Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2013. The Baby Mop price (40 dollars), the estimate that Beardo passed 200,000 dollars in sales in 2012, and the claim that marketing agencies were offering large sums to use the driving dogs in ads all reflect that moment.
These ideas are surprising both for the sheer imagination of the entrepreneurs who came up with them and for the way they turned them into very profitable businesses. We usually say that most of the ideas we see could have occurred to anyone, but in this case I admit they would never have crossed my mind.
1. The Baby Mop
It’s all very well for parents to worry about their babies crawling and dragging themselves across the floor (with all the dirt and dust on it). Since there’s no avoiding it until the baby grows up and walks, one entrepreneur looked for a way to solve the problem and give the baby a job to do.
He invented the Baby Mop, an outfit covered in mop-like fringes that pick up dirt from the floor, so that while crawling around, the baby helps clean the house. The trouble is that it doesn’t always get into every corner 🙂
In an interview with the inventor, some mothers turned up offended by the idea of using their child to clean the floor, and said they didn’t think it was very useful anyway. The entrepreneur burst out laughing. He said the product’s usefulness was zero, but what about how funny Baby Mops look in YouTube videos? And the success of this business idea is funny too: for 40 dollars (what it costs), it won’t clean your floor, but at least you’ll have fun watching your child. Once again this supports the theory that the most functional product isn’t always the most successful one, because people also like things that are fun.
2. Beardo, a business built on the cold
Entrepreneur Jeff Phillips, who comes from a country where temperatures can drop to -27 °C (Canada), looked for a way to make money from the cold.
He started by designing wool hats, which is nothing new, so his first big hit came from the accessories he designed for them, above all a fake beard made of wool that keeps the chin and the parts of the face that ordinary hats don’t cover warm.
Many people will think that’s what balaclavas are for, but going back to the fun factor, small children look much funnier in a sort of fake beard than in a balaclava. He eventually set up a website where he sells his products. It’s a simply designed site and we don’t know the exact size of his sales, but given that another of his inventions is already in some shops in Europe, we’ll assume the business has gone very well. His sales in 2012 are estimated to have passed the 200,000-dollar mark. The Beardo brand is making a name for itself.
3. GPS shoes
These are the first shoes with built-in software and a USB port for connecting them to a computer. When we want to go somewhere, we just enter the address and lights on the shoes show us which way to go.
The good thing about these shoes is that people can now walk along looking at the ground without getting lost. Making them is more complicated than it looks at first glance.
4. Dogs that drive
This idea started as an initiative by an animal welfare organisation in New Zealand, which took dogs abandoned by their owners and taught them to drive.
It’s no joke: these dogs have managed to learn the 10 or 15 movements needed to drive. Admittedly, they do it in a car adapted for them and always following their owners’ instructions. You can see them in action in this video.
Watch: Dogs learning to drive (YouTube)
What began as a charitable initiative has turned into an excellent advertising hook: some marketing agencies are now said to be offering large sums to use them to promote all kinds of products, cars in particular. I imagine it’s so they can run a slogan along the lines of “even your pet could drive this car”.
Further reading
Featured image: grassrootsgroundswell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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