Jones wasn't in a position to spend a lot of money on a
product that wouldn't sell. So she created 15 Antenna Buddies
at home and put the product up for sale at David's Electronics,
a car stereo store in Oklahoma City. When the 15 units sold out in
less than two weeks, Jones got an investor and applied for a
patent. Problem was, Jones had no manufacturer. "I didn't
have any idea how I was going to make the product," she
admits. And even though major retailer RadioShack helped out by
providing her with three solid leads to manufacturers of novelty
automotive lighting products, she wanted to be sure to get the best
deal.
Gaining Publicity
Jones' next move proved ingenious. Rather than try to raise
money and manufacture her product all on her own, she decided to
try to land a major publicity story to verify Antenna Buddies'
potential in a lucrative market. That's where MTV came in and
helped out.
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Oh, it was by no means a simple task to get her product on the
Road Rules show—think major hemming and hawing and a
lukewarm reception to the first samples she presented to them when
she flew out to the West Coast to show them her product. With
persistence, though, she discovered what they wanted: something
Southwestern. Enter a cow skull that finally made it onto the grill
of the Road Rules trailer, which, by the way, gets quite a
bit of airtime. "Rather than walk away," says Jones,
"I just kept asking what they wanted to see."
What was probably most important for Jones was that her target
customers, teens and young adults, also constitute the bulk of
MTV's audience, a fact that was certainly not lost on the
manufacturers she later approached for help with her product.
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