Life’s A Pitch, and then you Buy - Billy Mays
So, it was TeleBrands very first Inventor’s Pitch Day away from home and we were all ready to rock. The rooms were alive and bustling with camera crews and news media doing interviews with everyday people who had come for their one shot at nirvana.
As a panel judge, the one thing you learn fast is that inventors simply do not like the word NO. And can you blame them? These people traveled from all over creation, and their inventions/products are their babies – and you can’t speak badly about somebody’s baby, can you? Well, you can, but it doesn’t go over very well. When an inventor sees that we don’t have much interest, they will often fight for their lives trying desperately to convince us that “everyone” loves their product, and many are often taken aback at our apparent shortsightedness. It’s very personal to these people and we try to always keep that in mind, but the bottom line is that we have to pick what we feel is right for TeleBrands – a product that solves a common problem to a mass audience.
The very first people we saw was a husband and wife with the world’s “next greatest skin care product.” Hallelujah, oh happy days! They said it cured everything and anything including those dreaded blackheads from hell. Okay… that’s nice… really swell… but were their claims medically substantiated? Was there research? Double blind studies? Testing on some human guinea pigs? The answer was NO to everything. We, unfortunately had the same answer for this couple.
You know, we saw something like 44 inventors and only a handful made the final cut. By final cut I mean the inventions we initially like. We take them back to headquarters and give them a second look at while doing some research on the product as well as figuring out all associated costs. Sure we saw a bunch of good ideas, but as always, so many of them just aren’t TeleBrands worthy products, but might work out somewhere else. And then at every Inventor’s Day there are always a handful that are ill-conceived and we are sometimes flabbergasted by the crazy things people come in with and the distance they traveled to see us.
Let’s hone in on a few that made that first cut. Victoria Ricker and Martha Curnow came from Illinois to show us the Perslock. It’s a great looking decorative chain that attaches to your purse and clasps on to any chair or shopping cart. In the event some thug tries to steal your handbag – well… they can’t. Your purse stays attached to your chair and the would be thief had better run like hell. The ladies were kind enough to give me one for my wife who loved it and immediately attached it to her brand new Fossil handbag. There you go, instant testimonial. She’s at dinner with friends right now so she had better use it!
Michelle Reuven has the Hair Therapy Wrap. AJ and I may not have been excited by this “women’s” product, but the ladies on the panel lit up like it was Christmas. It’s thermal gel packs wrapped inside a kind of Turbie Twist looking thing that you place in the microwave and it creates hot, moist therapy for your hair and scalp. Pretty clever.
Next is the Cozy Traveler, an item that Chad Hassell is proud to have invented, even though I disagreed with him that the item is for men… well, real manly-men is what I meant to say. It’s devised to make travel comfortable – a horseshoe shaped head and neck pillow that’s attached to a sort of sling to slip both arms into when traveling on a plane. It also has a blanket that attaches to cover the body. Now Chad, I personally wouldn’t wear one, but DO NOT go by me, my brother, go by what the boss man has to say and if he decides to test market it and it does well, I will gladly tip my hat to you. So, theses were the inventors that were happy to appear with AJ the following morning on KTLA TV in Los Angeles. Next Blog posting we’ll discuss some more of what we liked and what just didn’t do it for us. Plus, a little fun exploring Hollywood, Pink’s Hotdogs, and some famous California landmarks. Yeah, I looked like a doofus tourist, but fun was all that mattered.
Later my peeps,
- Tommy Z
TeleBrands The BLOG
Tags: $19.95, AJ Khubani, Ambervision, Anthony Sullivan, As Seen on TV, Billy Mays, Bottle Top, But wait there’s more, California, Discovery Channel, Doggy Steps, EZ Combs, George Foreman Grill, Heel Tatsic, Hollywood, Infomercial King, Inventor, Inventors Day, Jupiter Jack, LA, LA. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, OxiClean, Pamper Toes, Ped Egg, Pedi Paws, Pitchman, Pitchmen, Ron Popeil, Sham Wow, Shoes Under, Stick up bulb, Telebrands, The View, Tommy Zarzecki, Windshield Wonder
Hey Tommy Z, sounds like a lot of chick products came in. Did you see much of anything for the guys?
Seeing the products above, I have to think it’s pretty damned hard to review these in 5 minutes. How do you do it?