Break The Chain
Need an audience for your latest invention? Skip the giant retail chains—mail-order catalogs might do a better job of hitting your target.
Inventors who think they have the next great product have been
asking the same question for years: How can I move my products from
local stores to national retailers? Because that jump is almost
impossible to make in a single bound, many inventors opt for
mail-order catalogs as an intermediate step.
Why catalogs? For a variety of reasons, actually: Catalogs will
order based on a pre-production model and place orders of up to
$50,000; they'll provide valuable proof for how well your
product sells and let you make all your sales calls right over your
telephone; additionally, catalogs are generallyprompt with their
payments.
Chris McKay, 52, co-invented the DoodleTop, which was a big hit in
the toy market in the mid-1990s. The product, which consists of a
marker pen point that draws spirals while it spins, is currently
sold in toy stores nationwide. But in 1997, when McKay came up with
his next invention, the Magnawatch (a watch with an extra lens that
can be used to magnify small print), he decided to launch the
gadget through catalogs instead of large chains. With Magnawatch
featured in about 5 million catalogs this past Christmas, McKay
predicts that this will be yet another banner year for his Direct
Hit Products, located in Carmel, California. He expects to see
sales of up to $5 million this year.
Initially, McKay thought to only market the watch to seniors, but
it turns out the product appeals to travelers who use the
watch's magnifying lens for reading maps, and business people
and lawyers who need to read fine print in contracts and Net
addresses on business cards. McKay has since found the most success
in catalogs such as National Geographic, Signal and
Norm Thompson, which sell unique products for travelers.
Products in those catalogs tend to sell for less than the
Magnawatch's $49 street price, but McKay is currently
developing a premium version that will be a better fit in
higher-priced catalogs.
Don Debelak is a new-business marketing consultant and the
author of Bringing Your Product to Market (John Wiley &
Sons). Send him your invention questions at dondebelak@uswest.net.
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