profitable marketable inventions

What Is a Profitably Marketable Invention?
by Jim White, author of "Will It Sell?"

The real question is:

At its most basic, a PROFITABLY MARKETABLE invention is:

a. a great idea
b. a solution to a problem
c. both of the above
d. none of the above.

The correct answer is "b. a solution to a problem" and that is the only correct answer.

I hear an immediate chorus of, "but people will buy anything," as exemplified by Hula Hoops, Rubik's Cubes, Superballs, and even sucker rotators. Those things don't solve any problem -- do they? Actually, yes, they do. They solve the problem of boredom. In fact, the entertainment industry is one of the largest in the U.S. since most people in the U.S. do not have to spend most of their time engaged in activities just to stay alive.

There is also another huge industry that catches a large share of the so-called "useless" inventions. That is the vanity (or self-worth) industry. While this industry often has items that specifically belong to it (such as jewelry, in my opinion only, some might argue), many products are significantly embellished by designers seeking to position their basic products (automobiles, for example) to appeal to individuals who wish (whether they will acknowledge it or not) to project a certain image or to feel a certain way about themselves.

Will It Sell?

If your goal is to get your invention patented and then to have someone else produce and sell it (pouring on you huge sums of money for the privilege), what do you think that someone else will ask as their first question? The first question is, "Will it sell?" If it won't sell, then ANY money they invest in your invention will be wasted. (Your time, great genius, patenting effort and expense, and devoted enthusiasm for the invention are almost useless to the producer/seller.)

Well, all right then, you will manufacture it and sell it yourself. Nice stubborn streak you got there. Try not to lose too much money (or self-esteem) in the process. Your first question should be "Will it sell?" also -- if it appears that it won't (more on how to do this later), then it is time to move on to your next idea. If you only had the one idea you are most likely to always be a "wannabe" inventor.

Supposing it will sell! Hurray, we've got a winner!!! "Oops, not so fast," your prospective producer/seller says. "What will people be willing to pay for it?" Aaahh .... well ... that depends on the perceived value of having the problem solved in general, and the perceived value of your solution in particular. A deck of cards and an electronic video virtual reality 3D game machine might well both solve the same problem, but one will sell for a lot more -- REGARDLESS of what it costs to produce it. A full-scale giant sized arcade video 3D game will be worth even more -- but there will be far fewer buyers.

Well, we can always do the old producer trick of selling high-priced ones to the elite buyers first, then lowering the price over time (claiming volume economies, of course) to get more people to buy it while maximizing our profits. Nice idea, but that generally only works when the producer/seller's (and often buyer's) perception is that the item will eventually be a mass market item and that production costs, at both the high end and the eventual low end, will still be far enough below the sales price to provide a decent (or maybe even indecent) profit -- not to mention your pile of royalties. More about pricing in the next chapter.

Everyday Ideas:

Well, what about a profitably marketable invention not having to be a great idea? Look around you. Really see the products you use every day. Most are mundane and ordinary, yet they sell profitably. If they didn't they wouldn't be sold for long. Now look at the engineering of them. See how the engineers solved the problems they encountered during development. You could easily come up with technically better, more innovative solutions in many cases. In many cases, you would back off a step or two and redesign the basics so some of the "solutions" wouldn't be necessary in the first place! Granted, most of our everyday products are not "new" inventions, but evolved products. Even evolved products may have patented parts.

Tear Something Up:

Don't tear up anything you don't want to be without, but, for a homework exercise, take a close look at 2 or 3 different staplers from different manufacturers or 2 or 3 single line telephones. If you can take them apart, the guts of telephones (or most things) are often the apparent playground of the "get it done fast whatever way you think of first" approach to detail engineering. That isn't necessarily bad -- in fact, it should give you a clue about the non-value of devoting resources to essentially irrelevant parts of your own invention.

On the other hand, you will often see quickly and badly done detail engineering that can't help but make the manufacturing cost higher than necessary (a screw where a press-fit would be more than adequate, for example). An engineer friend of mine highly recommends the book, "Product Design for Manufacturing and Assembly," Boothroyd & Dewhurst, 1994 for a classic work on doing the out-of-sight detail engineering. The book is very cheap, only $165; compared to the thousands of dollars you'll spend making millions of your product.

We have now encountered a fundamental point. Most inventors approach "marketing" from the perspective of "How do I get people to buy my invention?" That is the wrong question. The correct question is "What can I invent that people will buy?" That is a pretty big question, but it is one you should use to filter all your invention ideas.

The basic premise of this chapter is clear. People want solutions to problems (including boredom) and that is what you should provide with your inventions. A secondary factor you should have noted is that, even if the solution is wanted, the solution must sell profitably, i.e. sell at a price above what it costs to make and distribute but below what enough customers are willing to pay for it.

Okay, you haven't given up yet. That idea is still banging around in your head and you are pretty sure it is a solution to a problem. You haven't really answered the questions (Will it sell? At what price?) for your producer/seller , but you insist the answers will still be favorable. You're an inventor, you probably have never worked an invention through to market before and besides, nobody can really know until you try -- right? What are the concrete steps you should take to get your invention on its way?

Some clues will be provided in next month's issue.

"For more tips on getting your product to market and to receive their free newsletter, "The Online Inventor ", please visit: www.marketlaunchers.com."