Four Steps to

Product Innovation

Patrick T. Howley

The Howley Group

The Howley Group, LLC

Four Steps

1. What is your brand?

2. Who is your target?

3. What is your target’s current state?

4. How can you better the life of your target?

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Olay: Skin Beauty

“Love the skin you’re in”

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Starbucks – The Third Place

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Nike – Improve the performance

of serious athletes

Football

Skateboard

Cycling

Hockey Golf

Track & Field Yoga

Cross-Training

Soccer

Running

Baseball

Tennis

Who is your target?

CurrentUser

Non-User, Category

User

Non-Category User

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Size of

Opportunity

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Current Users Increase Consumption

New Occasions

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Current Users Increase Consumption

New Occasions

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Competitor’s UsersColgate wanted Crest Tartar Control users!!!

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Non-Users - McDonalds

Current Users

• Kids – Happy Meals

• Fast Food Adults – Burgers & Fries

Non-Users

• Health Conscious Adults

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Non-users - McDonalds

Early 2003 introduce salads

Lose money on salads!!!

0

20

40

60

2003 2009

Stock Price

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Line Extensions that didn’t work

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Line Extensions that didn’t work

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Line Extensions that didn’t work

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3. What is your target’s current

state?

• Walk in their shoes.

• Question the paradigms.

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Walk in their shoes – 3M

Masking tape was invented when a

3M lab technician (Charles Drew)

observed an auto-body shop

worker struggling.

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Walk in their shoes - Intuit

Intuit noticed that small business

were using their personal financial

software for their business.

QuickBooks has 85% of the

market.

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Walk In Their Shoes – Dutch Boy

Dutch Boy Twist and Pour increased paint sales by 35%.

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Question the Paradigm

Oral Care Customer

Cosmetic Therapeutic

---------------------------------------------Whitening Cavity Protection

Breath Freshening Tartar Control

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Question the Paradigm

Oral Care Customer

Less Involved More Involved

---------------------------------------------Less-----------------------------------------------------------------More Whitening

Less---------------------------------------------------------More Breath Freshening

Less----------------------------------------------------------More Cavity Protection

Less-------------------------------------------------------------More Tartar Control

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4. How can you better the life of

your target?

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-

inch drill. They want a quarter

inch hole.”

Theodore Levitt

The Howley Group, LLC

Generating Ideas

1. Visit New Markets

2. Brainstorming with Experts

3. Look Around at Niche Segments

or Other Categories

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Visit New Markets - Listerine

• Listerine Oral

Care Strips in

Asia 10 years

before introduced

into the US

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Visit New Markets - Starbucks

• Starbucks started in

1971.

• “The third place” idea

based on a trip to

Milan in 1983.

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Visit New Markets – Procter &

Gamble

• Product found in Japanese

convenience store in Jan.

2001.

• Introduced in US in 2003.

• Attitude change from

Not-Invented-Here to

Proudly-Found-Elsewhere.

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Brainstorming with Experts

Don’t ask the average consumer to

tell you what they want in the

future.

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they

would have said a faster horse” Henry Ford

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Look Around

• Apple Crumb• Strawberry• Key Lime• Lemon Meringue• Banana Cream• Chocolate Cream• Pecan

Godiva looks to dessert categories to gain

inspiration for pie-flavored chocolates:

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Look Around

In 2000, a Disney executive went to check out a

“Disney on Ice” show and found himself

surrounded by little girls in princess costumes.

Princess costumes that were

– horrors!- homemade.

Princess Products 2009 sales: $4 billion.

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Look Around

• Avon Sheer Sangria nail polish

• Malin + Goetz rum and mojito candles

• Victoria Secret Appletini Beauty Rush

Lip Gloss

• Demeter White Russian perfume

Products using cocktail hour as inspiration:

Niche Segments – Gluten Free

• 1999 – 1 in 10,000 in the US had celiac

disease. (medical textbook)

• Gluten-free products $6.3 Billion (Spins) and

up 33% since 2009 (Nielsen).

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Niche Segments – Soyfoods

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Niche Segments – Gluten Free

• 1999 – 1 in 10,000 in the US had celiac

disease. (medical textbook)

• Gluten-free products $6.3 Billion (Spins) and

up 33% since 2009 (Nielsen).

The Howley Group, LLC

The Howley Group, LLC

Four Steps to Product Innovation

1. Define your brand.

2. Define your target.

3. Know your target’s current state.

4. Look to better the life of your

target.