Brand innovation—which is all about creating new products—often fails. That’s a blunt, bold statement made by Tim Sutton of Branding Strategy Insider.
In a recent article, “Brand Innovation: Why So Many Projects Fail,” he gets right to the point about why this happens.
The teams behind new products know what they’re doing and yet they typically do not check out the new. In fact, Mr. Sutton has asked audiences “How many of you have intentionally and mindfully tried something new in the last month? This week? Today?” the typical response is that professional innovators try out something new maybe once or twice a month. Hmmm.
What else is at the root of brand innovation failure?
- Products are proliferating like crazy, but—and this is the broader issue—there is not enough “novelty capital” to support all the products being launched.
- The number of products is increasing faster than the U.S. GDP; money available to spend on new products is “more hotly contested than ever.”
- Innovators are optimistic by nature, and yet markets are distinctly unwelcoming to innovation.
- Companies may spend thousands of hours developing a product, but consumers give it an astonishing 5 seconds of attention.
The monumental gap between a company’s efforts and consumer response is critical. As Mr. Sutton puts it, “ … even the best innovators are chronic (if not reckless) overestimators. We rarely appreciate the difference between what we see in thousands of hours and what consumers see in 5 seconds.”
Addressing potential failure requires companies to stress test innovation products “early and often,” systematically identifying the positive bias that keeps the process moving forward when it shouldn’t. Successful innovators ask themselves how they can make a product’s value immediately obvious, which products their offering will replace, what consumer problem they’re solving. This approach helps prevent them from deferring the harder questions to a point at which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to make changes. This reminds me of economist Kenneth Boulding’s sacrifice trap, a theory articulated during the Vietnam War. In a nutshell, he noted that after decision makers have made a huge investment of time and resources, it is impossible to withdraw.
I know that many of us have a mental list, probably half-forgotten, of products that we shook our heads over when they were introduced. I think of the American Motors Gremlin, dubbed one of the world’s “15 ugliest cars.” What comes to mind for you?
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