From Drawing Board to Market in Less than a Year

Many small business owners get the idea for that perfect product, but it seems to take forever to move through the stages of development, manufacturing, marketing, and finally sales. Not only does it take a long time; it takes a lot of capital as well. However, there are notable exceptions: business owners who can rush the process without even a hitch and end up with their finished product in less time than the rest of us would need to print out a mailing label. Magnus Hammick, inventor of WOWee speakers, is just one of these people.

Like many of us, Hammick relied on his iPhone for music while on the road and travelling. However, the speakers and headphones that go with the iPhone are notoriously bad. What good is a huge portable music collection if it never gets played on decent speakers? Hammick decided to solve the problem once and for all.

Hammick set up about developing a new type of speaker. It needed to fit in a pocket so it could be as portable as the iPhone it was made for. It needed to have excellent sound that could fill a large room along with the excellent bass that modern music demands. Further, it needed to fit a small audio jack and be battery powered.

Hammick had an advantage in this path: he had worked for eighteen years as a product developer. He developed his idea and then took it to several companies. Because of his profession, he knew to hire attorneys to preserve his rights. Although the technological maker of the WOWee, SFX Technologies, owns the patent, Hammick retains a larger than average share of the rights to his idea.

Partnering with this company was key to the speed with which the speakers hit the market. The company had already developed similar technology and quickly created a prototype. Getting investors was easier than expected: with millions of people dependent on smart phones and the backing of a major technology company, there was no reason that this product would not be a success. This is one of the steps that tends to slow down would-be inventors: investors need to see a product to hand over cash, but inventors need the cash to develop the product.

Once cash flow was in place and manufacturers on board, the next step was to market the product. Hammick knew from experience that no product can market itself. He hired a branding consultant to be sure his product started off on solid ground and to handle distribution. Part of the product’s marketing was a social media blitz including demo videos, reviews, and even recommendations of new apps that work well with the product. These are all free, developed and executed through websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The result is success. The WOWee was officially launched less than a year ago, but is sold by major retailers such as Amazon.com. It has received positive reviews from major media and sold more than 150,000 units. This may be just another small business success story, but it is remarkable due to the speed with which it has reached this success!