| George J. Abrams, vice-president in charge of | | | | he stared he thought, "Why not put a layer of |
| advertising for Revlon, points out the importance of | | | | insulation between those two cans?" That was the |
| all sorts of ideas in the competitive business world. | | | | beginning of the Scotch Cooler. In four years his |
| He mentions the idea of the aerosol container which | | | | rundown business was grossing more than five million |
| was used first with whipped cream and later shaving | | | | dollars annually. |
| cream. He tells how a small company like Breck in | | | | The profit from a good idea is easy to figure out, |
| Springfield, Massachusetts, successfully competes | | | | but J. A. Anderson of the AC Spark Plug Division of |
| with huge international firms in the creative warfare | | | | General Motors has pointed out the other side of the |
| of business because of good ideas. Breck doesn't | | | | coin. "We have the costs of ideas not thought up," |
| have a million-dollar TV program; it does have beauty | | | | he has said. "That is a very definite cost. We have |
| parlors across the nation using and recommending its | | | | the costs of ideas thought of too late. We have the |
| product because of brilliant merchandising ideas. | | | | costs of ideas not developed to their fullest potential. |
| In almost every case of profit-making products there | | | | We have the costs of ideas not thought of at all." |
| is a good idea behind the product. Abrams cites a | | | | Ideas which people have had-or not had-have made |
| competitive product which became the largest selling | | | | the difference in the whole history of man-simple |
| deodorant on the market. Why? Because it rolls on, | | | | ideas and complex ideas, little ideas and big ideas. |
| using the principle of a ball-point pen-an idea which | | | | What unknown genius first discovered the wheel? |
| created millions upon millions of dollars of business a | | | | Who was the person-was it a woman-who |
| decade ago. His own company, Revlon, has a long | | | | discovered wheat could be made into bread? Our |
| record of successful ideas. One is Love Pat. For | | | | whole world is defined by the men who had the |
| generations women have been putting loose, messy | | | | ideas that made possible the automobile, the bridge, |
| powder into expensive compacts. Revlon pressed | | | | the skyscraper, the airplane, the ocean liner, the |
| powder, under high pressure, into inexpensive but | | | | telephone, the light which turns night into day. Who |
| attractive plastic compacts any woman could afford. | | | | can estimate the value of the idea of a curved ax |
| Overnight the Love Pat compact became the | | | | handle which made it possible for one man to clear |
| largest-selling item in the face-powder field. "I know | | | | more wilderness and create a new world? What price |
| of no business weapon so powerful as a strong | | | | can be put on the idea of freedom that made |
| idea," concludes Abrams. | | | | children defy Russian tanks in Hungary in 1956? |
| There's Herbert Piker, a young Hamilton, Ohio, | | | | The essential difference between nations is ideas; |
| manufacturer, who sat staring at a minnow bucket. | | | | the Free World will stand or fall on the strength of |
| He had inherited a metal box company, which was in | | | | our ideas. In a Hell Bomb age ideas are still more |
| bad shape. He didn't know which way to turn. But as | | | | powerful than any other force known to man. |