| “Cool
Companies” is a monthly feature where we recount the odd beginnings,
interesting permutations, or otherwise unique and noteworthy circumstances
of a toy or hobby manufacturer. If you think you know of a Cool
Company that you’d like to see featured here, please contact
emailtoydirectory@gmail.com.
DraganFly:
Bringing the Wild Blue Indoors
By Pennie Hoover
March
1, 2003
“Our
job is to build the coolest flying toys in the world,” claims
Zenon Dragan, the inventor, manufacturer, and stellar marketing
guy at DraganFly.
DraganFly’s
products appeal to a niche market: mostly male aviation buffs, ages
18 to 60 with considerable disposable income. Unlike other flying
toy manufacturers, this company’s target customer may never
have been in a hobby store. Begun in his basement in 1998, Dragan’s
first project was developing a downsized model of a stadium airship
that can fly in your house. Since he finds it “almost impossible”
to patent an idea, Dragan is on a continuous trek for a newer and
cooler flying toy. When the airship idea began to be widely copied,
he was already introducing new products, including his most popular
toy: the DraganFly III remote-control helicopter.
What’s
so special about a remote-control helicopter? This one flies indoors,
has a video camera mounted on the front, comes almost fully assembled,
claims a virtually indestructible body, and can be flown within
minutes by a beginner. And its capabilities keep evolving.
DraganFly
III remote-control helicopter
|
Despite
its record for innovation, DraganFly does not aspire to be a mass-marketer.
They like change, and since they manufacture their own designs,
they can change quickly. Most designs have only a two-to-three year
window before they are copied, so change is constant.
The
success of DraganFly is largely due to marketing. Dragan realized
that many great ideas never get to market. He has showcased his
products on CNN, in The New York Times, Popular Mechanics,
and a long list of others, including “Ripley’s Believe
It or Not” and the Discovery Channel. He spends so much energy
selling his product ideas that he has started to contract out some
design and programming work.
With
roughly 40% of its sales done online, video became another critical
marketing tool for DraganFly. “We jumped on the digital video
band wagon right away,” said Dragan. “When you tell
people they can fly this around their living room, they just don’t
believe you until they see it.”
Dallas
Bohun, who claims his title is “The Guy Who Has Worked Here
the Longest,” says DraganFly is a wonderful place to work.
“Zenon is the boss everybody should have," said Bohun.
"He builds toys. He gets you to build toys. And if you want
to play with a toy, that’s okay. Quality control and product
testing days are fun around here.”
Bohun
was an early customer of DraganFly and loved coming out to play
with the toys. According to him, the great part about working at
DraganFly is that every product is revolutionary. “When the
time comes that people are able to copy this design, we have a lot
of neat stuff up our sleeves. So keep watching!”
What’s
next? They’re not telling! Keep posted to www.rctoys.com to
be the first to know!
|
