The Entrepreneurial Spirit: A Sign for a Time

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Over the next couple weeks we’d like to spotlight a handful of entrepreneurs who have stayed afloat in the toughest of markets: fads. How do you introduce a product and then stay relevant in a world that runs from the next big thing to another in seemingly no time at all? Maybe you move on to something new, or maybe you roll with the punches and have a good sense of your niche in the market.

In “The Entrepreneurial Spirit,” we’ll look at inventors and marketers who rolled out “Next Big Things” but also landed on their feet when the dust settled on the fad.

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In 1984, Michael Lerner was childless himself, but a drive down one of Boston’s busiest expressways with his 18-month-old nephew in the back seat had him scared out of his wits over the safety of the boy. He told Wall Street Journal, as traffic rushed around him, “for the first time, I felt like a parent feels when they have a kid in the car."

So when a friend called Lerner, who was trying to move into consumer products, and told him about a pair of sisters looking to sell a safety sign to hang in car windows, it seemed like serendipity.

Helen and Patricia Bradley had been looking for someone to market in America caution signs they had seen in Europe. Lerner stepped up and entered into a licensing agreement with the sisters for what has become something of a pop cultural icon: the Baby on Board sign.

Lerner used contacts in the retail industry to begin pitching to the big department stores. The first month on the shelf, 10,000 signs were sold. Within a year, however, 500,000 units were being sold each month. Lerner said he couldn’t even go down his own street in Boston without seeing one of the signs.

The knock-offs didn’t take long to surface, but Lerner was able to keep his shelf space due to strong relationships with retailers. Sales held out until parodies (like “Baby, I’m Bored”) began to pop up, and by ’86 the fad seemed to be waning.

But Lerner’s company, Safety 1^st, had begun presenting other products, including a decal called “Tot Spotter” that assists firefighters in locating quickly bedrooms where kids may be sleeping. Lerner could see that there was much potential in child-safety products for the home. He saw that items like power outlet covers and cabinet locks were relegated to the back of hardware stores. So in ’87 Lerner started to transform that product niche, using bolder packaging, new designs, and best of all, lower prices.

Safety 1^st also made the most of the upsurge of the big-box store. Lerner started to develop strong links with retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us. With sales strong through the 90s, buyout offers came flooding in, and Safety 1^st was sold to a Canadian company in 2000.

But Michael Lerner wasn’t retired yet. While he spent the next couple of years traveling with his family and golfing, a damaged ligament in his thumb led to his next and present venture. After surgery, his thumb would get inflamed after working out or returning to the greens. He began using a therapeutic band that significantly brought down the swelling and eliminated the need to frequently ice the digit.

The band was so effective that Lerner resolved to sell his own version, via a Boston start-up called True Power. The company used endorsements from several players from the New England Patriots to get out the word.

Whether keeping children safe or helping injured adults, Lerner told Wall Street Journal in an interview, “It’s easy to sell a product, but it’s more meaningful to sell a product that adds value.”

While the “Baby on Board” signs have all but disappeared from car windows in the U.S, they are still popular in places like Britain, Italy and Japan. The slogan remains in the American lexicon, even inspiring a Simpsons episode that features Homer joining a barbershop quartet who score a hit with their song “Baby on Board.”