Firm Markets Timepieces With a Message
As a clinical psychologist, Brenda Ellner advised patients to write down their goals and aspirations on a notecard and read it four to five times a day.
While this may have worked therapeutically, her patients grew to dislike the cards and wished she’d come up with another device that could accomplish the same purpose.
“And I started thinking about it. Walking the beach one day, it became clear that it had to be in a watch because it was an indispensable item and it was something on the outside you could see the time and on the inside you would have a quiet moment on a busy day where you could put a message,” says Ellner, president of HourPower (http://www.hourpowerwatches.com), a marketer of watches containing a secret chamber for inserting inspirational messages, photographs and the like.
About four and a half years ago, she started up the Cleveland-based firm. Today, HourPower has a base of more than 20,000 customers who come from the Internet, jewelry stores, corporations and some nonprofit agencies, says Ellner, who no longer sees patients.
“This has become a fulltime position now,” she says.
To publicize Hour Power, the company is relying on things like press releases, word of mouth and search engine marketing.
“We’re just moving into podcasts and using all the kind of guerilla ways that a small company can use,” she says.
In addition, HourPower has some business from nonprofit healthcare agencies like the March of Dimes as well as with some drug and alcohol abuse programs. The firm is also seeking to develop more business in the wedding market
