How Much is an Idea Worth?
Nothing, if it’s value goes unrecognized.

Back in the guns and butter economy of President Johnson’s Great Society, the country’s largest manufacturer of fine nylon hosiery built the most technologically advanced factory in the world. While it understood that the new facility was going to increase productivity, the company did not realize just how productive it would be. It could now produce four times as much, with half of the number of employees, for one-tenth of the cost. If it manufactured the same very successful products it had been making, it would overwhelm the market even if it devalued the product by selling it at half the price.

When no ideas of any real value were forthcoming from the North Carolina operation, a senior manager hired the New York based design firm of Lubalin Smith Carnase. The hosiery executive knew what he was buying: ideas.

LSC soon proposed not only a new product, but a new customer that the manufacturer had never considered. Instead of selling the new hosiery product in fine department stores at a premium price, LSC suggested that the client sell a very inexpensive, but still high quality product in grocery stores under a new name: L’eggs.

The design firm developed the full selling plan: name and trademark, slogan and positioning statement, packaging and point-of-purchase displays. LSC even designed small delivery vans to service the stores and promote the products.

Lubalin Smith Carnase designed and wrote the advertising and supervised the commercials. It turned excess machine capacity into a multi-million dollar profit the first year of operation. Even more significantly, LSC introduced an already successful manufacturer to an audience of customers it didn’t know existed.

How much is an idea worth?

Almost everything.

Packages(s) Full of Miracles
David Alan Robbins designs and builds limited edition contemporary furniture. Cabinets, tables, entertainment centers — each is hand made with a respect for materials and an intimate appreciation for how they will be used. David and his associates, are very good at what they do.

After designing his trademark and stationery system, David asked us to help him produce an invitation to an international limited edition furniture show in New York. His business was one of a few that were not known at least nationally.

We designed and produced an invitation/catalog. We thought, “Show the work, let others see how good he is.” A 12 panel accordion-fold, black-and-white brochure was sandwiched between a postcard-sized sheet of wood veneer, sealed with an industrial rubber band and packaged with excelsior.

We added two more elements to the package. A rubber stamp was made and applied to the outside of the veneer that said “Fresh Furniture.” This phrase implied that the invitation contained ideas as fresh as produce. We then asked David to design shipping crates for his furniture that would double as display platforms for the pieces in the exhibit. The same excelsior was used to pack the furniture, and also used as decorative elements around the furniture, crates, and floors. The excelsior was walked, dragged and carried everywhere.

The front page of the Sunday New York Times Home section read, “Fresh Furniture.” Three of the five pictures were of David’s work. David Allen Robbins was used to tell the story of the entire show of 430 exhibitors. He sold everything he brought, including the crates.

For more about “Fresh Furniture.” and David Alan Robbins visit www.SX2.com/new.html

Results Still Count.
Creativity and imagination are essential to successful communication. However, creativity and imagination are only as valuable as they are useful.

The cumulative effect of consistently presented messages and images can deliver a powerful communication statement by the force and focus of its own momentum.

Books worthy of your time:
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Next month:
The View from the Cheap Seats.