They call it the City of Brotherly Love. Of course many refer to it as the place that serves up the world’s finest cheese steaks. But this past Wednesday, the city of Philadelphia was home to a special Inventors Day, the first ever held in the Keystone State of Pennsylvania.
As usual people traveled from all over North America to show their inventions to AJ Khubani with the hopes and dreams of striking it rich and bragging to the world that their product was chosen by the King of As Seen on TV. But from the minute they arrive, inventors realize it’s not an easy task. Thirty-four people were there to show their wares, and usually only a small handful make the first round – but hopefully, Sir AJ gives it the thumbs up and wants to test it in a commercial!
“A lot of these people come a long way to pitch their ideas and I try to give every one of them the respect they deserve, and the opportunity to convince me that their creation is the next great TeleBrands product,” said AJ to television and newspaper 
reporters.”Many won’t make the cut, and that’s hard , but I encourage them to make their invention better or come up with something new for me.”
It’s only a natural reaction when some people are dejected and taken aback that AJ didn’t get up and dance on the table that his greatest product ever was now here before him. But then there are some who just keep on plugging away, like a woman who was back before us for a third time with her revised invention of the cereal bowl that keeps your Corn Flakes and Fruit Loops forever crunchy, never getting soggy. AJ loves cereal himself and admired her thought process and determination, but in the end, what it came down to is that he just didn’t feel the WOW factor was there – the ability to make people watching a TV commercial say, “WOW, I have got to have that!” And that is often the case with the inventions we see. So many are good products, well thought out, and definitely solve a problem. 
But the real question always is – Is there a big enough problem that the world NEEDS this product?
Howie Dobell came in with the GOTCHA, a device that squeezes between your wall and furniture that catches loose items that drop behind the couch or bed, such as keys, money, or jewelry. Howie gave it a lot of thought and yes it was practical and useful, but will people rush to the phone to give their credit card numbers and authorize a purchase for $19.95? The Wow factor plays an important role in the decision making process.
And then there’s the all-important matter of market size. Does the potential problem and solution appeal to a wide enough audience? We’ve seen many excellent ideas in niche markets, like for instance lawn and garden or for babies – but niche is unfortunately not for TeleBrands. You’ve got to think big when approaching Mr. K. with your stuff.
“Again, I see a lot of well thought out, useful products,” claims AJ, “But I am constantly questioning if the market size is big enough. We want to sell millions of products. It’s got to appeal to a mass market to make it as a TeleBrands product.”
It was a great day in Philly and we got to meet many wonderful people. We’ll talk about some of the neat products and good people we met in Part Two of our Philadelphia extravaganza!
Wow, I don’t know about you, but I am seriously joesning for a cheese steak! Hey, I would love to invite the guy that invented it to our next Inventor’s Day! And if we do Philly again, I’ll make sure that Pat’s and Geno’s sends over an ample supply to keep the troops happy.
- Tommy Z
TeleBrands The BLOG
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