Here’s a good one-liner for a Tuesday afternoon, from business & marketing guru Seth Godin:
Big ideas... are little ideas that no one killed too soon.
Makes perfect sense, right? Yet too often, people don't think this way. And for more insight from Godin, we recommend his book Meatball Sundae—a great read on what happens when you mix two great ideas without carefully thinking it all through. Enjoy.
Invention is all about change. But presenting people with too much change can confuse or deter them. So as you work to advance your innovation, do yourself a favor and take the time to frame it for success. What do we mean? Here are a few examples:
1. Automobiles. Early autos were so far-out that few people saw the benefits in them. Then the people making them started to build them in carriage-like shapes and someone coined the phrase “horseless carriage”… and suddenly these vehicles made sense for the masses—now the newfangled machines were a must-have evolution of the horse-drawn buggy.
2. Estate taxes. Years ago, most Americans supported these taxes born largely by affluent voters. This didn’t sit well with the Republican party. So the GOP initiated a campaign to change public opinion. It’s #1 tactic: Republicans started to consistently speak of estate taxes as “death taxes,” and in doing so created a groundswell of concern that every American family could be taxed upon a family member’s death. That new framing changed public opinion ever since.
3. Microsoft Bing. The folks in Redmond recently launched Bing with hopes to steal some of Google’s thunder... and revenue. You’ve likely seen the Bing TV ads. Interestingly, Microsoft is calling its service a “decision engine” not a “search engine,” very intentionally framing it as smarter when it comes to finding precisely what you need. Only time will tell if Bing is Microsoft’s next Xbox (a big success) or Zune (so far, quite the bust), but we appreciate the careful word choice.
So, are you choosing your words carefully too, framing your invention in a way that takes into consideration consumer sentiments, competitive products, and retailers needs? It’s not too late to start doing so.
It’s Friday and we’re working hard to wrap up some sweet inventions.
So we’ll keep this short and simply share a recent Gizmodo article explaining why different countries invented different electrical systems with different outlets and different wattage—it’s a true tale of competition between legendary inventors' technologies and nations each determined to have their way.
Click here to give it a read. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Check out the Murakami Rocking Chair—your rocking powers its own built-in reading lamp.
Designer Rochus Jacob has packed the latest nano-dynamo technology (sounds cool just saying it, doesn’t it?) into the skids to harvest the kinetic energy of rocking, and added a battery pack to store the energy for when you need it. Oh, and it gets better: the lampshade itself is the light—the whole thing is made of bendable organic light-emitting diodes (aka: OLED).
Add in the fact the design itself is gorgeous, and we’re already adding this to our holiday wish list (hint hint to our special someones).
(We’ll add a link and retail price info when it’s available—this chair just took home a first prize at the DesignBoom Green Life Competition… so we expect more info to come out soon).
We’re big fans of Tesla Motors. The company’s inventive electric Roadsters are not only oh-so sweet looking, but they do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds with twice the energy efficiency of a Prius and get up to 244 miles on a single charge (yes, this merits a pause for awe). It also doesn’t hurt that the company named itself after one of the world’s great electrical engineer inventors (Nikola Tesla).
And even more noteworthy right here & now, the Tesla guys just announced they’re rolling out house-calls for owners who need service or upgrades to their $109,000+ sports cars. The service isn’t free—owners must pay $1 per mile the technician must travel to get from the nearest Tesla service center, and there’s a $100 minimum—but we suppose someone who’s spent six figures on their ride isn’t counting pennies.
Beyond the buzzworthyness of this move, there’s an important lesson in it: Success isn’t just about the initial sale—it’s also about the satisfaction & delight that follows. Tesla gets this, and is putting in the miles to prove it. They appreciate that people who are satisfied & delighted will tell their friends. And so will those who aren’t.
Lesson 2: Eliminate the barriers. With few dealers and perhaps no neighborhood garages equipped to repair a cutting-edge Tesla, this move also puts would-be buyers at ease that they won’t be left hunting for help when they need it. That’s almost as cool as the 3.9 seconds!
Do your best inventing at home? Or at the office? And why is that?
A growing number of home office workers and tinkerers are finding they can’t keep up their productivity at home. Too many temptations—the Playstation, the kids, those chores that didn’t quite get finished on Sunday—and too little to keep them on track.
That is, until somebody (really somebodies) reinvented work space, creating cubicle farms and work zones that can be rented by the hour, day or month. And these work centers—with names from Office Nomads to The Hive to New Work City, even Cubes&Crayons with on-site childcare—are popping up all over the country as more people are working on their own… yet still wanting to work around others.
Definitely consider googling for one near you if you’re finding that your home environment is inhibiting your invention success.
For more info, click here for additional coverage from Entrepreneur magazine.
BTW, home office workers might also want to check out the Thriving Office, a collection of office sounds (think people, ringing phones and the periodic hum of the copier) developed by one of our clients. Fans have been known to play it during their phone calls to give the impression they’re part of a bigger organization.
See ABC’s Shark Tank last night? The new reality TV show follows U.S. inventors and entrepreneurs as they go before a panel of highly successful business people (the “Sharks”) and pitch their ideas with aim to secure financing from the sharks.
Here’s what often unfolds: inventor pitches “brilliant” idea and a business proposal—ie: a 10% stake in exchange for $460K—only to be eaten alive by the sharks with their tough questions about the product, business model, sales potential and so on.
In other words, it’s sort of like watching a horror film: drama, pain, a few heart-warming moments for good measure... and sheer exhilaration. And while we’re not such big fans of the horror genre, we really liked Shark Tank for demonstrating a number of real-life realities for inventive people:
Business is a heartless math exercise. Time & again, the sharks did the math and said they didn’t believe the numbers justified investment. In a couple instances, one or more sharks countered with alternative financing terms based on what they felt a product or idea might generate. This led to on-the-spot negotiations with dollar amounts, percents, and controlling ownership positions flying back and forth. And while the TV show setting is contrived, the sharks' tough questions are not. Remember, you can put your heart & soul into your product, but outsiders including retailers and manufacturers will focus squarely on the return they’ll get on their investment. It’s not cold—it’s the cold, hard truth. Greed is a very big turn-off. Just about every inventor and entrepreneur on the show asked for too much money for too little in return—like the guy wanting $1.2 million in exchange for a 10% stake in his highly questionable if not insane idea. Some of this was due to unrealistic expectations, but much of it was very clearly greed. And the sharks had none of it. In fact, the greed only served to inject tension from the start of the discussion. Knowing that your audience is treating this as an investment, and knowing that they’re usually quite savvy—the retail buyers we work with are very smart people—greed won’t get you very far. If you’re looking to go far, propose terms that help ensure all parties win; otherwise, you’ll likely be the loser, as was the case with some visitors to the Shark Tank. Do you have a product or a business? The sharks noted a couple times that an inventor has a “product,” not a “business.” The difference: a single product is hard-pressed to stand out and often holds limited potential, whereas a business is one with broader scope and greater growth potential ongoing. To be sure, this isn’t always the case, but we appreciated the sharks counseling at least one inventor to license her product and move on rather than investing everything she has to proceed alone. We could go on & on... but what did you think? And what did you get out of the Show?
Full disclosure: Shark Tank producers contacted us months ago asking us to send inventors their way. We declined. We didn’t like the fact that inventors would need to sign away 2% of their sales to ABC, parent company Disney, and producer Mark Burnett (the guy behind Survivor) just to be considered for casting. We also felt our clients’ aims would be better served by focusing on outreach to leading manufacturers and retailers, not a Reality TV panel that may be more keen on ratings than inventions.
Forbes this week features a study on how people buy very differently in different parts of the U.S.
Did you know that Baltimorians these days are loading up on ice cream makers while San Franciscans are buying lots of recycling containers? Meanwhile, people in Austin are buying lots of cameras and people in Portland, OR are buying lots of educational toys.
These findings (and more) are based on an analysis of purchases made from online retailer Shop.com. To be sure, it would be a lot more representative and actionable to see how people’s buying habits vary across different geographies’ Walmart and Target stores... but the findings are informative nonetheless.
And they highlight two key points for anyone looking to advance an inventive idea:
You can be highly successful serving a local area needs and preferences. In other words, you don’t need to go national or international to make it big with your invention. This also means if your product works well locally, don’t rush to make changes in order to serve a much broader and possibly different population—doing so could do more harm than good, so really think it through first. Always remind yourself that different areas may have different needs and preferences, so you may not have “the next big thing” just because your closest friends and neighbors love your invention. Before you invest too much of your heart, soul and bank account, you’ll always do yourself some good by getting feedback from people outside your circle. Whether you get it from a distant relative, an old college roommate, or a company that’s in the business, just be sure to get it.
You can click here to read the full Forbes article... and find out what people are buying in New York, LA, Atlanta, etc.
