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Ideas for manufacturing and marketing a product - Q & A

Tony calls to get some ideas for how to manufacture and publish his cooking book and accompanying product.

Rich Sloan: We've got, let's see, Tony out of West Bloomfield, Michigan.  Welcome to the show.

Tony:  Hi, gentlemen.  Hello everyone.

Jeff Sloan:  How you doing?

Tony:  I'm doing very well.  Thanks for asking.  Before I ask my question, may I say thank you for exemplifying the American spirit.  And also when we look back at the 20th Century, we see how the Wright brothers from Ohio started up flight in America.  So I hope the future generations will look back to this century and see how the Sloan brothers from Michigan started up a nation of revolutionary innovators.  And I really mean that.  So thank you.

Rich Sloan: Wow.  That's so cool.  We're all about putting wind under your wings.  That's what StartupNation Radio is all about.  So let's see if we can help you with that today if you have a question.

Tony:  And thank you for saying that.  Because all the other successful people, and I can name hundreds of them, decided to go for a successful and growth type of -- horizontal type of growth, where they don't include anybody and they don't look back on their communities and help out.  So my idea, which is one of 40 ideas, actually, is based on 20 years of my experience as a single guy trying to cook for myself, healthy meals in a short period of time and being able to take some of what I've cooked, actually, either to work or to class.

Rich Sloan: Tony, I'm already a customer.  I've been cooking for myself too long.

Tony:  God bless you.  And you know what.  This is so straight forward and it's basically a cookbook that comes with a household product, it's a plastic base actually.  So what I'm looking for is a bookstore publisher or a publisher period -- and I'll tell you in a minute why-- and a producer, a manufacturer of household goods, and also a distributor with a well-established distribution infrastructure.  This is not going to be a short-term project, because I do have five more books that I want to publish and three more household products that I want to make.

Jeff Sloan:  Let me ask you a question, do you have -- beyond just your own personal experience, do you have any expertise in the area?

Tony:  Yes.

Jeff Sloan:  You do.  Are you a chef or --

Tony:  May I tell you also that I'm an engineer who is familiar with the process from cradle to grave, so to speak, from taking an idea and putting it on a piece of paper, then creating a digital model of it and then producing and discussing it with the suppliers, and then handing it over to the customer.

Jeff Sloan:  Well, that's great and that experience is going to serve you well.  I think we can break this down in two areas.  One, you're talking about writing a book and the other you're talking about producing a product.  Are these two distinct products or you want to market them together as a single product?

Tony:  The reason why they need to be marketed together is because I already envision the marketing strategy, where this book and the product can be sold in three totally different places, where you can actually sell the book in the bookstore as a book that comes with the product.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.

Tony:  Because they come in the same box. And then --

Jeff Sloan:  Well, let me just stop you there for one second.  We're going to go to a break.  We're going to bring you back after the break.  We're going to keep talking about this and help getting you pointed in the right direction.  What I see emerging here, though, is you're going to need to pull together pieces from different producers.  You might have to pull together the book from a publisher and the product from another manufacturer and put it all together in a package.  We're going to talk about how you might be able to do that when we come back from this break, Rich.

Rich Sloan: That's right.  And you can, obviously, call in and ask your question on the show or make a comment.  866-55-START's the number.  Stay tuned in.

And we have Tony with us, and Tony has been cooking for himself for over 20 years, has developed a cookbook and a companion product of some kind.  And, Jeff, we were talking with -- Tony, welcome back, by the way.

Tony:  Thank you.                                                

Rich Sloan: And we were talking with Tony, Jeff, about how he might get this made and distributed.

Jeff Sloan:  Right.  Now, the challenge is this, Tony, you want to have a book published, right?  As part of this.

Tony:  Yes, sir.

Jeff Sloan:  The challenge is -- first let me go back and ask you.  I asked you if you have expertise in this area and your answer was that you knew how to design and engineer a product.  You didn't talk about whether or not you have expertise in the field in which you want to publish the book.  Do you?

Tony:  Well, the book itself is based on very practical ways of preparing healthy food.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.  Now, let me just stop you a little bit right there.  Is this the type of product that you would see -- are there any similar type products? I don't mean specifically, I mean a book packaged with another product, the companion product, kit, if you will, sold at the traditional retail bookstores, like the Barnes and Noble and Borders?  Do you see products like this in those stores?

Tony:  Just to let you know, I read a book a week and over 20 magazines a month.  So I do a lot of shopping at those bookstores.

Jeff Sloan:  And what do you see there?

Tony:  I have never seen anything that is remotely close to it.

Jeff Sloan:  Right.  Now, I don't mean specifically related to the area in which you're talking about your idea.  Here's what I'm getting at.  I'm concerned that the traditional book store will not sell a book plus a product packaged as a kit.  Do you have any concern about that?

Tony:  I mean, is that based on history in the business?

Jeff Sloan:  That's based on if you look at traditional book sellers' mode of doing business.  They're in the business of selling books not other manufactured products.

Tony:  Well, if you're talking about books and products that come with them, I've seen a ton of products like that.

Jeff Sloan:  That's what I'm asking about.  Okay.

Tony:  Especially for children.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.

Tony:  Especially for, like, recently I seen --

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.

Tony:  -- many books with kits like that.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.  Good, that's what I'm asking.  So you envision retailing this in a traditional bookstore, like a Barnes and Noble or Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  Is that right?

Tony:  Yes, sir.

Jeff Sloan:  All right.

Tony:  And alSo Bed Bath and Beyond and grocery stores.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.  Great.  My hunch tells me that this is likely a book that you will need to self-publish this first time around because of the difficulty, the complexity associated with convincing the traditional publishers out there to produce a book that's going to be packaged as a kit and sold at non-traditional retail outlets, like Bed Bath and Beyond and like grocery stores.  The publishers have connections with the bookstores.  They sell books to the bookstores on a wholesale basis.  But they do not sell to those non-traditional outlets typically.  That doesn't mean this can't be done.  What you might want to think about doing is self-publishing the book the first time around, having the product produced and packaging it together and selling it yourself.  Is that something that would work for you?

Tony:  That would be overwhelming, actually, because it's a lot of work and this is a coordinated launch.

Jeff Sloan:  Yeah.

Tony:  In other words, everything has to be made and packaged and delivered at the same time.

Jeff Sloan:  All right.  Let me take a different cut at it.  Is the product that you're going to associate with the book similar to other products out there that certain manufacturers are producing and selling?

Tony:  Yes.

Jeff Sloan:  It is.

Tony:  Definitely.

Jeff Sloan:  Then here's what I would do.  I would consider self-publishing the book and I would go to one of those other manufacturers.  So you're interested in licensing your idea to them and having them produce and sell it, right?

Tony:  Yes.  The first few ideas -- and this is my plan, is to license those and hopefully generate income from those ideas while I dedicate the rest of my time for the bigger ideas that I have.

Jeff Sloan:  All right.  All right.  I think we're on a path here.  Here's what I'd do.  Do you have the book written?

Tony:  Yes.

Jeff Sloan:  All right.  Take the manuscript of the book, produce all of your digital information that you can, the drawings, the design, etc. of the product and even of the kit in which you're going to package the book and the product, whatever it is.

Tony:  Okay.

Jeff Sloan:  Take that information, identify manufacturers at those Bed Bath and Beyond stores, the grocery stores, etc., find out who's selling products like that.  Contact their intellectual property office and set up meetings for yourself.  Go to them.  You'll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, I'm sure, most of them require you to do that.  That's not a problem as long as you have some intellectual property protection or as long as, if you don't, you can withhold some proprietary information from them.  Go to them, show them what you've got.  Tell them what your deal's going to be.  You want to be paid a royalty and try to get them to take the idea.

Tony:  Okay.  But, you don't know a manufacturer, for instance, that you can send me to that I'll say to them, you know --

Jeff Sloan:  Here's the problem, we have no idea what it is you're talking about producing and so we wouldn't be able to recommend a specific manufacturer on this show. 

Tony:             Okay.

Jeff Sloan:  But that's the concept.  You can find the manufacturer.  Go out there and find products that are in this product line, produced by certain manufacturers.  That's how you identify candidate manufacturers, candidate licensees of your product and those are the people you go to.  Those are the companies you go to.

Tony:  Okay.

Jeff Sloan:  All right?

Tony:  Thanks a lot.

Jeff Sloan:   Good luck to you.

Tony:  Thank you, bye.