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Brainstorming a New Business Concept

Written by: John Schulte

Article Overview: Learn how idle conversation sparks an idea that transforms into a possible new business opportunity for Direct Marketers.

Brainstorming a New Business Concept

As I've said before, I like to mix concept development lessons in with real life opportunity. I have a new one today for you to learn and possibly earn from.

A few weeks ago some friends invited my wife and I to go with them to a comedy club. As we were sitting at the table having a drink, our conversation turned to a neon beer sign on the wall. I said if I ever built a bar in my house I'd like to have a neon beer sign on the wall behind the bar. My friend mentioned he just missed buying one at an auction for a friend. A "Fosters Beer" one.

We have a friend in common whose last name is Foster and he just happens to be finishing off his basement and he's putting in a bar. Then I started thinking, wouldn't that be cool, having a neon beer sign at your bar, and the name of the beer is the same as your last name. I'd like one. Then I thought -- I bet a lot of people with bars would like a neon beer sign featuring their last name. Maybe they wouldn't even need to have a bar to want one. I know custom or personalized stuff is popular. Just think how many people have personalized license plates on their car. Neon is also very popular. I now realize I'm on-to a pretty good idea.

Then I remembered a mail order item from the sixties that made a guy a lot of money. (know your MO history) He sold family crests and coat of arms posters that hung on the wall -- by mailing to lists of people that shared the same last name. The same basic concept as this idea. He'd pick a popular last name, then got a list of everybody he could with the same last name. He then had his product customized to that particular last name and sold it like crazy. When that surname stopped making money he went to the next.

What if somebody was to offer neon beer signs customized with peoples last names. You could easily get a mailing list of people selected by last name, that have either shown an interest in personalized stuff, have bought bar supplies, or beer making supplies. (There's other criteria you could look for too)

Then send a personalized and limited time offer to these people. An offer featuring a beautiful photo of the one and only beer sign that bares their name. Showing how great it would look on their wall, behind their bar. Wouldn't their friends be impressed, what a conversation piece.

The up-front costs to test the idea are also good. By concentrating on one last name at time, you only need to design and make one sample sign in the beginning to use for promotional photos. The template for making the sign would be used over and over.

Your only other up-front costs for testing the idea is printing, mailing and list rental. You may even be able to use one of those telephone book CD's to develop a mailing list to test. The product is also unique enough to get some free press.

My next thought goes to future sales, what to sell these people next. How about their own six pack of beer. Bottles of beer with fancy labels personalized with their name as the brewer. Or maybe personalized beer mugs, or cocktail napkins. Maybe you could tie in a micro beer of the month feature. Yep, plenty of options here.

So far so good. But what about having the signs made? Then I thought about all the neon sign makers I've seen around town. I bet one or more of these artists are looking for more work. If I were to outline the idea to one of them, and ask if they would be interested in designing such a sign that could be interchangeable with different names, (starting with your own) with the possibility of making and selling a lot more, I would find someone happy to do it.

You just witnessed a brainstorm that developed a core product for making money with direct marketing. One that would be cheap to test and has big potential. For those of you that are looking to develop your own thing, remember to consider the possible use of other peoples skills. In most cases, teaming up with someone helps a lot. Also keep an eye open for what's popular and how it can be applied to other things. We know that personalization is always popular, we see examples of it everyday. We also see that neon is once again very popular. So are micro beers. This is history repeating itself. Learn from it.

Yea! Yea! Yea! But will this sign idea make someone money? I can't predict absolute success or failure, no one can. Success depends on more things than just the product. But, this idea has a lot of favorable points. Enough points that if I had the time, I would try it. The losses are minimal if it doesn't work. If it does work, the total universe of potential customers is fantastic. In my opinion the rewards outweigh the risks.

The only problem I see is shipping, glass is fragile. But you might make a positive out of this by shipping the sign in a big fancy wooden crate, maybe stenciled with the last name giving it value...and signifying it's importance. Maybe the shipping crate could be also made to double as a wine rack. All said and done, the launching of any new concept, division, or catalog, ends with somebody having the guts and making the decision to...Do It!

As a final reminder, remember that this is a demonstration in brainstorming that can be applied to many things; you don’t have to work in neon or beer signs, just plug the concept into the toolbox of your mind for future reference to apply to your own particular business and thought processes.

Related Articles
  Tips For Brainstorming
  5 Simple Brainstorming Techniques
  Improved Brainstorming With Introspection
  Brainstorm Your Way To Home Business Success
  Do You Have A Brainstorming Partner?

Article Tags: auction, car neon, coat of arms, comedy club, family crests, last names, license plates, life opportunity, mail order, making money, mo history, neon beer sign, neon beer signs, posters, sixties, surname



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Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
How do you know if you have a good idea? - [quote="orxan":3118uboz]My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan[/quote:3118uboz] Thanks orxan! But how do you know if you truly have a good idea or not? If we ask ourselves, we may be suffering from tunnel vision. On the other hand, friends/family may try to discourage us from pursuing a small business because of their own fears, while others will simply give us an empty "you can do it!" line.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.


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