Howell Product Development.
For Companies Developing #1-Selling Products.

The Howell Product Development story, as told by President and CEO, Rick Howell.

Way back in high school, I was part of the team that co-developed the #1-selling ski binding in the world. As a young man operating in a company-culture that consistently developed innovative, high-margin products that sold like wildfire, it seemed natural for the engineering and marketing departments to work together.

Rude Awakening.

Immediately after receiving an education in engineering and business, I became the U.S. Product Manager for a German ski binding company with a long-standing 2% market share and an ‘almost-what-if’ product line. But the company was committed to growing. The American distribution operation poured ten million dollars into the development of the U.S. business — including giving away Porsche’s! Meanwhile—independently—the German parent company focused on developing ‘highly engineered’ products.

That’s when I was rudely awakened to the outcome of a company culture that segregated marketing and engineering. Products were ‘engineered’ — but they were not developed to provide solutions to customer needs.

There was an internal culture war between engineering and marketing preventing the innovation of high-margin hot-selling products. Over ten million dollars were lost.

Integrated Marketing-Engineering.

As the young survivor in the multi-national shake-up, I was given responsibility for U.S. marketing. It didn’t take long to declare that the culture between marketing and engineering had to change. The integration of marketing and engineering became a key component in our next years' of explosive sales—and more importantly, solid profits—but we also saw first-hand how fragile a marketing-engineering team can be when the restoration of ordinary management practices caused the internal-cultural pendulum to swing back the other way.

Outsourced Product Development.

“If you don’t continuously innovate high-margin products, you’re stuck in commodity hell.”

— Sam Palmisano, President and CEO, IBM

To transform marketing and engineering into thriving, highly productive, collaborative teams, an external company -- Howell Product Development -- became focused on providing collaborative-outsourcing for the development of high-margin, hot-selling consumer products. The result:

CycleBinding — World’s first hands-off clipless bicycle shoe-pedal system. Created the category.

Tubbs — #1-selling snowshoes, 85% market-share 20 consecutive years, expanded total snowshoe market 50X.

Reader’s Window — Breakthrough assistive reading technology for the disabled.

(Confidential brand) — Flat panel monitor holder in a leading market position.

Other soon-to-be successfully commercialized innovations, in-process.

What Is Howell Product Development ?

Howell Product Development provides consumer product companies seeking high margins and hot-sales — with an outsourced solution.

It’s that simple.

We bring together a collaborative team of outsourced product managers, marketing managers, market-researchers, early-stage sales managers, industrial designers, graphic designers, professional engineers, CAD-designers, materials engineers, mold-makers, manufacturing subcontractors and a wide range of specialized marketing and manufacturing providers. We organize the collaboration of marketing and engineering services to generate winning products with high-margins that are in hot demand for decades.

We organize rapid-prototyping and full-production manufacturing of products made of a myriad of materials in a myriad of ways (over 70 providers).

We generate products that obtain strong utility patents — a key step toward securing financing, providing long-term competitive advantage and maintaining high margins.

We organize the creation of sales-converting consumer and trade advertising, targeted public relations, sales-promotions, trade show introductions and distribution operations. We perform these functions before products are designed, then we repeat the process, concurrently during the launch. We produce high-margin, high-sales results.

We organize and manage a rapid iterative process in product-concept-testing, rapid prototype development, field testing, test-marketing, and price-sensitivity testing. We coordinate product re-design, organize pilot manufacturing and full-production manufacturing — including the comprehensive management of the Bill-of-Materials. We make full utilization of collaborative project software. We organize the procurement of low-cost / high-quality / short-lead-time production molds, tools, dies for injection molded plastics, metal stampings, metal die castings, machined-metal and machined-plastic parts. We maintain budget variance-reports. We insure this product development process happens, on-time, at agreed pricing, with high-quality.

Increased Valuation.

We fuse-together minimal key-product advantages within, hot-styled products. We create a range of models in product lines that match the needs of market sub-segments.

The products we develop are minimal, simple, robust, durable, strong and light. They have wide manufacturing tolerances for easy assembly. They zip through manufacturing. They have low warranty rates and low product liability insurance rates.

Products developed by Howell Product Development are easy to use and easy to service. Consumers fall in love with them. In fact, the consumer experience with products we develop is a prime factor in the rapid expansion of widespread demand. Fundamentally, we are consumer advocates. Our roots in consumer-avocation causes a remarkably notable effect on the revenues generated by the products we develop.

We develop strategic marketing plans, organize trade advertising and consumer advertising, media-planning, set-up trade shows and physically book opening-orders at trade shows.

We convert early adapters and nurture the diffusion of their acceptance to incrementally broader market segments.

We train customer service, sales representatives and risk managers. We monitor sales, production-costs, and make marketing and product adjustments. We go into the field and team-sell with the sales force. We use the product, ourselves. We document the forensic engineering aspects of product development. We are called-upon to defeat litigation.

The process that drives Howell Product Development is disruptive for most everyone involved — especially for the existing company culture and for those who remain complacent within stagnant markets. The process itself is not for the faint-hearted. Positive disruptive change in supply and demand behavior requires willingness—by individuals and companies—to change.

We develop and launch innovative, high-margin, hot-selling consumer products. Period. Long-term, hot-selling, high-margin products translate directly to significant revenue and income generation—which aligns the enterprise with other companies that have had "comparable exit transactions" involving large exit multiples—thus causing company-valuation increases that transcend well beyond incrementally increasing revenue and income.

Results.

Howell Product Development produces results. The successful integration of marketing and engineering creates innovative, high-margin consumer products that sell at high levels for long periods of time — leading to valuation-alignment with comparable companies that have already experienced high exit-multiple-transactions, which is key toward accomplishing an exit strategy that demands a large return-on-investment.

If sales-expansion, margin-expansion and valuation-expansion are your company’s objectives — Howell Product Development has the experience, strategy, tactics and proven results to help you and your company meet its goals.

(( Please note that product development activity by Howell Product Development can encompass smaller-portions of the total development process. Please also note that tax credits are typically available for corporate R&D activities -- and specific product development activities that lead directly to the production of finished-goods can be capitalized as an asset. ))

To Obtain a Quote.

Call Rick Howell at Howell Product Development -- 1.802.793.4849;  email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ;  or visit by appointment in Stowe, Vermont.