Idea-Mill.net

Coffee Tripod

I don't live in the Pottery Barn catalog, so not every comfortable chair in my home has an accompanying end table. Lately I've found myself carting around a small footstool that my young sons stand on to brush their teeth, and place it next to a rocking chair near the fireplace that I like to read in, for the sole purpose of having a place to set my coffee. This keeps it off the floor (and keeps me from kicking it over), but is still too low to reach comfortably. As a makeshift solution it's passable, but not ideal.

Idea: The Coffee Tripod
Picture a square platform about 4" x 4", maybe the same size as a coaster. But instead of a flat bottom it has three telescoping legs that fold down so that they're invisible under the platform when not in use (if you're looking down on it - the idea is for the stowed unit footprint to remain the same size), but that extend on an angle and lock for stability to create a platform about 24" high.

It might even be a coaster when it's not a tripod, so you keep it out in the open and don't have to hunt around for it when you're moving to a chair without an end table - maybe in your living room, but maybe also on your deck, in your yard, on the beach (OK, probably not for coffee there). And if it's small and light enough, it might be a suitable accessory for road warriors. Most seats at airport gates don't have end tables nearby, and how many times have you seen coffee perched precariously on a rolling carry-on, or an armrest a little too narrow?

This product is no blockbuster, I know. But I think there's an increasing probability of niche products turning profits because the rules of marketing and distribution have changed. Remarkable products get talked about (we see evidence online, but most of the talking takes place offline), and what makes a product remarkable is how perfectly suitable it is for a person, and other like-minded people. A product no longer needs to sell 500,000 units in its first year, at a net profit of $20/unit, just to break even on the $10 million TV ad spend to support the launch. Remarkable products find other ways of reaching customers, and can turn profits at much lower quantities as a result.

So if someone wants to take a flyer on this one let me know, and fast. I have to suck down the rest of this java because my son has to brush his teeth.

The Dust Drain

A few years ago when my sister's house was being built, she had the builders install a central vacuum unit, with a motor in the basement and hose attachments all over the house. Nothing special about those nowadays - they've been going into new construction for over 20 years now. But she also had them install a little pan on an inlet in the vac system in the kitchen that she could kick open and sweep dirt into. Nifty add-on to an existing system, and it caught my attention. I likened it to the filter in a pool, that catches all the debris as it circulates.

Only that's not what it does. But wouldn't it be a good idea if it did?

Here's the idea:
The Dust Drain is an inlet installed at the baseboard of a room. When the vac is turned on, this inlet works like all the others where the hose attaches, and draws air in. But like a swimming pool or whirlpool, the room also has air jets located along the baseboard which circulate the air in the same direction around the room. The jets push the air around in a circular motion; the inlet sucks all the circulating dust down into the vacuum bag. Flip a switch in the room and let it run for a few minutes and just like that you've purged the room of dust bunnies lurking under and behind furniture, and a lot of that other gross stuff in the air that we commonly call dust so we don't have to face the reality of what we're really breathing in all the time.

My idea is perfect for pet owners and would work best on hardwood floors. But I don't see why it couldn't be modified to more directly attack airborne dust. Instead of an inlet and jet system just along the kickplate, why not install another inlet and some fans near the ceiling (in discreet locations), and so circulate all the air in the room so all the toxins get sucked down the Dust Drain?

There's real first-mover advantage on this one - even the domain DustDrain.com is available. From me, anyway - I just bought it. Make me an offer on the domain and keep the business idea as a free gift with purchase.

Shopping List Generator

From any grocery store's standpoint, I'm a mediocre customer. When I go to the store, I usually have a list in-hand that I scribbled out just before leaving the house. Invariably, 80% of the list never changes, with the remaining 20% added for a particular meal we're aiming for based on a recipe my fiancee saw on the Food Network, or revolving around some of the gourmet frozen meats my father sends us every holiday season.

I'm poor at improvising in groceries so I don't deviate from my list, and also invariably forget something, leaving me to pick it up at the corner deli or even a 7-Eleven. So as far as Safeway is concerned, I'm leaving money on the table - money that they would be happy to have, and also that I would be happy to give them. Their prices are less and their convenience is greater, so if I can do all my shopping in one trip, I'm tickled. Find a way for me to add some variety to my meals or at least streamline the process and I'm locked in for life.

So here's the idea:
The Shopping List Generator

I'm thinking of it as a website but maybe it's a widget or a piece of software, but it has to be interactive and dynamic. On it are all the items I regularly buy, making it easy for me to generate my list every time I shop, or at least the 80% that are usually on it. Selecting or deselecting items is easy, so I can take eggs off my list if my inventory is good, or add extra bananas if I'm showing signs of potassium deficiency.

(Oh, and how does the list get populated in the first place? Maybe this is a way grocery stores can finally put to good use the data in their buyers' club programs. I swipe my Safeway card every trip - surely they could generate a list of my regular purchases pretty quickly.)

Then there's another tier of items I've bought previously, which maybe I'd like to add again. Maybe this will help me remember or recreate some of the recipes we've tried previously. So added to my convenience is some variety.

And then there's the collaborative filtering component, where suggestions are made to me based on what's on my list. Right now, every time I check out at Safeway the register spits out a couple of coupons for items related to my order. More often than not, they're on target and I'd like to buy them. But no way am I going back into the store and then waiting in line again. And no, I don't keep them for next time. I just don't, even though I'd like to. But if I got those targeted messages (based on the same shopping data) before I hit the store, I'm likely to at least add them to my list, and possibly to my basket.

We all know that the best possible scenario for a marketer is to reach a primed prospect with a perfect offer at precisely the right time, which is what I propose with the recommendations above. But what people often forget is that this is the best possible scenario for customers as well. I don't want to see a coupon for Progresso Pasta e Fagioli after I've checked out and forgotten to put it in my cart. That's like sending me a catalog full of striped socks (my favorites) with sale prices that expired yesterday. Save me money, save me time, enrich my life in small ways through variety and serendipity and I'll repay the favor with loyalty and greater wallet share.

But the idea doesn't end there. One of the reasons I have to hit the deli or 7-eleven is not just because I forgot to add something to my list, but I forgot to put it in my cart when I was in that section of the store, and I'm (convinced I'm) just too busy a man to back track. So wouldn't it be great if after my list of staples, past favorites and exciting new products is generated, I then select which store I'm going to (for example, Safeway on Old Georgetown Avenue in Bethesda) and the list is then organized for printing based on the layout of the store I'm going into?

I don't know how complicated this would be, but it seems to me that each store probably follows a similar layout for all their locations, or at the least a handful of layouts. And even if it is onerous, it's the kind of burden that someone should be shouldered by the retailers themselves as it's in their best interests all the way around.

So then add to this network interactivity, so my fiancee can also look over the list and add what she wants. And then modules, like the 'cocktails for 12' option which brings in hors d'ouvres suggestions for us to review and simply 'add-to-list' with a click. Or does the same for Thanksgiving Dinner or Impress your Boss or Camping Vacation (please select how many days you will be living in the woods).

The possibilities for simplifying my life are endless. I've already demonstrated that I'm incapable of simplifying my life myself, however. So I put this idea out there in the hopes that someone will act on it.