News You Can Bruise for 2005 January 9 (entry 0)

(3) Sun Jan 09 2005 22:13 PST: The worst part about coming up with a kitchen utensil or other gadget to be sold through TV infomercials must surely be coming up with another, lower-margin gadget to give away as the "But wait! There's more!" freebie. You put all your genius into one super molded-plastic product but your ungrateful market demands some cheap auxilliary device for cracking eggs or something. It seems such an integral part of the sell that I envision Gilbert and Sullivan teams of product designers, one who excels at the big product and one who comes up with the perfect giveaway to accompany. Or a SourceXchange type market for matching big products with small, to form marketable sets. I think too much about this kind of thing, possibly because I can see myself as the guy who comes up with those half-brilliant, half-lame ideas for kitchen gadgets.

Comments:

Posted by Brian Danger Hicks at Mon Jan 10 2005 03:14

A perfectly peeled chicken every time with the amazing Chickenstractor!

Posted by Susie at Mon Jan 10 2005 10:32

Eew. Maybe it's just me, but I think some of the free things are better than the pieces of junk you actually buy.

Posted by Jason Robbins at Mon Jan 10 2005 11:36

I think it is like picking a V.P. running mate. You need a
gadet that appeals to a different class of buyer to broaden the appeal of the ticket. Then, once in the house, they do nothing for a few years. When it comes time to reorganize the kitchen, the V.G. has a quick evaluation on its own merits, and usually gets tossed out. :)