It’s one thing to create some great new product that the world needs, but it’ll surely collect dust if your packaging lacks efficient communication. Packaging your invention is all about communicating the details, so don’t make assumptions that the person you’re trying to reach already knows what you know.

I always enjoy watching talented inventors, engineers and designers describe their creations to colleagues. There is always an assumptive “you know what I mean” going on as they skip the details during the description phase of the explanation, which eventually leads to a communication break-down. I find the best way to overcome these sorts of problems is by bringing in a person who has no working knowledge of the project. Now, talk to the stranger, a clean slate with no predetermined notions of your invention. I think you will amaze yourself when you sit back and take notes on how they talk about the new product.

Watch how they analyze the invention, discovering its features and benefits. As an inventor you’ll notice that your whole demeanor and language selection will change, almost like you’re talking to a child. It’s right then and there you’ll discover the genius of communication. You have to throw all the jargon out the window and remove preconceptions. Encourage this person to ask questions. Act as the teacher, because when you teach, you must re-evaluate everything you know on the subject and present it in an easy-to-understand format. Teaching is learning, so hopefully the exercise will teach you how to communicate your invention.

Remember, people don’t buy what they don’t understand. This makes things especially difficult if your invention is something consumers have never seen before. In that case you’re responsible for showing the problem a user faces and how your creation solves it, using language they understand. It’s not as simple as it seems, but having fresh eyes look over your invention, as I described earlier, helps you know how to market and communicate it.

In my mind David Ogilvy was the king of advertising and his wisdom still reigns true today. If you get a chance you should read every scrap of material he ever wrote on the subject of packaging and advertising. It’s valuable, and it will help you greatly to study a bit of marketing when thinking about your invention in the long term. By the way, according to Ogilvy new products were the toughest and I agree.

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.” David Ogilvy

Being in the invention idea business, I get a lot of questions, most asking, “is my idea good?” It’s difficult to answer, especially when the idea is someone’s personal project that they’ve nurtured for quite some time.

So, how do you know if your idea is a good one? Do some analysis. I’ve always been a fan of gathering data and bouncing my concepts off this information for validation, or to at least know how to turn my bad idea into a good one. A great place to begin is where you hope to end up — the marketplace. But before you go there, ask yourself a few questions.

Ask: What kind of product will my idea be? What segment of the market will want to purchase this product? What purpose does it serve, and is their a large enough audience to justify it? If it solves a specific problem, do enough people have this problem to validate its existence on the market? Will it be used by old men, young women or by a teenager?

Once you answer questions like these, you’re ready to analyze the market. Based on your responses, you should have a pretty good idea of what kinds of companies would carry a product like yours and what stores might sell it. Take a look at similar products. You may find that someone else already sells your idea, which isn’t necessarily bad. Think of it as a springboard into a different invention idea. Does the product currently selling on the market lack something? Find it and try to make something better.

Gather all of this data together and try to better formulate your invention idea. A well thought idea will make it easier to turn it into something with value, because the tough thing with ideas is that they are just that. It’s very hard to evaluate an idea to know if it’s good or not. To truly do that, you need to turn that idea into something, which is your invention or product. Now this has value over just an idea. It can be tested in real life situations, you can interact with it and gather more data and even present it to a manufacturer or a corporation for potential licensing, often the end goal with most ideas. Remember it’s not an invention when it’s just an idea. Anyone can have ideas, even your idea. I know it may seem strange, but we humans often do think alike. But it’s not an invention until you’ve created it. This takes time and effort.

Also, the main benefit with thinking out your idea fully is to discover the process of manufacturing it. It may be a good idea, but if its cost to manufacture far outweighs its value on the marketplace, you’ll have some trouble finding an interested party.

It’s like Edison said, inventing is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

So when do you stop trying with your invention? For me, it’s difficult to stop trying. I never like to quit, but here’s what I’ve found.

The first option you have as an inventor when your invention is rejected is to quit at the original design and regroup, but with the input from informed people in the industry. Always ask why your invention was rejected. Ask if there are things you could have done differently or things you can add to make it more attractive. Don’t ignore the data you’ll gather from this exercise, it’s a valuable guide. You should never have a problem with quitting on an original design when you have the right input to turn your project into a better creation.

However, there are cases where the further allocation of your time and revenue can be a complete waste. If you take your product to a presentation with a buyer or a major retail store and they reject the idea outright with no additional input, there may be reason for concern. At this point, you may want to present your invention to other buyers, preferably those that compete with the first one. If they confirm the sentiments from the initial presentation, push for more information to find out why they said “no.” Even though this idea may be your “baby,” that’s not a good reason to turn your ears off. Hopefully by the third “no,” it’s sinking in that the opportunity may not be there.

Not all is lost, though. Remember, a big part of life is learning to stand back up after you’ve fallen down. The Chinese say, “failure is the mother of success,” which means every time you fail, you’re sure to learn more about how to succeed.

Surely, you’ve found out things from this process to help guide you on your next project. Your goal is to become successful with inventions that benefit everyone. So keep on inventing.