Essence of Christmas

...Or How To (Or Not To) Invent A Product

Would you believe that I reached the end of the following critique without mentioning the important contribution to the product of my son, Robin?

Here now is his mention at the top, where it rightly belongs. My son was responsible for the artwork on the box and the generic logo and trade mark.

Lost for a logo, I noticed him doodling away on his PC. As a consequence what started out in life as a three dimensional beautifully rendered 'lone flower' growing out of a concrete obelisk, ended up on the box as a 'snow flower'... and my trade mark. Pursuers of trade marks will know how very difficult it is to satisfy the Patent Office of originality. It was with huge satisfaction that I was able to tell Robin that the trade mark had been accepted for the registration process, without having recourse to appeal. I believe that Robin lived to regret it, though, because he has been constantly pestered throughout, his journey meandering through box design, stationery, brochures and now the website. Being the good parent that I am, I have of course slipped him the odd tenner for his efforts. His patience and support have however been incalculable and I thank him here.

The idea was conceived in around 1995. I am a single mother and my child was then a toddler. We both loved Christmas trees with a passion. Real trees however caused problems - the lugging of 8' trees home, the erecting them, the decorating them, the keeping the carpet free of dangerous needles and finally the horrors of taking the tree down with the inherent problem of disposing of the carcass, all became an important issue to consider for future Christmas's. The final straw came in the form of an ambitious 10' tree. In order to take the tree down following four week's of seasonal joy, I found myself spreading no fewer than four sheets over the living room floor and attacking individual branches inch by painful inch with secateurs. Assistance in removal was refused by the dustbin men and to this day parts of the carcass remain rotting on the compost heap.

I resolved to buy one of the newly available and very beautiful artificial trees for the following Festive Season. Sadly , I then encountered a further important Christmas issue; the extremely beautiful artificial tree had, of course, no smell. I decided that this disturbing fact could only be remedied by my attempting to invent one - and thus began a long but very gratifying journey.

My wonderful but now late Dad had already said: 'If you don't do this Pamela, I will.' Accordingly, when I saw advertised in a newspaper details of a company promising to help float your invention, he gladly handed over to me £400 in order to commission the company's glossy brochure detailing the charms and investment certainties of my 'new' product. I regret that we were both very naive. The brochure was very nice, but they asked for a further £4,000 in order to promote my (non-existent) product further. My Dad said that he would do this for me. However, beginning to suffer from financial 'nerves' I decided to pop along to my local Patent Office in Leeds , which you can visit at www.leeds.gov.uk/patents.

Staff at the Patent Office were absolutely terrific and allowed me to roam free amongst their CD ROMs. This was very exciting because I had never roamed free amongst CD ROMs before . They were very good about giving me access to and showing me how to operate their very sophisticated machines. One of the gentleman had more of less guessed what my invention was, and said that he would like me to have a copy of an inter-departmental memo regarding SCAMS. The memo addressed companies who advertised looking after your invention from conception to your new millionaire status, but who really took your money and ran. My particular SCAM company was there in black and white as being investigated in the USA for fraud. The gentleman advised me not to hand over my £4,000 to that company or any other company, but to take myself off to my local Business Link, whose services are, of course, free and very extensive. I remain eternally grateful to that gentleman, whose name I do not remember.

My local branch of Business Link is in Leeds and they are affiliated with the Leeds Chamber of Commerce. Their helpful sites are at www.blwy.co.uk or www.leedschamber.co.uk.

Business Link were equally terrific and have hovered like a butterfly on and around my product from 1999 to today's date and I anticipate their being not too far away from my product for the foreseeable future. Notwithstanding that I had not made an appointment, in 1999 , I was welcomed into their arms as a new inventor and an arrangement was made for me to see one Mr Tony Brecklin.

Mr Brecklin gave me the name of a gentleman, who is very well respected within the industry, but who now does something to do with horses in the south; I will respect his privacy. He recommended that I talk to Mark Jordan at Emphasis Design, which is situated in Leeds . Mark can be found at the company's very attractive and innovative site at www.emphasisdesign.co.uk.

Mark told me that he thought my idea was a good one, and said: 'You need a chemist and I know the very one.' Mark offered inspiration and encouragement and without his help and support it is doubtful that I would ever have set out on the initial journey at all. Mark Jordan's ongoing advice and assistance with the project is pinpointed throughout following prelude to the product.

Nervous of my novice status, I summoned the courage to make an appointment to see Inline Cosmetics Ltd., also in Leeds , where I met the redoubtable Caroline Paul. Caroline is one of the most helpful people I have ever met. She said: 'You will need a fragrance house, and I know the very one. I will get a representative to call you.' Taking a look at www.inlinecosmetics.com it becomes apparent how established the company is within the industry and how they possessed the resources to have been so helpful. It is fair to say that without Inline Cosmetics I would not have a product today.

Out of the blue I received a call from Andrew Hirst from Fragrance Oils Ltd.

Fragrance Oils are in Manchester and Singapore ! Their website at www.fofe.com demonstrates how truly global they are. The wonderful Andrew turned up one glorious sunny day and said: 'We want to work with you on this product Pamela!' The sunshine shone even more brightly.

I received a few samples and was starting to think that this elusive smell was going to escape me. Then I thought of a unusual ingredient and received a sample back. Andrew made a further visit and said: 'You are not smelling these samples the correct way!' He produced from his briefcase some little cardboard sticks, and suddenly my kitchen was full of the smell of Christmas tree. It is important to note at this stage that I already had a large Christmas tree in the kitchen but Nordman firs have no smell! From thence on everybody remarked upon the wonderful smell of Christmas tree in my kitchen!

My journey now became more knife and fork' I had to assemble the apparatus for getting the scent into the air and into the shops. I had already been given a silver bottle by Mark Jordan at www.emphasisdesign.co.uk. I tracked down a manufacturer of this product.

Keith Wade at Bluesky sent me a brochure containing details of all their beautiful bottles and stoppers. I regret that I bothered Keith Wade endlessly concerning the 'new start-ups' trap of minimum quantities. It was simply not economic for Bluesky to supply the measly quantities of bottles that I required, but I did eventually obtain my finger sprays from them. I remain very grateful to Keith for all the time that he expended on my behalf. Bluesky the Solutions Source are in Grimsby.

The aforementioned Caroline Paul popped helpfully back into my life and suggested that I contact www.nevilleandmore.com. Matthew Barrett very kindly agreed to help me out with half a pallet of the aluminium bottles required. It is very likely that without Matthew Barrett's assistance the whole project would have stalled at this point and I will always be grateful to him.

Onwards and upwards, then, to the box: Through Keith Wade at Bluesky, I had already made contact with Paul Tunstill at Pelican Packaging, which company are in Stoke-on-Trent. Paul had already sent me some stunning boxes that his company had created for other organisations, for my consideration. Paul is another person I bothered to death about my project. He remained calm, patient and exceptionally helpful throughout my constant pestering. He extended to me the greatest kindness, in the face of my obvious ignorance of the printing process. Pelican also would have presumably preferred not to deal with such a small order, but went on to bend rules to accommodate my once again measly order. Paul Tunstill said that after discussion with his colleagues they had agreed they could work with my son's Photoshop artwork on PC, in doing so paying Robin a huge compliment. In the event, however, it was back to Mark at Emphasis whose staff re-configured the artwork to Mac. By now it was Christmas, and Paul and I exchanged Christmas Greetings, my settling back to receive my boxes, Paul hopefully settling back to enjoy his Christmas with his family.

January 2004 dawned with my receiving my boxes and setting off with Robin to NEC, Birmingham , on a purely exploratory mission. I was gratified to note that no other company was present marketing a Christmas scent and presumably my son was gratified also - if somewhat nerve-racked at my racketeering down the M1.

All that was now required was a sticky label. My friend Reg Harwood provided a further good deed in the set-up procedure, directing me to J H Davenport at www.jhdavenport.co.uk, situated in Harehills, Leeds, where I met Philip Davenport and his sister Louise Elliot, who is also a director. Looking at the company's very colourful site you will see that this organisation is a little older than previously mentioned companies, having been established in Leeds since 1888! However, there is nothing Dickensian about this company, the Managing Director Philip Davenport suggesting a very forward looking and interesting substrate for my label in the form of gloss silver. This was a very exciting development for the product, because the silver of the label sits very comfortably on the silver aluminium bottle, the green of the Christmas tree appearing to have become, by magic, metallic! When the labels were handed to me, it was a good moment. I had spent half an hour with Keith, Graphic Designer, who had shown me how astonishingly competent he was at manipulating my son's artwork in Photoshop. Both encouraged and delighted, I commissioned some brochures. In about half an hour of my peering over Keith's shoulder, with the odd comment from me, I was looking at the artwork for a brochure, ready to go to press. Both my son and I hold Keith in the highest esteem. Respect to that man.

Respect, in fact, to every single person and organisation mentioned in this treatise, together with my heartfelt gratitude and hopes that we will all be able to continue the journey for an appreciable time.