Bringing a Product to Market

I love telling the story of how I invented The Chillster Coaster while I was skiing because more often than not, the person hearing the story will say to me... "you know, I have an idea for a product but I just don't know what to do next."

Well, here's some brief "lessons learned" advice and "next steps" for those who have an idea and want to strike it rich (or at least want to try and bring their idea to market.)


1. Tell people about your idea (and not just your immediate family and friends.) This might seem like crazy advice, but it's very important that you do this. At first I was extremely secretive about my "invention" for one obvious reason - I didn't want anyone to steal it. However, as you'll see, it takes more time and possibly money than most people will have. So. don't worry about someone stealing your idea. (One Caveat - don't spill your guts to a company that could actually manufacture or distribute your product at this point - you'll talk to them in Step 4.)

So, why talk to people? To see if there is a market for your product and to get ideas that you might not have thought of. If there is no market, then you are probably not going to have much success. Try and gage if people are genuinely excited about your idea. Ask them if they would buy it if they saw it on the shelves and what type of stores they could see it in.

2. Once you've determined (as best you can) that there is a market for your product, the next step is to figure out if it can be licensed out to an existing company. For those who do not have the time, money or stomach to do this on your own, this is a crucial step. Manufacturing and selling your own product is hard work (I do it everyday!). In my case, there was no company that I could easily see adding a refreezable coaster to.

However, if you can find a company that already manufactures and sells similar items, then the best advice I can give is to try and add your product to their line and sit back and collect the checks! (Please note - if you have a breakthrough invention that you really believe in and have the resources to bring it to market yourself then by all means do it on your own and you'll make much more than a per unit royalty.)

3. Ok, so you have a market for your product and you've come up with one or a few companies that there might be a fit with. The next step is to go to the US Patent and Trademark Office web site and do a quick patent search to see if your idea has already been taken. While this is not a substitute for what a patent lawyer will do for you, at this point it will suffice.

If you don't find a similar product, you can begin the protection process. The first thing to do is to file a provisional patent. This is something that you can write yourself with no legal training at all. A patent examiner doesn't even look at it. Once sent to the USPTO, you have one year from that date to submit a "real" patent. In the mean time, your idea is officially "patent pending". The cost is about $300.

4. Now that you are protected, it's time to set up some meetings with the companies that you think would be a good fit with your product. Go in, tell them about your patent pending product and make your first sale - that is... get them to manufacture and sell your product while giving you a generous royalty!

Seems simple right? Well it isn't. And the above steps are merely a guideline to start you thinking and pointing you in the right direction. There's a lot involved in bringing an idea to life. In fact, even the basic steps above are going to take a lot of time and energy. However, while it's not easy bringing a product to market, once you do, it's a whole lot of fun and very satisfying!

Happy Inventing!

Story of Stuff

We just watched the Story of Stuff. It's a 20 minute video about... well, stuff - where stuff comes from, how stuff is made, where stuff is sold, how stuff is used and eventually where stuff goes. This is similar to the George Carlan's stuff routine (one of my all time favorites) but in a very different way.

Carlin's routine, while not intentional, speaks at the heart of the problem which is that we all like to buy, use and store more and more stuff. What he doesn't talk about is the environmental impact of all this stuff. That's where Story of Stuff comes into play. (Note: please don't get scared away by the length. While it is a twenty minute video, it is very user friendly in that you can play various sections of it using the the tabs at the top - so don't feel like you need to watch it all at once).

The video is informative, funny at times and scary at times. My favorite aspect of the video and the site is that they don't give you a list of things that you can go out and do to help the environment. The video was made to make us think. And hopefully by thinking about how we as consumers can affect the environment with our buying decisions and political influence, we can, as a whole, make a difference.

Altantic City Beer Festival

We just got back from the Celebration of the Suds Beer Festival in Atlantic City, NJ. Lots of great beers and great people. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth.

For anyone who hasn't been to a beer festival, try to get to one at some point. As an attendee, you pay a flat fee (in this case $45 at the door) and you get to taste hundreds of beers with your two ounce glass over a four hour period. The Great American Beer Festival in Denver each fall has over 1800 beers to taste! While some people attend just to get drunk, most are there to taste different styles and brands of beer that they wouldn't normally drink. It's well worth it. And from an exhibitors standpoint, it didn't hurt that we made friends with some of our beer pouring neighbors!

We were also really excited when we saw that our booth was diagonally across from the Magic Hat Brewing Company. They hold a very special place in our company history; the original idea for the refreezable Chillster Coaster was conceived with a Magic Hat #9 after a day of skiing at Mt. Snow. Vermont.

Reusing vs. Recycling

We recently came across an interesting article about a study in Denmark that found that major events (e.g. sports and festivals) that implemented a reusable and refillable cup program were more environment-friendly than those that used traditional disposable cups. When it came to environment benefits, the reusable cups only needed to be used five times to outscore disposable cups.

The jist of the program involves consumers paying an upfront refundable deposit for a branded cup and refilling it all day at the event. If the consumer wants to take home the souvenir cup, than they lose their deposit. Otherwise, the cup is returned at the end of the event and washed for the next one. The article goes on to detail the specifics of the study.

While this may sound like a no-brainer - of course an event will be more environment-friendly if less disposable cups are used - many events are not going down this route. Instead they are turning to 100% recyclable cups. However, with recycling comes increased costs (ensuring recycle bins are everywhere and that everything is sorted, collecting the recycled plastic, etc.)
and increased energy to transform the plastic back into usable pellets. Isn't is better to reuse than recycle? Isn't that why "reuse" is before '"recycle" in the 3 R's?

That's why when we speak with music festivals and other large scale events about our Stop Beer Warming initiative, we talk about implementing a refillable and reusable cup program similar to the one in the article as opposed to starting a recyclable one. It just makes more sense.