Different Market for the Same Product - marketing innovation contest

5th World Innompic Games (online): Contests

Different Market for the Same Product

Innompic Games entrepreneurial creativity contests all-win constructive competitioninnovation creation show

This contest helps develop outside-the-box intelligence, entrepreneurial creativity, soft innovation, street-smart innovation, diversification strategies, and creative marketing skills.

Creative Challenge

Half-Page Essay

Take any well-known product, find a new − quite different − application of it and design a marketing strategy for this new application.

An easy-to-make modification of the original product is welcome.

Historic Examples

Jacuzzi

The Jacuzzi brothers invented a whirlpool bath to treat people with arthritis. Although the product worked, it didn't sell well. Too few people in the target market, sufferers from arthritis, could afford the expensive bath.

The Jacuzzi re-launched the same product for a different market – as a luxury item for the wealthy. It became a big success.

Washing Machine

Whirlpool washing machines were selling unexpectedly well in India. The company studied the market and discovered that many families used their washing machine for stirring curd and making buttermilk! The reason was simple: washing machines were cheaper than stirrers and more suitable.

Car Assembly Line

Henry Ford saw an assembly line in a meat packing factory and implemented it in his car assembly plant.

McDonalds

Ray Kroc copied the idea of the assembly line from car factories and applied it to his MacDonalds restaurant chain.

Roll-On Deodorant

Helen Barnett Diserens, a designer, copied the idea of the ballpoint pen to create a new roll-on underarm deodorant.

Eraser as a Doorstop

A quick fix for a widespread problem

Cheapest Anti Door Slam Product

Door slamming is a widespread problem. How to prevent doors from slamming in the wind? This street-smart innovation provides a quick fix for this problem faced by people who prefer to keep their windows open.

I bought an eraser in a nearby grocery shop and cut into two triangular erasers.

different market for the same product - Triangular eraser as a doorstop - a quick fix for a widespread problem by Vadim Kotelnikov

Now I can slide a triangular eraser underneath the door to prevent it from slamming.

Triangular eraser is 40 times cheaper than a standard doorstop. Besides, erasers are much easier to find than doorstops.

Extra benefit: a door can be fixed in a desired position (e.g. if one wants a little bit of wind, not all of it)

Well-selling Product

This story happened in a sea-side town where people prefer to keep their doors open. Doors slam shut frequently from drafts coming in through open windows.

I told the owner of the grocery shop about my simple invention that opens a different market for erasers.

The grocery shop sold 100+ more erasers in 3 days having started marketing them as an anti door slamming product.

Outside-the-box simple diversification and creative marketing ideas can bring big − sometimes huge − returns.

Vadim Kotelnikov

Founder