Work Space - 2 : Product Innovation as Positioning Strategy

Do you recall coming across any recent amazing product innovation that made you wonder what mindset went behind the idea/curation of product.

A time where market shifts fast, an excellent product positioning is important even for very good products from being lost in the sea of consumerism. Product positioning means to effectively convey what problem the product solves, and why users would need or associate with it.

A good product positioning makes even already known ideas create buzz. As an example, the idea of circular clothing, where old worn out pieces of textiles are transformed into new clothes. It's a well known idea that brands like GOAT and 4kinship used and positioned their products as eco sustainable to get a hold in upcycled clothing fashion market. Communicating effectively and precisely to your target audience about value that the product is delivering, is an art. A product that had had, plenty of research, with multiple personas, behind it's designing and prototyping, helps bring out the distinctive features or the competitive edge. How user perceives the product is answered well when the product mission, vision, reason/value and benefits align. Else, in lack of this alignment it results in a poorly positioned product.

An innovative product speaks for itself and need not, marketing teams to rack heads for marketing campaigns. The product itself answers the questions of - why need it, why buy it. Innovation is an excellent product positioning strategy that serves the following purposes:

Foraying into new customer segments
Improving the quality of product
Reviving a dying growth curve
Technological enhancements
Expansion of product use cases, to create and acquire new segments

We will see some of these in application, through examples listed below.

As I mentioned foremost, here's a list of some of the recent product innovations in months gone by that amazed me :

Ogilvy Colombia Filter Caps

Ogilvy Colombia an organization working on the ideas of sustainable development, launched a water filtering product that is revolutionary. Filter cap is a unique water filter solution, in just 6 x 4 cm and 24g weight it provides a water filtering solution in Colombia where drinking water was becoming scarce essential for the poor. It's made up of layers of metals, minerals, and natural substrates that trap bacteria and impurities, finishing with a layer that mineralises the water. It employs 3D printing and is made up of completely biodegradable substance.

What Ogilvy Colombia did smart here was to research the target users and region, a place that is naturally rich in many ways, and using the locally available resources, it came up with a solution that's easy to use and affordable. Thus positioning the product with unique features and advantage, not to forget the amazing innovation it is.

Apple Vision Pro

Though there were many entrants already into the Virtual Reality application market segment, still Apple Vision Pro made it's mark and most definitely brought in something new in market place. About product in brief, it's a AR/VR digital content interaction wearable. To remind that Google Glass was pioneering product in this category years back, that had tragically failed. Apple has been known for it's innovation and quality of product, but with Vision pro it positioned it as not the usual Gamer accessory product, rather messaging was clear to highlight it's usability in everyday life. It positioned the product as an entrant into "Spatial computing" and claimed that it alone had more than 5000 patents filed for the product.

The effective positioning strategy of unique features providing competitive edge for the product helps the brand justify it's pricing for a market segment that's purely non essential.

Allbirds Zero Carbon Sneakers

Allbirds a New Zealand based firm has been known for it's eco friendly shoes and clothing. Firm created a zero carbon emission shoe named M0.0NSHOT that has been the result of it's years of research and improvements per prototype. The product boasts of a zero carbon manufacturing and zero carbon material. It's sole is a bioplastic that's completely biodegradable. Seeing how shoes are both an essential and fashion accessory it's design is something unique as well. In the words of the lead designer the messaging or positioning is made clear as shoe of the future.

“We didn’t just make the world’s first net-zero carbon shoe. We also made the second, third, and fourth net-zero carbon shoe, and so on, as we explored different prototypes to create an appropriate visual identity for this milestone, As we thought about this ‘shoe of the future,’ we were clear that M0.0NSHOT couldn’t look like something from the past. We’ve not just reimagined the science of a sustainable shoe, we’ve reimagined the design, too.”

Samsung Music Frame

With the tagline of "Frame your Rhythm", this product innovation is more of an idea based innovation. Samsung has had this concept of offering televisions in better design styles and Music Frame is an extension of that idea, only that it's completely transformative and meaningful. The dual purpose of speaker as picture frame is a concept that attracts new customer segments, it's a tap into the home décor segment as well.

Samsung has adopted a differentiation strategy and well positioned this product, conveying it as an innovation that serves both needs of a consumer, visual aesthetics as well as the functional need. Seamlessly integrating into one's living space it has added new use cases into it's basket.

Cabinet Health : The Sustainable Pharmacy

Cabinet Health, a firm founded in 2017 is on a mission to make pharmaceutical industry free of single use plastics and make it more sustainable. Aligning with it's mission it launched a packaging system where medicine bottles are reusable stackable glass bottles, that can be reused and recycled. This refillable medicine bottles and compostable refill pouches with 13 filed patents has so far generated 35 million dollars revenue . Pharmaceutical packaging industry is valued at more than 100 billion dollars and this innovative product from Cabinet Health, most definitely redefines parameters in pharmaceutical packaging. It's economically scalable solution has the potential to meet the demands of sustainable packaging in pharma industry. Thus, positioning this product as a game changer in pharmaceutical packaging industry.

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