ROMANO NIRONI ISN'T ONLY THE MANAGER OF TIPPY-BRANDED PRODUCTS, HE IS A FATHER WHO TELLS US HOW THE IDEA OF CREATING A PRODUCT LIKE TIPPY PAD CAME ABOUT.
The intuition of Tippy comes directly from the ownership of the B810 group, of which Digicom is part, from the awareness of being parents before being entrepreneurs. Struck by the cases of babies unknowingly abandoned in cars in Italy between 2013 and 2016, the company’s management set itself the goal of creating, using its technological expertise, a solution that would allow avoiding these tragedies, providing concrete support to modern families.
Analyzing the market, we have found only products to be connected with cables to the cigarette lighter socket of the car, in our opinion, uncomfortable and inflexible. Since we didn’t have the setup of a start-up, but that of a real factory of products connectable to wireless networks, our R&D already had a great experience in the design of connected devices.
In my role as Product Manager, I was asked to analyze and study a wireless solution that could prevent these tragic events.
The goal was challenging: to create a simple, affordable device, easy to install and able to communicate with a smartphone. With the whole team, we started from a blank sheet of paper, defining the logic of operation and patenting a dedicated sensor for weight detection.
In 2016, when the project was launched in the Company, the best stimulus, to achieve the result and make a product, came from my son who was just over 6 months old. He allowed me to personally test with great enthusiasm every aspect of the solution starting from the embryonic stages.
The experimentation lasted several months. We worked on numerous aspects and technical constraints, refining them until the market launch in December 2017. We were satisfied with the very high degree of reliability that distinguished TIPPY PAD from the start. We focused on proposing materials of the highest quality, certified from both the chemical and mechanical point of view and on tests that would ensure the influence of the device, for the safety of children on board, in case of collisions between vehicles.
With great personal and professional satisfaction, I am proud of the result that we were able to achieve and propose. A safe product, the most appreciated by the market and that has satisfied many parents … like me.
ROMANO CONTINUES THE STORY BY EXPLAINING THE SUCCESS OF TIPPY PAD IN ITALY AND HOW THE ANTI-BABY DEVICE CAN ENTER THE FOREIGN MARKET.
In 2017, when the product was launched on the Italian market, it got a fairly lukewarm reception: the needs to which Tippy Pad responded weren’t clear to modern families. Thanks to our communication strategy we managed to define and communicate the need and the requirement of a device like Tippy Pad, selling the first tens of thousands of products in the most important early childhood stores.
The launch of the product and the beginning of the sales were before the coming into force of the law regarding the anti abandonment systems. From 2019 it is compulsory to install anti abandonment devices in cars carrying a child aged between 0 and 4 years.
The legislation also listed the constructive and technical-functional characteristics necessary for the compliance of anti abandonment devices with the law. Although Tippy Pad had been on the market for over a year, it responded perfectly (and still responds) to legislative requirements.
Being the first to propose a simple, reliable, affordable and compliant solution for children has marked the success of the product and the Tippy brand.
We live in a world where people are bombarded by constant stimuli and offers. Today’s families have endless options to choose from in any area. For this reason, today, more than yesterday, families are much more attentive and selective.
Ours is the most followed and appreciated idea in Italy: we have created a quality and affordable device. Two important aspects for the evaluation of the purchase by the parent, already subjected to several expenses.
With our experience in technology, we certainly could have created a product with higher degrees of safety than the device currently on the market, but the cost would not have been affordable for everyone.
TIPPY PAD is the solution at the lowest possible cost that guarantees the highest level of security: one that complies with the law. This is why it has been so successful.
As for abroad, even though the pandemic has interrupted our projects, the goal remains to become a point of reference for child safety even outside the Italian borders.
The problem of abandonment of children in cars, in fact, is common throughout the world. There are no political, religious, racial, economic and/or cultural distinctions.
Even the United States, the only country to make statistical counts on these cases, tells us that the problem is not as limited as it may seem. They, in turn, are discussing a law similar to the Italian one, concerning compulsory anti abandonment systems in cars. Surely the US market could be interesting. As soon as the pandemic situation improves, we will start again with the activities. It will not be easy, but we at DIGICOM like challenges!
THE HEAD OF TIPPY BRAND PRODUCTS CONTINUES TO REVEAL "THE BEHIND THE SCENES" OF THE DIGICOM COMPANY BY DELVING INTO THE ISSUE OF CHILD ABANDONMENT IN THE CAR AND THE TECHNOLOGY-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP.
There has always been some skepticism about the Tippy Pad device and its ultimate goal: to prevent unintentional child abandonment in the car. This issue is usually perceived, by parents, as something far removed from them. Anyone who “forgets” their child in the car is considered a bad person who doesn’t pay the right attention to important things.
This is certainly the thought of those who face this topic for the first time, without delving into the cases.
I was of this idea, but by analyzing individual cases and related information, I discovered that these “forgetfulnesses” were related to a memory lapse called dissociative amnesia.
The real problem with dissociative amnesia, unfortunately, is that it cannot be predicted. There are no symptoms or other factors that can make you perceive its risk.
The cases that have occurred in recent years involve normal parents from ordinary families. Parents with a high level of education who, unfortunately, happened to forget their child in the car, not always with positive results. Many of them, years later, still can’t understand how it could have happened. These are not people who are distracted or suffer from pathologies.
The fact of having a busy mind, with so many thoughts such as stress, family or work tensions, are common factors for the modern parent, who with time learns to live with it. I myself, being a father and carrying out a work role with many responsibilities, feel part of this category of people at risk.
This is not what Digicom says, but scientists, doctors and psychiatrists, explain how memory blackout is a recurring problem in modern life, a frenetic life subjected to continuous stimuli.
That’s why we created Tippy Pad, to provide support to today’s families.
The infinite technological universe that increasingly envelops people’s lives, brings with it a moral question about the positivity/negativity of the situation.
Technology, in my humble opinion, is positive as long as it respects certain conditions: it must be simple, within everyone’s reach and non-invasive. Only in this way can it be truly useful.
The Tippy brand seeks to exploit precisely the goodness of technology in favor of child safety, making it available to all, in terms of cost and usability, but also aesthetically appealing given the attention to the design of our products.
In the world of medicine, every technological advancement is viewed positively… Why shouldn’t it be the same for areas as diverse as child safety at home or in the car?
WE CONCLUDE THIS COGNITIVE JOURNEY WITHIN DIGICOM TALKING ABOUT THE NEW TIPPY PROJECTS AND HOW THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF A CHILD CAN BECOME A STRONG STIMULUS FOR NEW PROFESSIONAL IDEAS.
The implementation of car safety has been useful to understand that, in the field of child safety, there is a big space, still unexplored, in which technology can give great support.
That’s why we’re focusing on making products for child safety in the home, which, contrary to popular belief, is a hostile and often dangerous environment.
Statistics speak for themselves, documenting a series of recurring domestic accidents that, due to a lack of risk perception, involve children in their first years of life.
Tippy’s prerogative is to use the best technological solutions to protect children from these dangers, offering families simple and safe products at an accessible cost.
Another feature, not taken for granted, that we constantly take into account when designing our products, is that we can adapt them to everyday objects that have always been in the homes of families and that are sometimes shared within the parental network. Whether they are a crib, a high chair or other. This allows you to give things a new technological life without incurring a large financial investment.
On a personal level, I have had the great opportunity to have my son Giovanni as an extraordinary source of inspiration to test and improve the features of TIPPY PAD.
This kind of experience has made me more curious, more attentive to the dynamics and the many risks that a child can incur in their home, especially if agitated, lively and curious.
The normalcy that lurks in child behavior turns into anxiety and worry for parents.
Our mission, that of TIPPY, remains to alleviate as much as possible to families these states of mind, in a simple and non-invasive way.
THANK YOU for reading this experience. WE WILL UPDATE SOON…
AND YOU, MOM OR DAD… STAY CONNECTED TO OUR CHANNELS IF YOU SHARE THESE IDEAS… AND IF YOU CHOOSE TIPPY as a partner for the safety of your beautiful baby.
