinder.com is a great site...thanks for posting the articles.

Dean Kamen is surely one interesting fella. Bet he'd be fun to hang out with, huh? Same thing goes for Ron.

I'd really like to see full length films made about these two gent's lives.

Drudge just posted a more descriptive report on "it" ... I probably won't be able to sleep tonight in anticipation of actually getting to view it in the morning.

I guess it is too late to put it on my christmas wish list though. ;-)

> (When I was a kid, one of the things I
> wanted to be was an "inventor"....
> :) )

Dien, I can just SEE you as an inventor...for whatever that is worth to you. :-)

~ Amber

Re: Two very interesting inventors.... Dean Kamen and Ron Popeil....
 

In that article about Ron it mentions he did not read from a script during a promotion of a particular product. A local radio station here in AZ did an interview with him about a year ago and he said that he never reads from a script. He went on to say that if you feel good enough about your product, providing you are comfortable with public speaking, you should not have to read from a script.

You are right Dien, very interesting indeed.

Dennis

Here's a picture of the SEGWAY....
 

Here's a picture of Dean Kamen's "IT", the Segway....



It looks simple, but apparently all the magic is in the balancing.... No matter how hard you try, it won't let you fall!

(I got this pic from www.drudgereport.com - thanks Amber for the link! - the original picture seems to be from the NY Times....)

- Dien

The "Secret" to Popeil's early success
 

I have had the fortunate experience to be involved in the "inventing game" some yrs ago in Chicago when Ron Popeil (I also got to know Marvin Glass who invented "Robbie The Robot")

Popeil had created his first product AND...he may "say" he is NOT a "marketer" but I will guarantee you...he is EQUALLY as savvy a marketing master as an inventor.

One of the brilliant "marketing" things he did was to create a 30 or 60 sec commercial showing HIS product in action and near the end the voice over would say, "And you can get the pocket-fisherman at these Walgreen Drug Stores!"

And a list of addresses would appear.

This was in a "Preview" Video he was showing to the Walgreen ad agency. He told whichever chain store operation he was showing the Preview commercial to...that THERE Store would be on the "Tag" of each commercial.

He told them he had created the commercial (they were looking at it) and he had BOUGHT THE TIME...it was now only a matter of WHO would be on the Tag.

He would then ask, "How many cases would you like?"

Popeil was a master marketer. Still is.

I got the rights to a product that was a kids paddle (a bar with a paddle at both ends with a rubber band in the middle of the bar with a ball at the end) The idea was to get the ball swinging so it would be hit back and forth between the paddles.

It was called the "Teeny-Bopper".

I happened to be in a "plastics" plant talking to the owner about a mold for another product when he asks me to follow him to his warehouse.

He takes me to the back of this huge warehouse...points to hundreds of cardboard boxes stacked against the back wall.

He tells me there were 250,000 "Teeny-Boppers" which were ordered by a company in the UK...BUT, even though they paid to have them made...they told the plastics guy not to ship them, he could do whatever he wanted to with them because they found that the words "Teeny-Bopper" was verboten in the UK. It meant something like "gang-rowdy" or something.

So...here was this guy with all these plastic paddles.

So...I tell him I think I have an idea on how to move them out IF he would give me 25cents of each one sold AND if HE would pay for producing a TV commercial.

He agreed and I made a TV commercial with a kid we had (the plastics guy's grandson) who was really good operating it.

I took the commercial to the Walgreen and other big dept stores...showed them the commercial...showed them that we had already purchased x minutes on the local WGN station and if they bought X amount their stores would be put on the Tag.

Well...I didn't sell all 250,000 BUT...I did move a little over 100,000...so, for the time spent, it was a win-win all around.

And I got the idea for the "Preview-Tag" commercial from Mr Popeil.

Popeil also had a magnificent mountain mansion on the slopes of Aspen mountain. I was at a few parties there when I lived in the area.

It had a huge indoor waterfall.

He lost this place when he went thru financial problems. BUT...I learned something long ago;
If someone once makes a few million and loses it all...in a short time that person will have it all back PLUS.

Andrew Carnegie (the Steel Magnate) said;
"Take away everything from me...my money...my plants...everything...BUT...give me 10 handpicked men and I'll have it all back with 5 years!"

Don Alm

Don Alm

> In that article about Ron it mentions he did
> not read from a script during a promotion of
> a particular product. A local radio station
> here in AZ did an interview with him about a
> year ago and he said that he never reads
> from a script. He went on to say that if you
> feel good enough about your product,
> providing you are comfortable with public
> speaking, you should not have to read from a
> script.

> You are right Dien, very interesting indeed.

> Dennis




Some of my UNIQUE home-based businesses

Are we allowed to use Segway in a domain name?
 

What do you think: are we allowed to use Segway in a domain name?

Regards

Oliver Peters


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Re: The "Secret" to Popeil's early success
 

I was reading your story with interest until I got to the part about the Teeny Bopper.

I have often wondered if your stories were true. But now I have doubts.

The Teeny Bopper story is almost word for word how Joe Sugarman described it in his 1976 book SuccessForces. He tells about how he found the Teeny Bopper paddles and worked out the deal. It was originally called the Twist'n Pop and he renamed it the Teeny Bopperr. He got the paddles from Frank Camp who had a 50,000 square foot warehouse filled from floor to ceiling with Twist'n Pop's he couldn't get rid of. He also tells about how he started the Great Teeny Bopper Society club and how he got the Community Discount stores to do a live event to sell the Teeny Boppers. Disaster struck when a tornado hit the Chicago area and the event was canceled and the entire promotion lost momentum. Your story is too close to Joe Sugarman's to be coincidence. I have a copy of the book on my desk open to chapter 6 which tells the whole story.

So who is telling the truth and who is making it up?

Re: The "Secret" to Popeil's early success
 

> I was reading your story with interest until
> I got to the part about the Teeny Bopper.

> I have often wondered if your stories were
> true. But now I have doubts.

> The Teeny Bopper story is almost word for
> word how Joe Sugarman described it in his
> 1976 book SuccessForces. He tells about how
> he found the Teeny Bopper paddles and worked
> out the deal. It was originally called the
> Twist'n Pop and he renamed it the Teeny
> Bopperr. He got the paddles from Frank Camp
> who had a 50,000 square foot warehouse
> filled from floor to ceiling with Twist'n
> Pop's he couldn't get rid of. He also tells
> about how he started the Great Teeny Bopper
> Society club and how he got the Community
> Discount stores to do a live event to sell
> the Teeny Boppers. Disaster struck when a
I came across these things in 1978 AFTER Sugarman cancelled out. Camp STILL had a bunch left when Sugarman dropped out! We ran some commercials and sold them thru Walgreen's Drug Stores.

Don Alm

> tornado hit the Chicago area and the event
> was canceled and the entire promotion lost
> momentum. Your story is too close to Joe
> Sugarman's to be coincidence. I have a copy
> of the book on my desk open to chapter 6
> which tells the whole story.

> So who is telling the truth and who is
> making it up?

The case of the unsold Teeny Boppers.... solved!
 

Hi John,

I have also read Joe Sugarman's "Teeny Bopper" story.... But keep this in mind.

In 1966, Joe Sugarman knew of 250,000 "Twist'n Pops" sitting in a warehouse in Chicago. His deal (as told in his book, "Success Forces") was to promote them. In return, he would get 10,000 Teeny Boppers himself.

As you point out, the promotion flopped due to the bad luck of a tornado. Joe Sugarman got his 10,000 Teeny Boppers, but didn't do anything else with them after that.

By my calculation, that left 240,000 newly renamed "Teeny Boppers" sitting in a warehouse in Chicago. Joe Sugarman doesn't tell us anything beyond that - we don't know what happened to them from Joe Sugarman's book.

Now, keep this in mind as well....

Don Alm used to live in Chicago. His story is quite different - though it is using the same product.

Joe Sugarman wanted to promote the "Teeny Boppers" by starting a new club for teenagers. Don Alm promoted them by aiming them at chain stores (like Walgreen's) and promoting them through a TV commercial.

The location is the same - Chicago - but I know that both Joe Sugarman and Don Alm used to live in Chicago. And the product is the same - but given the same location, that's believable.

The two methods of promotion though, are quite different. And so were the two results....

I personally have no reason to disbelieve Don's story. In fact, when I think about it more - including the fact that Don Alm used to live in Chicago, and the fact that according to Joe Sugarman, there were still 240,000 unsold Teeny Boppers left - it actually fits into place.

Please remember, no personal attacks etc. here please (they will be deleted).

- Dien Rice

Correction
 

The post above didn't look like my response could be seen so here it is again, plus some extra comments;
================================================
I came across these things in 1978. Camp STILL had a bunch left when Sugarman dropped out! We ran some commercials and sold them thru Walgreen's Drug Stores.
================================================
Don Alm

Also...at the time I owned a security company called SECURITRONICS and I had installed alarms in Charles walgreen's home in Winnetka and his son Corkies home in Lake Forest...and I also installed alarms in all of the new GLOBE Discount Stores which was owned by Walgreen's...so I had an IN with the Walgreen people in those days.

SECURITRONICS CORP was at 744 NW Highway in Palatine, ILL Our offices was just a few blocks south of Dundee Road...which is the road I took to and from my home in Northbrook...and in the the late 60's I would go past Sugarman's FIRST office which was just off Dundee Rd in a onestory white frame building where I would see him and his staff with their mail order business...as I passed by early in the morn and late at night going to and from my office.

Don Alm

Thanks Don, a fantastic story and lesson....
 

Hi Don,

Thanks for sharing that story! I wondered when I read it if these were the same "Teeny Boppers" that Joe Sugarman mentioned in his book "Success Forces" - and it turns out they were (the description is the same)....

And when I thought about it more, your story fits with everything Joe Sugarman said. There were still 240,000 "Teeny Boppers" left according to Joe Sugarman, since he had the bad luck of a tornado hitting chicago and ruining his promotion. (This was back in 1966.) And I know you used to live in Chicago too....

Thanks for sharing that.... It is a great educational story, and it is a great addition to what Joe Sugarman wrote about in "Success Forces" (chapter 6, as John mentioned above)....

It also shows you don't have to be too complicated to make money. A simple TV ad, in this case, and having them carried by Walgreen's, did it (well, it sold 100,000 of them anyhow!).

Thanks. :)

- Dien Rice

Video of "IT" in action at ABCnews.com
 

Here's the Segway in action... amazing.

http://abcnews.go.com/ and click on the "video" link at the story.

Re: Video of "IT" in action at ABCnews.com
 

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the link to the video.... It looks pretty wild! I like it though.... :)

I'm thinking how you could do something to tie in with the Segway, as Gordon suggested.... Hmmm.... Still thinking....

- Dien

Just saw the footage on the news and...
 

I WANT one! :o)

> I'm thinking how you could do something to
> tie in with the Segway, as Gordon
> suggested.... Hmmm.... Still thinking....

Apart from the ideas the news item talked about - ambulance/paramedics? postal workers, library, etc...

how about

*Internal mail delivery,
*Flyer delivery (applicable in Aust only as I believe the USPS does that in the US),
*Document delivery within the city - as a biz or part of a company with a couple of offices nearby,
*Hire it out as a fun thing - place ads in it for extra revenue - or to business for other purposes,
*Transport in sporting arenas - maintenance could travel around to fix or check things, security could do their rounds on it,
*Electricity meter-readers,
*Parking-violation ticket-givers,
*Sport coaches and assistance-coaches,
*Sport officials/umpires/referees,
*Snack vendors,
*Use it as an attenion grabbing device to lure shoppers around a store that pays you to draw a crowd,
*Hire to child birthday parties,
*Food and beverage delivery at the beach or park,
*Dry-cleaning delivery to nearby offices,
*Other food and beverage delivery to offices,

Other things for it:

*Theft prevention devices,
*Mobile phone holders,
*Drink holders,
*Luggage carriers,
*Parking "racks" like bike racks,
*Modification service - like repaint for cars, spoilers, etc.

What else?

Michael Ross

The skills that most inventors are missing (though NOT Ron Popeil or Dean Kamen)....
 

Hi Amber,

> Ideafinder.com is a great site...thanks for
> posting the articles.

Yes, I agree! www.ideafinder.com is a very interesting site to browse through, for those interested in inventors and inventions.... :)

> Dean Kamen is surely one interesting fella.
> Bet he'd be fun to hang out with, huh? Same
> thing goes for Ron. I'd really like to see
> full length films made about these two
> gent's lives.

Yes, I admire them both. :)

> Drudge just posted a more descriptive report
> on "it" ... I probably won't be
> able to sleep tonight in anticipation of
> actually getting to view it in the morning.

> I guess it is too late to put it on my
> christmas wish list though. ;-)

After seeing "it" - I think it IS potentially revolutionary.... I think, like Dean Kamen says, it could really fill a niche for inner-city travel, where a car is often completely impractical (and very slow because of constant traffic jams)....

> Dien, I can just SEE you as an
> inventor...for whatever that is worth to
> you. :-)

Heheh, thanks Amber! :) I HAVE been to a few "inventor's society" meetings in the past.... They were very interesting. I have met a few successful inventors by going to these meetings.

One successful inventor I met is the inventor of the "Oz Tent" - which can be put up in only 30 seconds! See http://www.discountcamping.com.au/oztent.htm as an example.... But he spent something like $20,000 of his own money in product development, patenting and marketing costs. Being an inventor isn't always cheap! However, the "Oz Tent" is a successful product....

However, most inventors really could use more marketing and sales skills.... This really seems to be the weakness of most who consider themselves "inventors," in my opinion....

Thanks Amber for your kind comments. Maybe one day I'll actually invent something, and consider myself an "inventor" too.... :)

- Dien Rice

Some great ideas, Michael !
 

Hi Michael,

> I WANT one! :o)

Yes, me too! The Segway looks pretty cool! And useful too....

> Other things for it:

> *Theft prevention devices,
> *Mobile phone holders,
> *Drink holders,
> *Luggage carriers,
> *Parking "racks" like bike racks,
> *Modification service - like repaint for
> cars, spoilers, etc.

Thanks Michael, these are great ideas!

- Dien


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