This is something inventors - and everyone else - ought to know....
 

A couple of nights ago I went to the Inventors' Association Meeting in Melbourne, Australia....

There's quite an overlap between what many inventors want to do, and what many entrepreneurs want to do....

The main difference is that the inventor wants to create a physical product himself (almost all seem to be guys)..... While the definition of an entrepreneur is more diverse....

One inventor gave a talk at the meeting about his own inventions. He had some small successes, and many failures....

He said overall, he had about broken even regarding the money he had outlaid over the years, and the money he had brought in....

I thought there was a lot in his approach which could be improved....

His approach was that he would first think up some kind of device to make.

For example, one of the devices he had created in the past was a kind of alarm to protect fire extinguishers from being stolen.

Then he would figure out the technical details.... how to create it.

After going through all that WORK, TIME, and MONEY to make it, THEN he would see if there was a market....

I think he would have done MUCH better, if he had changed the order of things he was doing....

First, think up what he could make....

Then, see if there is a market!

And finally, only if there seems to be a market for the product, then spend all the WORK, TIME, and MONEY to create it!

No use spending all that WORK, TIME, and MONEY unless you already know that a market exists for the product....

I think he could have done much better if he had taken this approach, and done market testing much earlier on in his process....

Anyhow, it was interesting to go to the meeting. Many inventors could really use some education about marketing and the importance of market-testing....

That is, if they want their inventing to go beyond a hobby (and almost all of them do)....

I found this interesting.... After hanging out in these kind of forums, and reading all these books, thinking like this is now second-nature to me.... But to many people it's not obvious....

Dien Rice

Thomas Edison even had to learn this lesson the hard way...
 

> Many inventors could really use
> some education about marketing and the
> importance of market-testing....

> thinking like this is now
> second-nature to me.... But to many people
> it's not obvious....

Finding the market before the product is how most successful product developers operate. But even the genius inventor Thomas Edison learned about this the hard way...

Reportedly the first invention he tried to market was a flop. It was an electric vote recorder. (Maybe the hand counters wanted to be able to cheat on the count, or they figured that it might be so confusing that voters might vote for the wrong candidate! ;-)

Anyway, he eventually vowed he'd never again invent anything that people didn't want. Apparently he did very well after that, with lots of profitable inventions to his credit.

Good lesson for all entrepreneurs and inventors!

To Your Online Profits,
Marty Foley ~ Victory Ventures




Proven, Hype-Free Resources for E-Commerce Success...

Da market is da boss
 

Hi Marty,

Thanks for the story about Thomas Edison.... :)

> Anyway, he eventually vowed he'd never again
> invent anything that people didn't want.
> Apparently he did very well after that, with
> lots of profitable inventions to his credit.

Yes....

Maybe that saying of his,

"Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"

could be cut down to perhaps 93% perspiration with this insight! :)

Thanks.... :)

Dien Rice

Re: Thomas Edison even had to learn this lesson the hard way...
 

Hey, Marty -

Maybe Edison's vote counter patent has expired and we can make big bucks in FLA and elsewhere after the election is finally settled. I think it's an idea whose time has finally arrived:-)

Bob

Re: Thomas Edison even had to learn this lesson the hard way...
 

Well, I figured that I would jump in on this thread, with my own example of "Inventor Blindness". The product was a "toothbrush/toothpaste" combination.

There were small holes in the bristle head, where the toothpaste flowed threw. A plastic dial at the end of the brush handle, let you "turn" as much paste as you wanted through the bristle head.
The handle itself, was a resevoir for the paste.

The inventor had also manufactuered a machine that could fill the brush handles with toothpaste. He even had molds made for bristle heads, and was ready to go with production.

While it seemed like a good idea, and the people that invented thought it was too, the reality however was quite different. When they tried to market the product, the stumbling blocks were incredible..

1) People did not like the color of the toothpaste.

2) They did not like the "feel" of the handle. It was "oversized" and uncomfortable.

3) The "brush bristles" only came in one style, and they did not have the manufacturing capability to produce "varying styles" of bristle heads.

4) People worried about the toothpaste being in the handle too long. They thought it would "expire" after a certain amount of time.

5) It seems that people like having to apply their own toothpaste to the brush, and really didn't like the fact that there was only one type of paste in the handle..

By the time I got around to trying to sell the product for them, they had been to every sales rep, and business, that would be interested in their product.

They were turned down everytime, with the above mentioned results. The guys wife finally mentioned to me that one rep they contacted told them that "Maketing Was Everything".

She, and her husband obviously did not listen. This is perfect example of thinking that a product would be "good for everyone".

Even the secondary market, (Surplus & Salvage) was not interested. I think they finally gave away what product they had to charity.

"Inventors--heal thyself!" Engage in marketing "Due Diligence" before actually developing your "Universal Widget"!

Thanks all..
Robert..

> Finding the market before the product is how
> most successful product developers operate.
> But even the genius inventor Thomas Edison
> learned about this the hard way...

> Reportedly the first invention he tried to
> market was a flop. It was an electric vote
> recorder. (Maybe the hand counters wanted to
> be able to cheat on the count, or they
> figured that it might be so confusing that
> voters might vote for the wrong candidate!
> ;-)

> Anyway, he eventually vowed he'd never again
> invent anything that people didn't want.
> Apparently he did very well after that, with
> lots of profitable inventions to his credit.

> Good lesson for all entrepreneurs and
> inventors!

> To Your Online Profits,
> Marty Foley ~ Victory Ventures




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