Category Archives: Innovation

Consumers of Rice Dream rice drink can now prepare their morning cereal faster thanks to a new packaging innovation.

Credit: The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.

The Hain Celestial marketing team is phasing-in a new, easy-to-open screw cap atop its familiar Tetra Pak carton. Offering this consumer benefit continues a trend of making the pour easier, although it’s been quite some time since the last update (pull-off foil strip) was incorporated.

Anyone who’s ever had a pull-strip malfunction, which then required puncturing the seal with sharp or blunt force, will appreciate the new closure.

More good news for shoppers: the new convenience feature appears to have been incorporated within the brand’s existing price structure, as retail pricing is unchanged at present. Continue reading →

A New Zealand company has come up with a new, innovative concept to market a product that’s thousands of years old: the apple.

It’s a combination of agricultural technology and smart marketing.

The Havelock North Fruit Company developed the capability to grow mini apples that are just 1.5 times the size of a golf ball (via cross-breeding selected varieties). Next came packaging inspiration that put five apples into a hand-held , transparent tube. The concept was tied together with an attention-generating brand called Rockit™.

Last week, Google acquired two-year-old start-up Titan Aerospace, apparently outbidding Facebook for the company. What the heck is Google doing?

For starters, Google’s management team hasn’t lost its marbles or fallen down the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole. The Titan purchase is part of a smart, sophisticated business and marketing strategy that has technology as a key enabler. Continue reading →

The KFC team leveraged that point of data, understood the implications from the customer’s perspective, and created a new product format to make on-the-go usage easier and more convenient. It took two years to get it right. Continue reading →

First I tried the international medical companies and even the U.N., but they weren’t the right fit for the product. Then it occurred to me that there’s only one organization that can get a product to any village in the world: Coca-Cola. Dean Kamen in Fortune interview.

Inventor Dean Kamen wanted to bring his water purification system to the people who need it the most in the developing world.

He found that a traditional analysis of product distribution partners did not generate the solution he desired. Only when he turned the challenge on its head and looked at it differently, did the right outcome emerge.

Kamen needed an entity that already operated in the remote geographies he wanted to reach, and he wasn’t deterred that such a company didn’t neatly fit the definition of a small machine distributor.

By broadening the process by which he assessed his options – to think about capabilities instead of company description – Kamen and his team came up with an unlikely answer: soft drinks giant Coca-Cola!

“In a partnership with Coca-Cola, Kamen’s firm DEKA Research and Development will bring Slingshot to communities in need of clean water in rural parts of Latin America and Africa.”

Headline

There are no easy answers to difficult business problems. But sometimes, if you start with the end-game in mind, you might discover a clever, if not crazy, solution.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.