I recently came across an article about two popular companies in very different industries, one in the toothpaste industry and the other in the motorbike industry. The nice thing about both companies is that they allow their creative people to have free reign on product introduction and innovation. Naturally, they both had some interesting ideas pass through the ranks and reach introduction to market stage.
The toothpaste company decided that they would be manufacturing pasta as part of their product line – an edible! Sometimes, it is not the quality of the idea that goes through the ranks, but the carrier of the idea. The pasta idea passed all the requirements and the toothpaste company launched it to market – “surprisingly” the product launch by the company was a dismal failure. They soon retracted the product from market and stopped its production completely.
On the other hand, the motorbike company known for its loud, popular and probably environmentally invasive sound – which has apparently been patented – decided that their badass image needed to move with the times! They would still stick with the badass image, but they’d make one significant and probably unpopular change – the suggestion was to introduce a move from only providing the traditional fuel consuming bike and offer an electric powered one. Badass electric bike? 🙂
To everyone’s surprise, the market accepted the electric version quite well – not only because of being more environmentally friendly, but because they brought in a new element of a futuristic badass – and the new sound resonated with the future version of the badass biker.
What’s interesting is that both companies allowed their creatives reign over “crazy” innovation. The big difference was in the extent of the parameters – the toothpaste company believed that they were basically in every household and that their toothpastes have been effortlessly accepted, therefore, bringing in a new product would not be problematic, right? Afterall, it is a necessity brand that is ingrained in us for its quality – so success is guaranteed!
On the other hand, the motorbike company had minimal space to move, the badass market is not big and requires focused attention, and the noise that came from the bikes is unique to fuel powered ones – so any changes would chase the sticky customer base away – so they decided to play within the parameters and tried to mimic the patented fuel-powered sound by patenting the electric-powered badass sound, which was apparently overwhelmingly accepted by their loyal current and future client base. “Take needs of the customer into account in your product decisions and designs, likely to resonate well.”
Toothpaste! I think flouride. Can’t swallow it! Great breath! Pasta – mushroom and garlic! So you want to sell me both at the same time – get out of here! So, when looking back it was inevitable that the pasta idea failed.