Read more on the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship blog…

1. Most importantly, it increased our defect rate. The goal is to have a defect rate of <1%
2. Didn’t allow for images – a picture is worth 1,000 words, and this is true with packaging as well. I wanted larger packaging to allow for some images of the Headset Buddy in use.
3. Smaller on retail shelf – you want your packaging to be small enough so it doesn’t take up much space, but then again you want consumers to see your product. Somewhere there is a fine line, and I believe my packaging was too small for consumers.

I also got some other suggestions from my friend Billy Carmen. He suggested putting the image on the front, and differentiating package design for each Headset Buddy model since they look similar and could confuse consumers. So our next round (due out in a few weeks) had color coding and a image on the front.

More than anything else, creating a product is about continuous improvement. Packaging is one of those areas that just requires the most improvement!

V1.0

One habit I’ve started for myself is that whenever I show someone the Headset Buddy, before I tell them what it does, I ask them if they can tell me what it does. The point of the packaging is to quickly,clearly, and concisely communicate (not necessarily describe) what your product does.

What I found after asking a handful of business contacts, friends, and acquaintances, is that my insert card was doing a good job telling people what the Headset Buddy does. Just from the name people assumed it was for a headphone or a headset. Some people thought it was a splitter that allows two headsets to be used on an MP3 player. Others thought it was for a phone headset instead of a PC headset.

At first I thought that I was asking the wrong people, but almost everyone was not understanding, within a few seconds, the purpose of the Headset Buddy. So I went to radio shack and looked at other packaging to see what they were doing that I was not. One of the main things other packaging did was have a picture of someone using the product. Also, I realized that my icons on my first design weren’t clear that the adapter was for a PC headset to connect to a phone. I also noticed that most packaging left the detailed specs such as “Mic/Audio 3.5mm to 2.5mm” on the back of the packaging instead of the front.

So for my second design, here are the steps I took to quickly, clearly, and concisely communicate the intended use of the Headset Buddy:

1. Just like I saw on other examples of packaging, I added a picture of someone using a PC headset. Because of the small size of the card insert, unfortunately the picture is smaller than I would like.

2. I changed the icons from this:

to this:

3. I moved the technical specs of plug sizes to the back of the insert.

4. Although this seems like a small change, I modified the description from “Use One PC Headset With Computer & Phone” to “Use Your PC Headset With Phones”. The reason for the change is because people were confused by the dual use of “Computer & Phone.” It should be implied that the PC Headset can be used with your computer, so I just made the statement clear that it can now be used with phones.

5. I also added what the Headset Buddy is compatible with, and trademark/copyright statements to the back of the card.

I’m sure there’s more steps I can do to improve the design, and that will happen by continuing to survey customers. Continuous improvement is the life of an inventor and entrepreneur.

- Bryan Daigle

Dual 3.5mm to 2.5mm Headset to Phone Adapter

So how can Billy get away with selling all these products and not protecting them? Here is his philosophy…

So many inventors think they are out to make millions of dollars. However, studies have shown that only 3% of patents are commercially viable (MIT study). So the number of products that are both commercially viable and make millions of dollars, is a very, VERY small number. For most inventors, you’re lucky to make a profit, and really lucky to earn an full-time income from a product.

That’s where Billy’s philosophy really kicks in. If you assume your product will only make at most $200,000 or less in sales per year (what 99.9999% of inventions make), then why spend $20,000-$40,000 applying for, protecting, and litigating for a patent? In fact, if you are like most inventors who sell their product in small quantities to niche markets, then you don’t necessarily need a patent. Why would a Chinese company or an American company want to make your product if you’re only selling less than $200,000 of it per year? It is not worth it for them to copy it.

Copycats and big companies only want blockbuster products with potential sales in the millions. So what may be a treasure to you, making $100,000 selling your product, is peanuts to a corporation. The trick to creating a successful product that sells well enough for you to earn a living is this . . . create a product in a niche big enough for you, but too small for anyone larger. For example, Billy spun off a line of metal detectors for hunters, so they can detect bird shot in their catch of the day. That’s a niche. That’s a product that sells well, but doesn’t need a patent.

I think it’s calming to know that if you create a good, niche product, then you don’t have to worry about all the money, time, and energy you would be wasting on a patent.

Using this philosophy, Billy has created 59 products that sell well enough for him to live the good life, but not well enough for it to be worth it for companies to copy his products.

- Bryan Daigle

Back on topic, I’ve been hearing more good things about Amazon’s
Kindle 2. I have yet to go out on a limb and shell out the $359 for the Kindle 2 because right now I don’t have a problem carrying one book around at a time. My best reading (and thinking time) is on airplanes, and unless I’m reading Garfield, I probably won’t finish the book on one trip.

But I could definitely see the benefit for people backpacking around Europe, or living in a foreign country, where books in English might be as difficult to get as a fair taxi price. Downloading all your books and having them in one place might also free up a corner of my office.

Now if I could only turn all my old college textbooks that I don’t have the guts/willpower to throw away into downloadable PDFs. That would save a couple more cubic feet in the storage closet. I’ve already started saving storage space by converting pictures to digital images through a Photo Scanning Service.

But realistically, I think I’ll always have paper books. The Kindle, although it has it’s benefits, might be more challenging to consult on a time-to-time basis as I can’t quickly flip through the pages to a particular section. I do this with my business reference books all the time, and I think it would be tough getting use to the Kindle. Although on the other hand, the search feature might come in handy if I’m just searching for a particular topic.

In a way, the Kindle is like the Google Book Search is to Libraries. Yea, it’s nice to be able to search and read stuff with ease, but sometimes nothing beats a trip to a good ole fashioned library.

- Daigle

Any guesses as to how many kids from the upcoming generation will begin their online activities in the womb?

I learned a great deal from putting on these events, the biggest which would attract up to 30 teams, or 450 individuals to come play, and several hundred spectators. We’d organize about 45 volunteers for an event like that, so we definitely had a LOT of help.

Never had I appreciated the experience of putting on a large, high-traffic event until 5 weeks ago, when IdeaTango was officially acquired by InventBay. Since then, my focus has been on only two things, the InventBay Expo, which we held last weekend, and launching them a new website within 3 weeks.

We launched the new website October 9th, with much help from my IdeaTango partners and our experience working together. This past weekend, October 18 & 19, 2008, we officially held the coming-out party (Quinciniera or Barmitsva as it is called in other cultures) for InventBay, in the only place big enough to hold us, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The expo was hosted at the Sands Expo, in Hall A, which has 178,000 sq feet of open space. Of course since this is our first year, we only filled up 1/2 the show floor with ~130 exhibitors + another 70 booths where people could sign up for local inventor associations.

Some valuable lessons that I learned when putting on tournaments, came in handy when being an integral part of this expo:

• You can never do something on this scale alone, so the ability to delegate is more important than any other factor.
• If something can go wrong, it will. Double-check and verify everything. For example, for one of our tournaments, the person who wrote up the tournament finals bracket left it at his house, and caused our Sunday playoffs to start an hour late. Eventually this led to us shortening the finals game because we didn’t have daylight. At our expo this year, Kinkos was scheduled to print up a bunch of stuff for us the day before the doors opened. I asked our guys to double check what they received. Well, Kinkos forgot to print our speaker bios and we had to go back and pick it up 7 hours later. Good thing we checked!
• Stuff will go wrong, and rather than say that was ____’s job, just take the responsibility. Do whatever you can to fix it, even if it sometimes costs money.
• Always throw a party. I was able to convince our executive team that we needed a mixer, networking-like event either Friday or Saturday. Thanks goodness, because some of the people we talked to said that they met “so and so” and because of our party, they’ll come back next year. It’s a great way to informally talk with exhibitors, speakers, VIP guests, because once those show doors open, you won’t have another opportunity.
• Have fun. This goes with the point above. No matter what, if people have fun at your event, most will come back. Of course you need things like qualified attendees and exhibitors, but having fun can make up for quite a bit.

Let me tell you, it was fun and emotionally fulfilling to be part of such a big event, but I’m glad it’s not happening again until next year!

- Bryan Daigle

]]> http://bryandaigle.com/inventors/putting-on-a-giant-expo/feed/ 1 http://bryandaigle.com/inventions/successful-marketing-for-successful-inventing/ http://bryandaigle.com/inventions/successful-marketing-for-successful-inventing/#comments Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:20:12 +0000 Bryan Daigle http://ideatango.wordpress.com/?p=91 Famous inventor and entrepreneur Bob DeMatteis always says the same thing to every new entrepreneur and inventor: “If you want to be successful, then you must have a successful marketing strategy.”

Of the four people whom you must have to launch an invention – a patent attorney, a marketing expert, a manufacturing expert and yourself – the most important person is the marketing expert, since often inventors aren’t good salesmen or marketers. For whatever reason, the side of the brain that helps people think of inventions, seems to conflict with the side needed to market inventions. And to make money, you need to sell your product.

Having a marketing expert on your team as early as possible is absolutely necessary, because your success as an inventor depends on whether you can sell your invention. For that to happen, you have to successfully market your invention. How well your product will sell is not dependent on patents, because patents don’t mean your product will sell.

You might be a brilliant inventor, but a marketing professional on your team will help you evaluate the market needs, inform you about your customers, and determine exactly where and how to market to customers in order to earn a profit.

Since marketing types are expensive to hire, consider bringing them in as a partner. That’s what we did with ideatango, and boy has it paid off. Just be sure to do your due diligence when looking at anyone. I suggest using a trial period where either party can back out if it’s not working out. However you do it, make sure you have someone with the right marketing mindset when getting your product or business off the ground.

- Bryan Daigle
President & Founder of ideatango.com – the #1 site for inventors & invention ideas For more good info & advice, check out the official IdeaTango Blog

]]> http://bryandaigle.com/inventions/successful-marketing-for-successful-inventing/feed/ 2 http://bryandaigle.com/inventors/lighten-up-%e2%80%93-some-invention-trivia/ http://bryandaigle.com/inventors/lighten-up-%e2%80%93-some-invention-trivia/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:05:34 +0000 Bryan Daigle http://ideatango.wordpress.com/?p=89 Let us pay respect to the inventions of yesteryear.

Pager. Oh how we miss receiving messages via beeping noises and LCD screens. Invented in 1959, the pager completely revolutionized communications in the 80’s and 90’s. Motorola, the company that pioneered the field, helped the pager go mass market when it created a small receiver that would deliver a radio message immediately.

Perfume. All of us use perfumes every day, in the form of deodorants, sprays, after shaves and colognes. Have we ever stopped and thought about what the word “perfume” means? In Latin, “perfume” literally means “through smoke,” since perfumes originated with the burning of incense and herbs in ancient times.

Subways. For those lucky enough to use a subway (mass transportation is non-existing here in Dallas), you should be grateful to Alfred Beach, who built the first subway and patented the pneumatic transit system in 1865.

Metal Detectors. A crude form of the first metal detector was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, as a life-saving device for US President James Garfield. Don’t ask me how a metal detector can save someone’s life!

- Bryan Daigle
President & Founder of ideatango.com – the #1 site for inventors & invention ideas For more good info & advice, check out the official IdeaTango Blog

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