As it turns out, if you really want to create a successful new product or company (and with the entrepreneurial spirit in mind, who wouldn’t?), it might make sense to market it before it actually exists. By popularizing something that only exists because of a major film or piece of media, what you’ve done is create awareness for a fictional item or a fictional company. Then, the trick is to create a real-life version of these fictional pursuits, and boom – people already know about your once-fictional product or service because they recognize it from something in pop culture.
Now, the commercial working capital specialists here at The Commercial Finance Group aren’t necessarily recommending that you build a business purely based on pop culture references (and you wouldn’t be the first to do so), but we think it’s interesting that thriving, real businesses only exist today because of these popular works of fiction. Did the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co exist before Forrest Gump, or did Soylent exist before Soylent Green? No, but hey, why not build a successful business based off of something that doesn’t even exist in real life?
Invoice Factoring To Fund Your Growing Business
So, in a slightly different content approach tailored toward our readers, we’re going to go over some of these companies and products that exist because someone originally created them in a fictional context. As for all of your small business lending needs in light of the hectic holiday season coming up, know that The Commercial Finance Group has the financial resources and the knowledge to provide the right cash flow solutions and working capital fixes for your company. Whether you’re just establishing your business or you’re growing rapidly, things like off sheet balancing and invoice factoring ensures that you have plenty of capital to keep things running smoothly. Learn more about how we help small businesses and healthcare organizations by visiting here.
The Holiday Inn
This common hotel mainstay across the United States was actually inspired by the 1942 musical Holiday Inn, debuting some ten years before the founding of the first Holiday Inn. The musical starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, introducing the world to the now-classic Irving Berlin holiday tune “White Christmas.” Fast forward a decade later, and what pops up? An actual Holiday Inn. The first location was opened up in Memphis, Tennessee by Kemmon Wilson. His obituary in the L.A. Times confirms that the name for the massively successful hotel chain was indeed taken from the holiday musical.
The Talkboy
If there’s a face of staying home alone while the parents and the rest of the family are out, it’s definitely that of Kevin McCallister. As the main character of Home Alone, the first movie already skyrocketed his success and his status as the coolest kid ever to be left home alone. The sequel Home Alone 2: Lost In New York only solidified his early 90s cachet. In the sequel, Kevin is famous for using a Talkboy – a tape recorder – to tape snippets of other characters talking and fooling them into doing what Kevin wanted.
Sure enough, a letter-writing campaign from eager tweens wanting their very own Talkboy prompted the company Tiger Toys to start selling a real-life version of the tape recorder. It sold for a solid $29.99 back in 1993. Apparently, the real version of the Talkboy was such a success that the Seattle Times reported Tiger Toys actually had trouble keeping up with demand. But when you’re a youngster wanting to be as cool as Kevin McCallister himself, the demand makes sense.
Duff Beer
The chances are pretty high that most people have at least seen a few episodes of The Simpsons – after all, it is the longest-running American sitcom as well as the longest-running American animated series of all time! Time and time again, Homer Simpson is seen with an iconic Duff beer in hand, and hey, maybe it’s his secret that keeps him seemingly unchanged after three decades.
Let’s just say that attempting to brew Duff Beer isn’t an original idea. After shutting down various efforts by breweries around the country to sell Duff Beer, 21st Century Fox announced back in January 2015 that it would roll out an official version of the brew starting in Chile of all places. Why Chile? The answer isn’t entirely clear, but according to the Wall Street Journal at the time, it was “a case of if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Fair enough. Apparently, Fox had been trying to beat back the rising tide of unauthorized Duff Beer iterations, with some success. Indeed, an intellectual property complaint filed by the media conglomerate led Chilean police to actually seize these contraband bottles and cans by the tens of thousands.
Understandably, American Duff fans were disappointed, as the company never sold the beer stateside. The only exceptions are The Simpsons section of Universal’s theme parks in Orlando and Los Angeles.
Scooby Snacks
Getting hungry yet? If you’re familiar with the classic mystery cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, then you’re probably familiar with “Scooby Snacks” because the two go hand-in-hand. In fact, it seemed like the promise or reward of Scooby Snacks was just about the only way to motivate the mystery dog into action. However, we don’t actually recommend that you partake in this slightly misleading snack – Scooby Snacks are real-life dog treats under the Snausages brand, owned by Del Monte Foods. Well, if you have a mean case of the munchies, we’re not going to hold you back from your snacking choices.
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
You guessed it! Surely anyone who’s seen this all-time American classic (please tell us that you’ve seen Forrest Gump) can recall the scene where Bubba recites all of the ways that shrimp can be cooked, and boy, are there a lot of ways that one can prepare shrimp. Well, shortly after the success of Forrest Gump back in 1995, the restaurant was brought to life via a partnership between the marketing division of Paramount and a company called Rusty Pelican, both of which are owned by Viacom. The original Bubba Gump Shrimp Company opened in 1996 in Monterey, California – a sensible location given the abundance of marine life. Today, there are 44 restaurants operating worldwide.
Turning Your Ideas Into Actionable Realities
We spend a great deal of time thinking about all of the would-be businesses out there if only these entrepreneurs were properly funded. Whether your product or service comes from a movie or you’ve come up with something truly original, the invoice factoring experts at The Commercial Finance Group are ready to provide our working capital solutions via our flexible approach to lending. Learn more about our factoring company today or reach out to our business line of credit experts.
