Brilliant ideas don't get shelf space in big retail stores
or airtime on TV shopping channels. They don't have legions of
screaming teens coveting them. They don't have dozens of VCs
writing big checks, nor do they demand a high price on eBay.
The fact is, brilliant ideas are just that-ideas-until they get
turned into salable products. And the difference between an idea
and a salable product is extreme-just ask an inventor who tried and
failed to get his product to market, then ask an inventor who
determined the proper recipe for turning a brilliant idea into a
must-have in the minds of consumers.
"A lot of inventors assume people will flock [to
them]," says Robert Smith, president of Rockton,
Illinois-based Robert Smith & Associates PR, whose
expertise has landed clients' products in the likes of Wal-Mart
and Walgreens, and on home shopping channel QVC. "They find
they're in for a rude awakening. Just because you created the
product doesn't mean people will buy it."
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That's something John Abdo learned when he first attempted to bring his
invention, The AB-DOer midsection aerobic machine, to market.
Granted, the odds were against him: In 1999, he was $100,000 in
debt and near bankruptcy, in spite of a successful stint from 1985
to 1997 hosting his own weekly syndicated TV series Training &
Nutrition 2000. Chronic back pain caused by a cracked vertebra
often made it hard for Abdo, 49, to exercise, and in between
tapings of his show, he would frequently gain weight. He invented
The AB-DOer to help him exercise without putting undue stress on
his back.
When Abdo first began seeking interest in The AB-DOer in 1994,
he met with stony-faced VCs who were less than amused by his
unorthodox investor presentation. Clad in workout gear and toting
an "old, funky gym bag" which contained his invention,
the Marina del Rey, California, inventor would say:
"Gentlemen, guess what's in the bag. There's a hundred
million dollars sitting [there].
"Needless to say, they kicked me out every time," he
continues, adding that one such investor had also turned down Tae
Bo the year before. "I wasn't being arrogant; I was just
so confident [in my product]."
Fortunately, one investor happened to be a fan of Abdo's TV
show, which was popular in Chicago at the time. The investor funded
Abdo's product engineering as well as legal costs in exchange
for a percentage of his business. After some success with
self-producing an infomercial (in partnership with marketing and
production companies), in 2001, Abdo was eventually able to secure
a slot on home shopping channel HSN. Acting as his own product
spokesperson, he sold 21,500 units his first day on HSN, for a
grand total of $2.5 million in sales.
"I made sure I was secured as a spokesperson," notes
Abdo. "I nursed the idea and gave birth to it, and I'm a
living testimonial to it." Continued sales and success on HSN
brought first-year sales to $22 million. Abdo's current sales
volume? He's now sold nearly 3 million units of The AB-DOer to
date, and sales have surpassed $320 million.
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