Air Date: 3-4-2011|Episode 199
Microban antimicrobial protection is built-in to products during manufacturing to provide continuous antimicrobial protection...
Full Description:
Microban antimicrobial protection is built-in to products during manufacturing to provide continuous antimicrobial protection. Microban uses a broad range of antimicrobial technologies that can be found in hundreds of consumer, industrial and medical products around the world. Join us and discover more about this highly successful multinational business from Scott Rosenzweig, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Microban International, Inc.
Z-Man’s Blog:
Creative solution to germy payphones starts multimillion dollar company
“W.L. Morrison thought he was simply returning a routine call to a physician who was looking for help designing a system to keep disposable medical products clean and fresh longer. As they talked about infection control in the medical environment, the M.I.T. – trained entrepreneur noticed the telephone receiver in his hand and thought of the potential for contamination on the average public pay phone and how it might be controlled. This one question led to the development of the first antimicrobial polymeric products for both medical and consumer applications.
In 1994, Microban was founded by three biomedical engineers who refined Morrison’s original work and transitioned his ideas from the laboratory to the real world. Through proprietary processes they developed a way to engineer antimicrobial ingredients into solid products. The result was the development of antimicrobial solutions that give consumer, industrial and medical products an added level of protection against damaging microbes such as bacteria, mold and mildew that can cause stains, odors and product deterioration.
And in 1996, the company began marketing the benefits of antimicrobial product protection under the Microban® brand, modeling the success of other early ingredient brands such as Nutrasweet®, Lycra® and Teflon®. Today, Microban licenses use of the Microban trademark to more than 150 companies around the world and Microban technology is built-into over 1000 products, including kitchen and bath products, apparel and home textiles, appliances, building materials, foodservice products, medical products and others.”
Scott Rosenzweig, SVP of Business Development at Microban International (MBI) and an expert in branding and licensing discussed his firm’s business with IAQradio listeners. MBI is a true business success story of overcoming the marketing challenge of selling a product that can’t be seen, smelled or touched. Adding Microban product protection to existing products adds perceived value and brand differentiation in competitive markets. Are you among the 42% of the US population that is familiar with the Microban brand?
Nuggets mined from today’s episode:
•Adding antimicrobial protection to products isn’t as easy as it might sound. Significant engineering and testing involved to confirm product performance and antimicrobial efficacy. Two types of testing are utilized: qualitative which can be visibly seen with the naked eye and quantitative which needs to done with microscopy.
•Microban protection is more than a simple preservative. Preservative protect products from the time of manufacture until use. Microban protects products from the time of manufacture until used and then the protection actively continues to perform on the surface of materials.
•MBI uses a variety of antimicrobial technologies both organic and inorganic including: zinc, silver, triclosan. The protective treatment extends throughout the entire matrix of a many solid materials such as plastics.
•Biofilm is the firm’s biggest technical challenge.
•MBI operates under close governmental oversight by EPA and FDA.
•Few successful businesses can entirely escape controversy. Who would have guessed that there is 3 times more triclosan in a tube of toothpaste than is present within a Rubbermaid bath mat with Microban protection? “NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations), use junk science to get their way or make their message known. “
•“Vomit all over them.”The highlight of the show for me was when Scott was asked for marketing and branding advice and he cautioned against sales personal going into autopilot and “vomiting their company’s sales pitch all over the potential customer” Listen to your customers needs. Help your customers resolve problems and become more successful.
Growing sales are proof positive that citizens of the world desire cleaner products; MIcroban brand product protection works and is safe, check out the website at www.microban.com and see the business thoroughbreds that MBI counts among its customers.
Today’s Music: Microban Overview Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlqvwL5jlDw
Z-Man signing off
