Writing a Patent Marketing Plan for Your Invention
The main reason why someone would obtain a patent for an invention idea is to make money by selling the rights to the patent or manufacturing/selling the product itself. Most people are going to be more interested in selling their patent to a company because it is a simpler process and has less risk. If you wish to sell your patent to a company, it is crucial to have a patent marketing plan for your invention.
What a Patent Marketing Plan Provides
A marketing plan will help guide you through the large project ahead of you. The process of selling your invention idea is a long process and can often be frightening, but a marketing plan can help you feel more secure and less overwhelmed. Also, due to the relatively long process of selling your invention, a marketing plan will keep you on track the whole way through.
Like a business plan, a patent marketing plan will act as a way to convince businesses to invest in your invention. Your marketing plan will create a medium for displaying the research you have done to the companies that you wish to sell your patent to. Research will provide evidence to how your invention will fit into the market and create a profit. Businesses will often be interested in how your product will fit in with their business, and an explanation of this can be included in a patent marketing plan as well.
Selling your invention is an entrepreneurial process that most inventors are most likely unfamiliar with, and a marketing plan can simplify the entrepreneurial process. Research and analyzes can reveal what companies you should approach to potentially do business with. By learning which companies produce similar products, you will be able to identify many of the determinants of your products success.
Doing Research
The main component of a patent marketing plan is the research. It is important to do thorough research involving all aspects of your product and its market because this will help you convince companies that your invention will be successful in the future. There are a couple of places where you can conduct research about markets and companies. There is the internet, which is available to most people and is a great resource; however, libraries are also very viable sources because they contain many books and pamphlets about companies. Research can be done through either medium as long as it is done thoroughly.
Researching companies that apply to your invention is your first order of business. After finding all of the companies that fall in the categories of your product, do extensive research on the largest companies that fit into this category because they are the companies that control the market. This should allow you to start to get a good feel for the companies in the industry and what the market is like. Use this information to find a company that deals very specifically with inventions like yours. Gather lots of information on this company by doing research and calling the company, because this will be valuable to use in the analysis that is included in your marketing plan.
It is also very useful to research industry information because it will allow you to gauge the market. This is important because the market will control the profitability of your product. Knowing the ups and downs of your market will also allow you to see what problems your invention may encounter. Being informed about these problems will allow you to envision solutions, which will end up being an important selling point for companies. Backing up your invention with research will greatly increase the chances of your patent selling to a major company.
What a Patent Marketing Plan Should Include
Executive Summary
The first thing that should be included in a marketing plan is the Executive Summary. As its name implies, this is a summary of everything in your marketing plan and should include:
1. The description of your product, what it does, and its goals.
2. The competition and target market analysis, which evaluates the determinants and data in your industry and why your invention will be profitable.
3. The market plan, which explains how your company can carry out its objectives by outlining your execution strategy.
Product and Market Analysis
The next section more specifically explains and analyzes the product description and the competition and target market analysis. You may choose to break down your product design by describing the advantages of its:
• Size
• Weight
• Classification
• Materials
• Shape
• Color
• Texture
• Odor
• Taste
• Other properties
For competition and target market analysis, you should prove that your product will be profitable by analyzing data such as:
• Creativity, revolutionary, breakthrough technology
• Companies involved in your market and their revenues
• Total annual sales of companies in your market
• Advantages of your product over the competition
• Your market’s description, size, growth rates, and trends
• Method of sales
This section is a huge sales pitch for your product. Your job is to convince businesses that your product will be profitable.
Market Plan
The last section is your Market Plan, which describes the series of steps you plan to take in order to achieve success with your invention. This should incorporate the interests of the manufacturer and how they will be involved. It should also include a list of companies that would potentially be interested in purchasing your patented invention and how it will expand their business. You should outline any unique steps you would have to take in order to get your product to the market.
Also included should be a detailed prediction of the potential revenue of your product. It is important to be very specific and exact in your estimates. You don’t want to experience controversy over your predictions, so you should consider all variables in the market and any outside variables. Your numbers need to be convincing and persuasive.
You want to give the company confidence to invest in your invention and allow them to imagine what it would be like if they were to add your invention to their products. You should include the specific steps you intend on taking to get into the market and perform well once you get there, along with a detailed estimation of sales and growth to get the best feedback on your patent marketing plan.
Tags: Invent, Invention idea, Inventing, Invention ideas, Make Money Inventing
Filed Under Pursuing Inventions | 1 Comment
Using Childish Inventions
Inventions make a large amount of money for many people. Coming up with and selling new invention ideas can be one of the easiest ways to become rich; however, most people don’t believe they have the intelligence or knowledge to come up with profitable inventions, which is not true. There are many ways for anyone to have a great invention. An easy way to get started inventing is using crazy ideas that you come up with or have come up with on a day to day basis. When you were a child, I bet all of your invention ideas were absurd ways to fix common problems you had; the special machine that did your chores for you or the instant shower because you hated taking showers. Everyone has thought of these ideas in the past and most everyone still thinks of them today. These invention ideas can be used to come with an invention that will turn over a profit.
What These Crazy Ideas Consist of
These crazy ideas have specific characteristics that set them apart from invention ideas that have been well thought out. Childish ideas contain an impossible invention, most likely in the form of a magical machine or device; maybe something similar to a ray gun that kills all the spiders in the world. This gun solves the problem of someone’s dislike of spiders. Crazy ideas solve problems that someone wants solved. These problems can be anything you encounter in daily life and are usually common problems that are encountered often. I refer to these ideas as childish because children produce invention ideas like this most often. This is because children have very creative thoughts; therefore, these ideas are also formed from free thinking because most people don’t plan on these ideas ever leaving their head.
Getting the Inventions Out of Your Head
If you get these crazy invention ideas out of your head, they can turn into legitimate inventions that you can patent and sell. As I stated earlier, most of these ideas are born in your days as a child, so thinking back on your childhood is a great way to begin to dig up some crazy inventions. However, these ideas aren’t strictly for kids; people of all ages have crazy ideas every now and then. In order to use childish inventions you have to begin to recognize when you have them. Often when someone gets frustrated with something, they look for a quick fix. This is when you will see crazy inventions begin to pop up. When you recognize these invention ideas you have to go on to the next step – getting the ideas out of your head. Getting these ideas out of your head can be very fearful, and people often have a problem with fear when it comes to inventing. You have to overcome this fear and allow yourself to use these ideas.
Why Childish Inventions are Useful
It may seem ludicrous to say these ideas are useful, but they can definitely be used to help someone who is struggling to invent. The most important part of crazy inventions is their identification of a problem that you have a passion about. The first step in inventing is finding a problem, and these crazy ideas supply you with a great problem. If you want a problem solved badly enough to come up with an impossible solution, then you are passionate about that problem, which is crucial to inventing. As I mention above, these childish invention ideas are normally thought of with a free mind because the mind isn’t experiencing the fear of public ridicule. There isn’t another time where the mind thinks this freely, so these ideas will be your most creative ones. An open mind will also produce original ideas, which, obviously, is the main idea behind new invention ideas. It may not seem like these ideas are that special at first, but if you explore them deeper you can really use them.
How to Use These Ideas
There are three main ways that you can use these ideas if you look at them closely. Obviously, you can use the problem in order to start an invention. This will be a good problem that you feel passionate about, so you can just start over on the invention, but keep the problem. It is also beneficial to look at the main idea behind your crazy invention idea. For example, if your crazy idea was the spider killing ray gun I mentioned above, you could take the main idea that something is shot that kills spiders. This would lead you to something along the lines of a device that could spray and kill spiders, which would allow the user to kill spiders without getting close to them. Also, thought process is an important part to look at; analyze how you got to the invention. For example, I would look at the reason why I picked a ray gun – it would be a good way to kill spiders because you wouldn’t have to get on their level and you could kill them at a range.
Anyone can invent and anyone can use their crazy ideas to invent. Don’t be scared to get your invention ideas out of your head, you have nothing to lose.
Tags: Invent, Invention idea, Inventing, Invention ideas, Make Money Inventing
Filed Under Envisioning an Invention Idea | Leave a Comment
« go back — keep looking »