I began to notice that products were becoming less innovative at
an alarming rate in the mid-1980s. To prove my hunch, several
associates and I developed an Innovation Index to measure whether
each new product shown at trade shows or launched into the
marketplace actually offered consumers a meaningful difference from
existing brands.
To establish a base, we assigned an Innovation Rating to every
product we were aware of that was new from 1980 forward. To qualify
as innovative, a product had to offer consumers a significant new
or added benefit in one of the following five areas: formulation,
positioning, packaging, technology or previously unmet market
need.
According to the Innovation Index we developed, only 18.9
percent of new products in 1986 could be considered innovative.
That was a startling number, even lower than we anticipated. By
1989, however, the percentage had dropped to 13.4 percent. The
following year, it plummeted to 8.4 percent as a national recession
took hold. By 1993, the figure was down to about 5.1 percent,
although it has been inching its way back up and reached 7.2
percent in 1995.
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Here are the five criteria we used, with examples of products
that qualified, and did not qualify, as innovative when measures
were applied:
1. Is the product positioned to new users or usage?
Rembrandt Low-Abrasion Whitening Toothpaste for Kids represented a
new positioning for whitening toothpastes and was therefore
considered innovative. Previously, teeth whiteners had been pitched
to older consumers with yellowing teeth or to smokers.
On the other hand, Topol Smoker's Toothpaste had been out
for five years when Zact Smoker's Toothpaste tried--and
failed--to carve a presence in that market.
2. Does new packaging provide a consumer benefit?
Smucker's Beverage Division introduced a six-ring carrier to
its fruit-based beverages that was made of pressed biodegradable
fibers instead of the plastic found on most multipacks. This
innovation provided an environmental benefit that's important
to many consumers.
In the early 1980s, Colgate-Palmolive introduced a powdered
detergent called Fresh Start that was packaged inside a clear
plastic bottle. Innovative, again. After a while, Stanson
Detergents came out with a box of concentrate that featured a clear
cutout on the front panel through which the consumer could see the
detergent. There was a bottle outline printed on the panel that
carried the slogan "No bottle inside, that's why you
save!" The package looked different from other packages. But
the clear cutout existed solely to position the product against
Fresh Start. There was no perceptible benefit to the consumer.
3. Is value added through a new formulation? Soaps
and shampoos have come in many scents and varieties over the years,
but St. Ives Swiss Formula Vanilla Shampoo was, to my knowledge,
the first toiletries product to use a vanilla scent. Because scent
is so important to the health and beauty aids category, it was
clearly an innovative product.
The cinnamon spice version of Accents Potpourri Glass Cleaner,
however, was little more than a gimmick. The world did not need a
glass cleaner that smelled like a mouthwash. Since no value was
added to the glass cleaner, the product was not innovative.
4. Is there a technological introduction? Salem
Preferred Menthol cigarettes were manufactured using a proprietary
paper technology that purportedly made the odor of a burning
cigarette less offensive to nonsmokers. Although it was a misguided
idea because it addressed the wrong market, it was technologically
innovative.
General Mills' Mrs. Bumby's Potato Chips, however, were
nothing more than a copycat version of Procter & Gamble's
Pringles Potato Chips. Mrs. Bumby's chips came stacked in a
circle around the edge of a resealable "Flavor-Pack Bowl"
instead of being stacked in a canister as Pringles were. The
presentation was the only major difference between the two
products; the production technology was basically the same. It was
not innovative.
5. Does the product open up a new market for the
category? Arizona Iced Tea Freez-A-Pops was probably the first
beverage, and was certainly the first tea, to become a
freeze-and-squeeze ice. It was a clever way to introduce the taste
of tea to kids who, on a hot day, love to squeeze slushy ice
crystals into their mouths. Three Musketeers ice cream bars were
not innovative because other candy bars were in freezer cases
before them.
You don't absolutely have to be innovative to succeed. A
Three Musketeers ice cream bar tastes different than a Snickers
does, after all. But the number-one killer of new products is,
without a doubt, Me-Tooism.
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