Category — New Products

“Flops are a part of business life” and failure can almost certainly be assured in one of three ways, reports the Economist (3/31/12). The first of these three foolproof formulas for failure is to “slaughter a sacred cow. The most spectacular slaughter, of course, was Coca-Cola’s decision to kill off the drink that gave it life” with the introduction of New Coke …Angry Coke-drinkers accused the company of doing the equivalent of redesigning the American flag or blasting Teddy Roosevelt off Mount Rushmore.” Coke quickly re-introduced classic Coke.

The second recipe for sure-fire failure is to “mix oil and water.” This is fairly common in the entertainment business — most recently Disney’s megaflop John Carter, in which a “veteran of the American civil war is somehow transported to Mars.” In the food service sector, “McDonald’s spent $100m launching a burger for upmarket customers, the Arch Deluxe. The snag was: who goes to McDonald’s for upmarket food?” Colgate once introduced “TV dinners; you could eat one and then brush your teeth with Colgate toothpaste.”

The third failure failsafe is simply “a genuinely awful product.” The fire-prone Ford Pinto, for instance (with its gas tank located “behind the rear axle”). However, there are examples of slaughtering sacred cows that succeed (IBM dumping hardware); mixing oil and water (phones with computers); and iffy products (the enduring appeal of Pringles). And failures can be flipped into success (the re-introduction of classic Coke revitalized the brand) — proving, perhaps, that “the surest way to guarantee failure in the long term is to be so paralyzed by the fear of it that you don’t try anything new.”

"I want to change the way people think about garbage," says Tiffany Threadgould of TerraCycle in a New York Times piece by Penelope Green (8/25/11). You may recall TerraCycle as the outfit that takes juice pouches and candy wrappers "and turns them into items like tote bags, portable speakers and pencil cases that are sold at big-box stores like Target and Walmart." Its first product was Worm Poop, "a plant food made from just what you’d think." As Tiffany notes, "There’s no limit on gross here." TerraCycle’s R&D department is currently looking into how to recycle used diapers.

TerraCycle’s brand of upcycling trash "into festive and useful objects ablaze with product names" is indeed "a relatively cheap and feel-good brand extension." But is also only ten percent of the company’s business. Its main activity is what the company’s PR director calls "garbage dealing." This involves collecting "post-consumer waste … harvested by schools and charities" and selling it "to recycling companies, which turn it into plastic pellets that can be made into driveway pavers, Adirondack chairs or building materials." Of course, it’s the upcycling part that has put TerraCycle on the map.

Naturally, this extends to TerraCycle’s own Trenton, New Jersey offices, which Tiffany and her team recently treated to a "trashy redesign." The flooring is "Astroturf discarded from a nearby soccer field. Tables are made from used fire extinguishers and salvaged wood … Vinyl records serve as desk partitions (no respect!)" and the walls are "made from clear plastic bottles." On the wall is a clock made from pregnancy-test kits. "We want to do more interior design projects," says Tiffany. Whatever she does, Tiffany’s "design efforts are marketing tools and propaganda materials that reiterate and amplify a single message: garbage can be fun."

"The best products in the world are the result of problems that people are experiencing," says Ben Kaufman, founder of Quirky dot-com, reports Tim McKeough in the New York Times (8/25/11). Quirky is a "social product development" company, meaning that it solicits new product ideas online, and then brings "the most popular suggestions to life with the help of in-house product designers and an online community." Profits are shared. Ben, 24, says the idea is to give people who are great problem-solvers, but not necessarily designers, the chance to let their concepts "see the light of day."

Examples include a "pivotable power strip" that re-positions outlets to allow for multiple brick-style plugs and a colander/serving bowl that streamlines dirty dishes. Both were born of "simple problems that resulted in brilliant solutions," says Ben. Other Quirky products are a one-handed hanger, and a three-in-one barbecue tool (tongs, fork and a spatula). "It sounds ridiculous," says Ben. "But it actually became a great solution." The quirkiest of the Quirky products could be a toilet brush that conforms "to all the different angles and geometries in your toilet." The design solution required all 60 Quirky employees making clay impressions of the insides of their toilet rims.

Ben says Quirky receives about 100 ideas per day, which are first evaluated by its online community as well as its in-house designers and marketers. Each week, two ideas are selected for further development — "everything from research to industrial design and mechanical engineering to naming the product, to picking colors, materials and finishes," says Ben. This is a collaborative effort by the in-house team and the online community. When the product is finished, it is featured online and production begins as soon as enough orders are received to cover manufacturing costs. Quirky currently has "about 170 products" in its portfolio and will be featured in a Sundance Channel mini-series (link) starting August 30.

New products require behavioral insights and organizational support. by Jim Doucette and Paul Thompson. For many years, 3M has achieved volume and profit growth well above industry norms with its thirty percent rule: Thirty percent of business unit revenue must come from products introduced in the last four years.

Many firms have sought to emulate the 3M model of new-product driven growth. So, why do 75 percent of new products fail to meet $7.5 million in revenue during the first year of availability and less that one half of one percent ever meet a $100 million dollar threshold? Maybe it’s because too many of the new products looked like these … read >>

Growing numbers of parents are looking for ways to teach their babies to learn a second or third language, reports Jenny Anderson in the New York Times (8/19/10). Some are hiring foreign-language babysitters (-: while others are investing in products like Spanish in a Basket . In some cases, it’s because it’s easier to learn foreign languages at a younger age. In others, it’s because the parents have some kind of connection to other languages. It’s also because they think it will make their children smarter, although there’s some debate over that.

"Once you are trilingual, your brain can break down new languages that make it so much easier to learn your fourth, fifth and sixth languages," says Simona D’Souza, whose three kids speak German, Spanish and English. Research does indeed show "that learning a second language makes it easier to learn additional languages." But psychologist Ellen Bialystok says that doesn’t necessarily mean being multilingual makes you smarter. "There are documented cognitive developments," she says, "but whatever smarter means, it isn’t true."

Ellen’s own research finds that multilingual kids "tend to have smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual counterparts," and that they "have to work harder to access the right word in the right language which can slow them down" — if only by milliseconds. But research also shows that "bilingual children do better at complex tasks like isolating information presented in confusing ways," and some believe this flexibility can be helpful in science and math. "We view it as a gift we are giving him," says Nir Liberboim, who "hired a Peruvian nanny to speak only Spanish" with his 18-month-old son.

Mass customization offers irresistible opportunities to re-think brand identity.  By Beth Ann Kaminkow. (more)

In a delicious turn of events, the tanking economy made possible the resurrection of the late, great Polaroid instant camera, reports Eric Felton in the Wall Street Journal (3/26/10). The last plant making Polaroid instant film — outside Amsterdam of all places — was set to be demolished, and its machinery dismantled. But because of the economy, plans to bulldoze the factory and construct a new building were cancelled. And, as fate would have it, Florian Kaps, a Polaroid enthusiast, happened to catch wind of this, um, development, the day before workers were to begin destroying the machinery.

Florian, who had been selling remaining stock of Polaroid film online, managed to delay the destruction for a week while he raised enough funds "to lease the factory, acquire the equipment and get to work." Even though Florian had the equipment, he still didn’t have the requisite chemicals for that very special Polaroid process. However, working with former Polaroid engineers, a new formulation was developed using readily available ingredients and "a sepia-tinted black-and-white film usable in the standard old Polaroid cameras" is now available online, at theimpossibleproject dot-com. Color film is promised this summer.

The remaining question is whether there’s a sufficient market for Polaroid film, which once commanded the instant-pictures category, but fell on hard times with the advent of digital cameras. Still, some people — artists largely — have remained enchanted by "the film’s otherworldly effects and quirky unpredictability." Some hobbyists meanwhile "were hooked on the strange, ethereal lull as the image seeps into existence before one’s eyes." It’s not likely that Polaroid’s revival will put a "dent in the digital juggernaut," but, as Eric Felton notes, it’s a happy moment "when the market increases our choices instead of narrowing them."

Reckitt Benckiser is rocking by rolling out "new technological twists on humdrum household products," reports Paul Sonne in the Wall Street Journal (2/11/10). Among these hits are "dispensers that ward off mosquitoes by releasing solution continuously throughout the night and electronic air fresheners that sense when people are in a room and deliver an extra pump of fragrance." Coming up is Finish QuantuMatic, a dishwashing detergent designed for men, "which requires just one pellet package for 12 washes."

Also in the works is a sensor-activated soap dispenser, the Lysol No Touch Hand Soap System (why didn’t they just call it the iSoap?). As the name would suggest, it "releases a dollop of soap when it senses a hand underneath." As Reckitt ceo Bart Becht explains, "If you ever cut raw chicken in the kitchen you understand immediately why this is beneficial." The device "comes with soap and costs about $9.99 at Walmart … Refills cost about $3.50." It is Reckitt’s "most complicated innovation" to date, but is the result of a relatively simple approach.

Reckitt focuses "on categories that prove less meaningful to bigger players." It also eschews a big research-and-development organization in favor of "an unusually open appeal to product innovators outside the company … in part by operating an open website, called IdeaLink, which advertises specific advancements the company is looking for and allows visitors to submit their proposals." This helps Reckitt move quickly, but also keeps it in touch with "what consumers want … rather than thinking about what would simply be a cool thing."

No truth to the rumor, apparently, that P&G’s Gillette is about to roll out the first ever ten-blade razor, reports Ellen Byron in the Wall Street Journal (2/12/10). "It’s not about the blade count," says Matthew Wohl, general manager of male new products and shave care at Procter & Gamble. "Men tell us their number-one need is comfort … They tell us they want less tug and pull, less irritation." Indeed, on average, "men need to pull through 10,000 to 15,000 beard hairs," and use 150 strokes to do so.

But rather than adding more blades, Gillette "is promising several technological advances" when it introduces its new Fusion ProGlide razor, in both manual and battery-powered versions, this June. These include "blade edges so fine they can only be seen at high magnification, a ‘snow-plow guard’ that prevents hydroplaning and a new ergonomic grip that improves traction." All of this innovation will come at a price, of course — a pack of four of the manual cartridges will run $16.99, and the battery-powered $17.99.

This represents "a 15 percent premium to regular Fusion blades, which already run about twice the average price in the category." The ProGlide has been under development for several years, and has been tested on 30,000 men, including current and former P&G CEOs Robert McDonald and A.G. Lafley. Gillette currently "holds more than three-quarters of the U.S. market for razors and blades," with its Fusion line bringing in "$1 billion worldwide each year." Stew Traub, a Gillette research director, is mum about any future innovations, saying only, "I will never say we won’t add more blades."

M.I.T. researchers have re-invented a bicycle wheel "that captures kinetic energy released when a rider brakes and saves it for when the rider needs a boost," reports Sindya N. Bhanoo in the New York Times (12/15/09). Called the Copenhagen Wheel, the technology consists of "a sleek red hub" that "can be retrofitted to any bike’s rear wheel." It employs "the same technology used by hybrid cars … to harvest otherwise wasted energy when a cyclist brakes or speeds down a hill. With that energy, it charges up a battery inside the wheel’s hub."

The device "includes sensors that track air quality, a meter that logs miles and a GPS unit to track routes. All that data can be sent via Bluetooth to a rider’s smartphone and shared with others." It all sounds very cool, but Steve Hed of Hed Cycling Products, thinks it misses the mark. "Just the basic bike is so hard to beat," says Steve. "The latest thing now are the simple, fixed-gear bikes, so simple and light you can throw them over your shoulder."

William Mitchell, also of M.I.T., is skeptical, too: "Regenerative braking hardware adds mass, complexity and cost, and the energy efficiency gains from it turn out to be surprisingly limited," he says. Michael Lin, one of William’s doctoral students, is working on a plug-in bike, saying his "priority is to create a bike that is a true transportation tool." But Christine Outram, project leader for the Copenhagen Wheel, says the goal is to "get more people on bikes." And even Steve Hed admits that the Copenhagen Wheel could find a niche market among commuters and the elderly. "For my mother it would be perfect," he says.