*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
THE
ONLINE INVENTOR –
(c)
2007 Market Launchers, Inc.
Editor:
Paul Niemann
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
Dear Inventor –
It’s been a while since I
sent out the last issue, so we’re back with another issue. Next week I will be
sending an important announcement about a manufacturer who is looking for new
products … details coming next week.
This issue consists of an
interview with successful product developer Glen Grutze. Glen just signed a
licensing agreement last week for his invention.
After interviewing Glen, it
was clear why he was able to get his invention licensed:
1. He has a good product
for which there is a market.
2. He consistently
contacted and presented his product to manufacturers and distributors.
3. Persistence – he
didn’t give up when it got hard.
In the interest of full
disclosure, Glen is a MarketLaunchers.com customer. Below is his story.
If
you wish to reach more than 2,200 inventors by advertising in our humble little
newsletter, please e-mail me at niemann7@aol.com
or call (217) 224-8194 for details. Thanks.
FAMOUS
/ INFAMOUS Quotes …
“All
worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions - but precious
few of them ever translate those into action,”
John Hancock Field
Now,
on with this week’s issue …
Best
Regards,
Paul Niemann
http://www.MarketLaunchers.com
800-337-5758
217-224-8194
******************************************************************
“Interview with Successful Inventor
Glen Grutze”
By Paul Niemann of MarketLaunchers.com
TELL
US ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT.
It’s a Gobo projector light for vehicles, called ILLUM ™. It is a thin, 35 mm film disk that’s injected with ink and dye.
HOW
DID YOU PROTECT THE PRODUCT?
HOW DID YOU DEVELOP IT AND COME UP WITH A NAME AND SLOGAN FOR IT?
I applied for a
patent in September of 2001. I showed it to companies with a signed
confidentiality agreement. Then the patent finally issued in February of 2004. I
did the research and found there was nothing like it. A
number of companies wanted to take it on.
I got ideas and
put them into a book that I have. It has 150 – 200 names. ILLUM is the first 5
letters of illuminating. I did a trademark search for the name and found that it
was available. In the end, people refer to it as the gobo projector.
I do have trademark
protection on the name ILLUM (which, by the way, is a very important aspect of
the name and its uniqueness IS that a horizontal line appears over the U,
emphasizing the L-O-N-G sound of the U, as in ILL-OOOOOOOOOM).
WHAT KIND OF MARKET RESEARCH DID YOU DO?
By observing, I
felt there was a market for it. I knew it was going to take a while. I also did
some little informal focus groups.
HOW
DID YOU KNOW TO LICENSE IT RATHER THAN TO MANUFACTURE AND MARKET IT YOURSELF?
Subscribing to INVENTORS’S
DIGEST really helped. I kept getting the same consensus from everyone on
licensing rather than making and selling it myself.
DID YOU
FIND IT HELPFUL TO ATTEND ANY TRADE SHOWS OR READ ANY TRADE MAGAZINES THAT SERVE
YOUR INDUSTRY?
I only went to
one – SEMA, which stands for Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association. It
includes aftermarket parts – everything.
DID
YOU FACE MUCH RESISTANCE ALONG THE WAY? WHAT ABOUT REJECTION? HOW DID YOU HANDLE
THAT?
I wouldn’t say it was
resistance, but it was more like speed bumps. Everybody had their own idea. One
guy wasted my time for nearly a year with his false promises. Luckily, I was
pitching other companies at the same time, though.
Plus, a lot of
people had their hands out, wanting me to pay them to license my product. I
turned down all of them.
WHAT
ROLE DID HAVING YOUR OWN WEB PAGE PLAY? HOW DID YOU USE YOUR WEB PAGE TO PROMOTE
THE GOBO PROJECTOR LIGHTS?
Overall, it was
huge. I had a web page with you and with another company. That was my outlet to
the world. I wasn’t really cold-calling people; I just let it speak for
itself. A lot of distributors and company owners from around the world wanted to
sell it. For one reason or another, they didn’t pan out, until this company
Street Shadows, Inc. from
The agreement includes a
minimum order they must sell. My attorneys and their attorneys ironed out the
details. Now there’s also a company from
In the beginning, you –
MarketLaunchers – got me a huge amount of exposure.
WHAT
WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU DID?
Stepping outside
of my comfort zone. Doing this crazy thing of inventing and marketing my own
product. It was my first patent. I did a lot of reading on the subject,
including INVENTORS’S DIGEST
magazine.
WHAT
MISTAKES DID YOU MAKE ALONG THE WAY, OR WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?
Only in that I
took some people for their word, and some of them ended up lying to me.
SPEAKING
OF NEXT TIME, ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY OTHER NEW PRODUCTS?
Yes, I got some
things on the drawing board. In the same industry. Street Shadows asked me that
same question.
WHAT
ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER INVENTORS OUT THERE?
Be patient but
persistent.
HOW
MUCH OF THE PACKAGING AND MANUFACTURING DID YOU DO YOURSELF?
Zero. The licensee is doing
all of that.
HOW
MANY UNITS DO THEY EXPECT TO SELL?
I don’t know yet. They
will have it available for sale by early in 2008. We’ll see how the public
reacts to it.
Thanks a lot.
You helped a lot. I wouldn’t have gone this route if I didn’t think it had a
chance.
CHECK OUT
GLEN’S ILLUM ™ GLOBO PROJECTOR AT http://www.marketlaunchers.com/grutze.html
#
# #
Paul Niemann runs MarketLaunchers.com, building web pages for inventors. Having your own web page allows you to show your invention to companies when you’re unable to present it to them in person. It can serve as your “online brochure.” Plus, it can be seen by companies who search MarketLaunchers.com’s invention database for new products.