Blog Six: Is That New?

Companies oftentimes place the primary focus of their marketing strategy on products, services, and ideas that are "new." But what exactly makes something "new?"

The problem here is in the term "new" itself. If you've just come out from living under a rock for the past 10 years you may think a basic cell phone is a new technology, however, smartphones are wildly popular in today's society.

We can then realize that there are several different viewpoints of the word "new" as it pertains to marketing- new as it relates to existing products, new in legal terms, new from a company's perspective, and new in the eyes of the consumer.

Products that contain different features, whether new or improved, as existing products are considered new. As Apple is now on its 6th version of the iPhone, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ are considered to be new products as they contain different features (better camera's, different shapes and sizes, larger screens) than their predecessors.

As far as in the eyes of the law, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) classifies products with the term new for its first six months of regular distribution. On September 19, 2014 Apple released its iPhone 6. As long as Apple does not release a new model of the iPhone within six months, this product will be classified as new until March 19, 2015.

New products from an organizational standpoint are assessed based on risk into 3 main categories; product line extensions, jumps in innovation or technology and brand extensions, and  true innovation. Product line extensions require the least amount of risk for a company and include improving a line of a product that the company already sells, such as Coke producing Coke Life, a healthier and more natural soda, in addition to its Diet Coke and Coke Zero products.

jumps in innovation or technology occur on a pretty regular basis in today's technologically driven society. An example of this is each time a cell phone company comes out with a new smartphone. Meanwhile at this same risk level, Brand extensions occur when an established brand enters a new product market. In "sticking" with Coke (Bad pun) an example of this is producing merchandise with the Coke Logo on it such as tee shirts and baseball caps.

Coke Merchandise 

True innovation involves a radical invention and a completely new product idea. This occurred when Apple introduced their iPad, combining features of their computers with features of their iPhones, a game-changing invention. 

Products can also be defined as new based on their methods of consumption. In this way, consumers classify new products based on the degree of learning that is involved. 

In continuous innovation consumers do not need to acquire any new methods of use in order to utilize the product. We see this in everyday products such as toothpaste where companies can add qualities such as whitening benefits or breath enhancers to the product without changing its terms of use.

Colgate toothpaste is still used in the same way, it just has added benefits to help increase its demand.

In dynamically continuous innovation consumers change minor habits of product use, while the product itself does not change. Products that have gone through dynamically continuous innovation oftentimes have undergone slight changes in their logo or in their packaging. The marketing strategy here is to exploit the benefits of the product through its use.

In sticking with the toothpaste example from continuous innovation; for years I had been using this specific flavor of Crest toothpaste which came a stand up bottle which I found convenient to place on the counter. One day I went to the store to buy more and I noticed it now came in a tube. At first I did not see the need to change its packaging- and was a little worried at how I'd store my toothpaste in its new container, but after using it I realized that the tube is a way more effective medium for toothpaste as consumers can "squeeze" more out of the product, while companies have a box that they can place additional marketing features on, a dynamically continuous innovation. 

In discontinuous innovation consumers must learn completely new methods of using the product. If you've bought a computer that uses the Microsoft system anytime since October 26, 2012 you'll notice that the new Windows operating system, Windows 8, is now installed in that device. This system looks, and works entirely different than that of its predecessor, Windows 7. With this, consumers have to adapt to learning how to navigate through this new system. 

The new look of the Windows operating system, Windows 8

So the next time a friend, family member, coworker, or stranger asks you if your shoes, cell phone, or cookies that you're eating are new, think twice about your answer!