shop4patents Blog

Getting Your Idea Into the MarketplaceCopyright 2007. SunZag Creative Products. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission from the author.
So, you are an inventor with an idea, perhaps with a prototype or two. How exactly do you go about getting your idea into the marketplace and start making money from it? There are many paths to take, and many books have been written that cover topics such as licensing your invention to a big company, or self-venturing it as an entrepreneur. Only you can decide the correct path to take. You should listen to some advice of others, but in the end, the decision is yours - after all, nobody should know your invention (and its potential market) better than you do.
This is assuming you have done the market research and know the market size. Ideally, the market size should be at least $20 million. What can you say about your target market? Do you have any statistics to back it up? Prepare your elevator/sales pitch. For example, my Disc Eraser product (www.DiscEraser.com) has a target market of 40 million users in the United States. Every month, over 3 million CDs become outdated or obsolete, and need secure destruction. My product is the quickest, most environmentally-safe device to prevent data and identity theft.

Most inventors choose to license out their patents and inventions rather than venturing their “product” through manufacturing, packaging, and then marketing. Let’s start with the basics, the terms - When I use the term “product” it refers to your invention. During your interactions with potential licensees and/or clients, you should refrain from using the word “invention” and refer to it as your “product” or “technology”. In the business and marketing world, there is a bad connotation that goes along with inventors, in general. This is because often times they do not know much about business or marketing, and believe that they can just sit back and collect money while other people bring their invention to market. The main distinction is that an “invention” is merely an idea, a sketch, or prototype at best. A “product” is a marketable invention…it’s something that people are willing to buy. In the business world, you should always refer to yourself as a “product developer” instead of “inventor”.

For licensing, there is less up-front financial risk, but you limit your own participation (and profits) tremendously. It is also difficult to get companies interested in your product, and they are likely to stall on your project because they are busy with their own products. If you have new technology, there is always the IP risk when you work with other companies, despite signing confidential agreements. Some have no choice but to license because their inventions are complex. For self-venturing, more time is required, as well as more startup funding. The knowledge of sales and marketing is essential, and experience is key in this area. Therefore, most inventors find themselves out of place when it comes to bringing their product to market. They may have the passion and the expertise in their field, but need help with sales and marketing. It is critical to team up with these experts.

I am not going to give you any specific rules because there are none. You must keep an open mind and be willing to learn. I can only generalize, and share what I have learned in bringing the Compact Disc Eraser to market. Every market is different. Marketing is very difficult for beginners because you must understand the minds of consumers. If you are an Engineer by trade, you must learn to use the other half of your brain. I recall in my inventor’s group, they told me that I should just license it out because I wouldn’t be good at marketing or business based on the fact that I was an Engineer. In most cases, that may be true, but I do not limit myself, and have great desire to learn and take challenges that are outside of my familiar “analytic” zone. Don’t ever let people assume things about you, or limit you from doing what you are capable of achieving. I’ve successfully marketed my product and built a small business out of it. I have proven many, many people wrong - those who didn’t believe I could do it, skeptics, friends, and even family members.

Market research must be done to make sure your efforts are effective. Many inventors live in a dream world with no idea of what is involved during the process of bringing a product to market. 97% of all patents fail to make money. You need to focus on the concrete factors…What is the market size of your product? Who is your target market? What is your manufacturing and advertising budget? How will you reach your target market? What business entity will you establish? How will you ship out your products? Which professionals will you need to hire to help you? There are many other important questions, and many pitfalls to avoid. Marketing can easily cost you more money than patenting, and if your message isn’t correct, you could end up wasting it all. Writing a detailed business plan is very important, it will help keep you on track and focused. If you need help, be sure to ask the experts about writing a business plan. Having one will also help get investors and funds.

I highly encourage direct end-user selling at first - you’ll need to test market your product. Just because people think it’s a great product doesn’t mean they would buy it. Even if they said they would buy it, they don’t always mean it. You need to get people to actually buy your product - that is the ultimate test. On the flipside, even great products are often disapproved or skepticized when they are first introduced. My Compact Disc Eraser is no exception, as I received doubtful responses by a few skeptics as well as “expert” inventors, and even “well-seasoned” marketers. Don’t always take their word for it - after all, nobody should know the market better than the inventor. Sometimes your invention may be slightly ahead of its time. Or perhaps they do not fully understand your invention, or have the desire to fully understand it, as in the case of skeptics. Be emotionally prepared, especially for skeptics. Most skeptics are closed-minded and stubborn, so don’t attempt to make “converts” out of them. Instead, I turn them into opportunities for educating the benefits of my product as well as CD recycling. From time to time, I still encounter skeptics who would prefer to use a microwave, or a cigarette lighter, a shotgun, or even a belt sander, to destroy their old CD-Rs instead of neatly using my Compact Disc Eraser, and then recycling the CD afterwards. Personally, I have already utilized many of the “Poor Man’s Methods” of cutting up, breaking, sanding, microwaving, and other physical methods to destroy my confidential CDs (that is why I invented the Compact Disc Eraser, and patented its revolutionary clean Optical Strip Technology - to avoid those messy and dangerous hassles). Traditional destructive methods are something you definitely don’t want to do indoors, because metallic dust and toxic fumes are released, and cleanup is quite a hassle. Therefore, my product’s advertised benefit is the user-friendliness and safety: No waste material is created, and unwanted CDs are quickly wiped out in 2 seconds. However, when I blog or talk to people about this new product, there are always skeptics who choose to ignore these benefits and proudly state that breaking, microwaving, melting, or even defoiling CDs with a knife are the way to destroy them. Sure, those are obvious ways to destroy them(as if I didn’t know already)…BUT my product offers benefits that avoids those hassles and dangers. Duh! It can get quite frustrating when dealing with skeptics, but remember, there will always be skeptics, especially if you have a breakthrough technology or a revolutionary innovation: skeptics will tend to ignore the benefits of your product; in my case, they will keep creating E-Waste and releasing toxic fumes and particles into our environment as they continue using their own methods to destroy their discs. Don’t spend too much time arguing with them, just re-state the benefits of your product and move on. Realize that there will always be skeptics who ignore the benefits of your product.

For starters, you may set up focus groups to get feedback, but I don’t believe in focus groups because they consist of the general population. When you start advertising, you need to first reach your niche market, because general advertising is more expensive and less successful than niche marketing. One quick and free way to assess the market for your product is to get people to fill out surveys. Keep it short and ask only important questions such as price and willingness to buy it. A great on-line survey that I have used is SurveyMonkey.com. You can take my survey at the bottom of the DiscEraser.com homepage to get an idea of which types of questions to ask. Set up your product survey, the first 10 questions are free, then email the link out to friends to fill out, or if you have a website, post a link to it. Later on, you can continue to use the survey to keep track of market trends, and fine-tune the questions to get feedback.

For direct selling, try small ads, PR, and selling on the internet. eBay and Amazon.com are cheap ways to test market your item to targeted buyers; you should pay particular attention to your competitors and similar products, and list your product alongside of them. How and where are your competitors advertised? Be sure to get feedback from your customers. Setting up a product website is vital in this day and age, but you will have to put in the time, set up links and advertisements to drive traffic to your site, which can add up in cost. I have used certain SEO and Google Adwords, which require much research in keywords and fine-tuning. Again, find an expert to help you with internet advertisement, but don’t spend too much money on it. Keep testing and tuning your ad message. Market your product with a unique twist. Find out what sells, what terminology you can incorporate into your ads. People and trends constantly change, so you must keep informed and pay particular attention to certain buzzwords and formalities. Publicity is quite effective. I was fortunate to audition and advance to the top 30 on ABC’s American Inventor. Get as much public exposure as you can, because you need to get the word out about your product. But remember, exposure alone will not translate into sales…you must have great marketing to be able to sell to the audience that you have drawn. My online marketing ROI is currently 800%, and that’s not by luck or by just sitting there hoping to get sales…you have to know how to market your product!

Besides reading many books and searching the internet for knowledge, I have had the help of friends in sales and marketing. You must look for the advice of experts, i.e. those who have successfully done it before. SCORE is a good online organization to find some key people to help you in various fields. There are many misconceptions and struggles that many people don’t know about when it comes to venturing your own product. Sure, your end goal is to sell at a wholesale volume to retail chain stores, but it usually takes years of hard work before this happens. How are you going to manufacture your product? How will you deal with Quality Control? Inventory? Product liability insurance? Advertising and sales? Fulfillment? And the list goes on….what price will you sell your product? Which price is the most profitable? Generally, you should set your price at least 5x the cost to produce it. There are other pertinent factors to consider as well. One common mistake that new businesses make is that they underprice their product or services in hopes of getting more sales, especially in the beginning…this is a no-no, because the main problem is reaching your target audience. It is important to do competitive analysis as well as price to value perception, and of course, actual price point testing.

For self-venturing your own product, three books I highly recommend is “Stand Alone, Inventor” by Robert Merrick, “Bringing Your Product to Market” by Don Debelak, and “The Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki. One book I don’t recommend is “The Carey Formula”. It is a nice narrative of Barbara Carey’s entrepreneurial successes & failures, but there aren’t many practical applications. I found the book quite repetitive. In addition, it came with a “free” trial newsletter, which they charged my credit card up-front. Thus, a $29.99 book cost over $70 when I got my statement. I called to cancel my subscription, and they didn’t want to give me any refund, saying it was too late for refund, AND they stopped sending me the newsletter altogether! I feel conned. The reason I bring this up isn’t to complain or gripe about Barbara and her book, but it’s a good lesson in customer satisfaction…it should be one of your top priorities. Without it, you will lose face rather quickly, and you don’t want customers feeling conned. Always be good to your customers, offer money back guarantees because there will always be some unsatisfied customers. You don’t want them to think less of you or the way you do business.

It is very satisfying to self-venture my Compact Disc Eraser product. This isn’t just because I have a great new product - I spent much time researching to come up with effective marketing strategies. I look forward to transitioning into wholesaling and getting into retail stores. I thank the many inventors/entrepreneurs who have helped me along the way. Success doesn’t happen overnight, it takes many months, possibly years, of hard work. Be resourceful and find experts to help you. Keep an open mind, constantly ask for feedback and opinions, and don’t get discouraged by skeptics, and those who don’t know what they are talking about. Test everything and try to keep your overall costs and early production volumes low. Feel free to email me and let me know what you thought of this article. -Wade Sun, www.DiscEraser.com


Copyright 2007. SunZag Creative Products. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission from the author.