The goal with products is to give people a great story to tell, so they can tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on. Being new is a great advantage on this front. Would you go tell a friend about Pepsi? No, because they’ve been around too long. That’s the advantage of being David in the David and Goliath story.
Eden
on 15 Dec 08Sounds good, and I would tend to agree, however I would argue that people do still tell people about older products like Pepsi.
The Pepsi fan (addict) is telling his friends about Pepsi when he insists on only ordering Pepsi at a restaurant, refuses to drink Coke, and stocks his work fridge with Pepsi and shares it with the office. Maybe this isn’t ‘viral’ but it is at least persistent and, therefore, probably more memorable.
Donovan Myers
on 15 Dec 08That’s exactly why there are always new (weird) flavors of Pepsi, and Doritos, and Oreos. When no one would recommend your base product anymore, you have to start doing new (weird) things to it to re-generate buzz.
Rich
on 15 Dec 08I thought Cherry Vanilla Latte Diet Fat Free Coke was something customers asked for?
Nate
on 15 Dec 08If anyone is getting a headache from reading the wsj version of the Move Over Coke article, it looks like Gwendolyn has reprinted her article on her own website:
http://www.littlechapelontheriver.com/move_over__coke_50059.htm
CJ Curtis
on 15 Dec 08I think the article hits the nail on the head:
“Once-skeptical stores and distributors now credit Glacéau with bringing them the Holy Grail of retail—an entirely new product category to push on consumers, in this case one dubbed enhanced water.”
To me, Vitamin Water tastes the same as any other flavored water. But the name, the packaging and marketing are all brilliant. Even though Pepsi owns Propel, it still has to stand on its own when it comes to consumers. Just because Pepsi owns Pizza Hut, it doesn’t mean that they automatically have an advantage over other pizza brand names.
Chad Garrett
on 15 Dec 08Pepsi doesn’t own Pizza Hut. They sold out to a company that became Yum! Brands – who now own most/all of the restaurants formerly owned by Pepsi. They do apparently still have an agreement to exclusively carry Pepsi products.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum!_Brands
AK
on 16 Dec 08The advantage of being David in the David and Goliath story is either to be good enough at what you do to topple the biggest rivals, or appearing weak so your rivals get too cocky. It’s definitely not about being the fresh thing on the menu.
It sounds great, though!
This discussion is closed.