A tale of two inventions

We’re reminded of Charles Dickens’ famous words (you know, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....”) in two inventions we recently came across: the Early Bird™ alarm clock and the Shape Up™ alarm clock, both from the company Fred & Friends.

We like the company behind these – its a group of playful designers who appeal to the kid within each of us, creating fun things like tooth-shaped candy dishes and cheese plates made to look like giant mousetraps – but we also think the two clocks are representative of how one invention can hit the mark while another can fall a touch short:

The Early Bird clock gently chirps and illuminates to wake you up. Since many people don’t want or need a jarring buzzer waking them up, and still others need a little bit of sun-like light (especially on those dark winter mornings), we think this clock hits the mark dead-on. Some of us here will be placing our amazon orders shortly.

Meanwhile, the dumbbell-sized Shape Up won’t stop buzzing until you lift it for 30 reps. The idea’s cute for about two seconds, but we suspect the novelty will be gone about a second later... and the clock will be in a box in the garage, or yard sale fare, soon afterwards. We prefer for an invention to have a little more life to it.

What can we learn from the two inventions?:

1. Be novel. There’s a huge market for new & different products, especially those that are affordably priced to serve everyday needs. In this regard, the $28 Early Bird can chirp all the way.

2. Be THE solution. The Shape Up solves one problem by creating another. It’s like punching someone in the arm to make them stop thinking about their headache... or invading Iraq so that... well, you get the idea. So while we give a quick nod to the attempt at inspiring early morning workouts, we advise everyone out there to reflect on whether you’re really, truly providing the total solution or simply replacing one problem with another.
3. Be buzzworthy. We learned of the Shape Up from Gizmag, which designated it as gift-worthy for people you dislike. From here, we discovered the Early Bird. The lesson: whatever you’re selling, media attention is good. And yes, it can tactically serve you very well to use one buzzworthy product to draw attention to another that you’re more keen to actually sell.

BTW, Dickens continued with “… it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness….” Here’s to learning from both in order to make your invention better!

(Full disclosure: we’re guilty of playing in the novelty clock arena too, most recently with our Flying Alarm Clock on QVC. Objectively speaking, the Early Bird gets the worm ahead of ours; however our clock comes in well above the Shape Up on balancing practicality and playfulness).