Behind The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine
If you’ve never used a George Forman grill… WHAT have you been doing in the last 20 years?! These indoor grills are incredibly easy to use, super convenient and let you cook with less fat. If you’re not sure who George Forman is, well, he’s a former professional world heavyweight champion boxer as well as an Olympic gold medalist. Not only has he won a world championship, he took a 10 year hiatus and came back at the age of 45 to reclaim his title for a second time. Clearly, George is an incredible athlete, but he is also a successful pitchman and entrepreneur.
The grill was not actually invented by George Forman himself, but rather the concept was created by Michael Boehm who patented the idea in 1994 and appeared on “Million Dollar Geniuses” about generating successful products. The process of making the George Forman grill so widely successful was through the connection of Michael and a marketing expert that worked with George.
The concept of the grill started from the idea that Michael wanted great tasting food without the grease or fat. He did prototyping on a cast iron baking sheet and set it on an angle. LOW AND BEHOLD, the grease drained and the food cooked perfectly! This was the first step in creating the grill. After George was contacted about the idea, he was skeptical at first as he was doing advertising and promoting for other products at the time.
George didn’t even try the grill as the promotional offer wasn’t going to pay him up front. However, his wife Joan tried the prototype grill that Michael made and convinced George through a demonstration that the product worked and that she loved it, and knew he would too. George signed the deal to advertise the product and all he thought he would get out of it was a few free grills to give to his family. Little did he know that The George Forman Grill would start the grilling empire that would be recognized around the world.
Now, how did this grill become so successful even to this day? You can have a great product, but you need a combination of factors to really make the audience aware and convince them that this is a product that they need. Michael attributes the success to a few factors:
- A valid concept that innovated a current mature category
- A marketing strategy that was targeted and executed properly
- A product that worked well and solved a problem as well as met customer needs, and most importantly
- He chose the right endorser to promote the product and ensure trust: George Foreman
A product can be really useful and interesting, but if it doesn’t satisfy a consumer need, the invention or innovation will be useless. The George Foreman Grill targeted customers that want convenience, easy of use, versatility and the health benefits. They also wanted the reliability from a world known figure telling them that he loves and supports the product. By using a heavyweight champion boxer, whose health is of the utmost importance but is still relatable to the average Joe as he was a big family man, it reassures customers that the grill is legitimate.
Lastly, thinking back to the creation of the product, there were a couple of things that Michael did. He designed 3–4 different models and started with the smallest which created a stronger cost structure through minimizing investment. From there he was ready to take consumers’ requests, improve the product and observe to see what people need and how they live their lives. Michael’s advice on when to know if you have a winner:
Ask basic questions, “is it the right size? Is the material right? Does it have the right structure? What about promoting it? Are there line extension possibilities?” He states that people might not hear you at first, or understand your product, but you need to test early and test quickly to continuously improve the product and learn how to market it to the right people, the right way.
You can watch Michael Boehm’s episode on the History Channel here. Even with all of the research, planning and the best pitchman, it took Boehm more than two years to sell this invention to a major company, Salton.
Here is a video of one of George Foreman’s infomercials from 1996:
So, now that we know that The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine was not actually invented by George, it shows that there was a lot of thought and strategy that went into making this piece of technology so successful. In 2000, 12–15% of all U.S. households had at least one Foreman grill. The Grill has also been promoted in Asia by Foreman along side famous movie star, Jackie Chan.
The George Foreman Grill has sold over 100 million units world wide with George making 40% of the profits of each grill sold. At it’s peak, he was making $4.5 million dollars per month. In 1999, Foreman sold his naming rights to the grill for a $138 million dollar lump sum and has generated over $200 million in total, just himself. So it’s safe to say that Michael Boehm has successfully created one of the world’s most well known grills.
Does your family have a George Foreman grill ready for use? Maybe stuck in a cabinet somewhere from 15 years ago? I know my friends and I can definitely get behind the hype of the grill. Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @pnakatsu1.
