Indiana Inventors Association

Marketing strategist Ms. Judy Knafel of Element Three helped us understand one of the most challenging topics with which an inventor must deal - the basics of marketing an invention - with a presentation entitled "Marketing in the Mix". Sooner or later, nearly every inventor must learn how to persuade a client to part with hard earned funds for a product that may seem far less valuable to the client than it does to the inventor. As defined by the American Marketing Association, "marketing is the process of planning and then executing the product, pricing, promotion, and place of ideas, goods, or services to create exchanges and satisfy individual and organizational NEEDs ." Start with a business plan, which reveals opportunities a marketing plan can then exploit. In developing your marketing plan, think about: the end users of your product. Who are they? Where are they? How many are they? How will your product benefit them and improve their lives? Realize that...

Joe Palestino from SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) guided our discussion. He helped us understand how important a business plan is, not just as a required document which can determine funding, but as an overall guide to the whole business enterprise helping the inventor succeed. SCORE executives offer someone starting a new business a great combination of needed attributes. Each has worked in a managerial capacity for many years in areas unfamiliar to inventors. Unlike operators who view the newcomer as a cash cow, SCORE charges fees that are the minimum consistent with good advice. SCORE is a service group with a genuine personal interest in you and in your success. SCORE offices are distributed widely, so you can meet with an executive within reasonable distance.