When it comes to innovation, businesses have a strong bias for the new. The idea of creating a fresh new product, the prospect of increasing market share with brand new offerings, or the vision of disrupting some slow-moving incumbent with a radical new technology – these have an inherently strong appeal for companies keen for growth. What’s more, legacy products seem to be at a natural disadvantage. Company leaders and product managers worry that these core products have been around for years and may not be able to deliver much more. How will they perform well enough for us to meet our targets?
How Gatorade Invented New Products by Revisiting Old Ones
Innovation isn’t just about discovering shiny, brand-new offerings. It’s about innovating around core products to breathe new life into old offerings. Consider the example of Gatorade, which was struggling in 2008. They first tried offering new flavors of their sports recovery drinks through new channels, but it wasn’t enough to reverse declining sales. They eventually found a better approach: cutting back the number of flavors and versions of their core beverage, while offering athletes additional ”performance” foods, such as energy chews and protein shakes. This is neither a “clean sheet” approach to innovation nor as simple as “diversification.” It focuses on innovating around an existing product for an existing customer segment in a way that makes that product more appealing and valuable.