Have a product idea? Campbell wants to know

Breaking with a 140-year practice, Campbell Soup Co. is soliciting ideas for new products and procedures from outside the company. And it's ready to pay for the help.

For years, Campbell did not accept unsolicited ideas in order to avoid disputes in case it already had been working on a similar idea, spokesman Anthony Sanzio said.

A new Web site, labeled Campbell's Ideas for Innovation at www.campbellideas.com, formalizes procedures that could soon boost the company's sales from new products, a key measure of vitality at consumer-products manufacturers.

In announcing the program this week, Campbell said it was interested not only in potential products, but also in ideas for packaging, marketing, and business processes, as well as new technologies related to sodium reduction, vegetable nutrition, and healthier fats.

The potential reward for contributors of ideas not already under patent is an honorarium of up to $5,000. A separate process exists for contributors with protected intellectual property, Sanzio said.

Sanzio said Campbell had used as benchmarks similar programs at Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati and Kraft Foods Inc. in Northfield, Ill.

P&G's Connect & Develop was launched in 2001, though a Web site came later. It has led to many products, including Swiffer Dusters, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, and Olay Regenerist anti-aging cream, P&G spokesman Jeff LeRoy said.

Those products or key ingredients came from smaller companies, rather than offhand ideas from individuals, LeRoy said.

"We're not looking for people who say, 'Make Charmin in pink,' " he said. "We're looking for people who have intellectual property, who have invested in it and protected it."

In the first year of the P&G Web site, ended August 2008, the company received 3,740 submissions, LeRoy said. About 40 percent were of interest, 13 percent received serious review, and about 2 percent ended up in a deal.

"We're very pleased with it," LeRoy said.

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