Products made successful by repurposing strategy
Credit to Author: REY ELBO| Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:36:54 +0000
ONCE a product has reached its full sales potentials, it can go to a slow decline caused primarily by a much better competitor that offers the best quality, sells at low cost and delivers on time and in style. What would you do if your flagship product or service starts losing its sales revenue power?
There are many answers. For one, we can learn from the case of a Taiwanese pharmaceutical company that produced a pill that promised young mothers more breast milk for their babies. “At first, sales were outstanding,” writes leading Sinologist Harro von Senger in “The 36 Stratagems for Business” (2004).
Professor von Senger, a Swiss academic and one of the most-read researchers on China-related studies says the pill was a huge success until “living conditions (of Taiwanese mothers) improved, (and they) found that they had quite enough milk without the pill, and improved education enabled more mothers to use powdered milk instead. Sales of the pill stagnated and even threatened to dry up. Thereupon, the pharmaceutical company imbued its pill, which was already dead, with a new ‘soul’”
“It claimed that the same pill would help women develop ample well-formed breasts. Thus, where the pill had previously appealed only to young mothers, it now enthused all the young ladies of Taiwan. Therefore, without changing the pill at all, the pharmaceutical company had rescued it from commercial failure.”
From a mother’s milk to her ample-size breasts. How do businessmen duplicate this strategy if a product has lost its relevance to its intended customers?
Let’s review our business history to tell us how some famous products were developed successfully after a series of failures. How many were repurposed for other uses like the 3M Post-It Notes which came about as a result of a wrong experiment? Instead of creating a super glue, its scientist, Dr. Spencer Silver, mistakenly came up with a “low-tack” reusable adhesive that leaves no residue.
In terms of failed experiments, no one could beat the oft-repeated case of Thomas Edison, known for his positive attitude about his 10,000 unsuccessful tests that led to his discovery of the incandescent electric light bulb. Edison was an exemplar for perseverance when he took it positively and said: “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Another case worth mentioning is WD-40, a brand name for “Water Displacement.” Its manufacturer was lucky not to have waited for its 10,000 experiments. The result represents the 40th experiment by Rocket Chemical Company to create an all-around degreaser and rust protection solvent for the aerospace industry.
Today, the product is being used in many factories and households. Can you imagine if the company stopped the experiment after its 39th attempt?
But what’s remarkable is the fact that many successful products today are results of failed experiments, sometimes called “repurposed” experiments. Engineers Marc Chavannes and Al Fielding, in their desire to create a new type of trendy wallpaper, came up with what’s known today as bubble wrap. Instead of declaring it a total failure, the bubble wrap was marketed as a building and housing insulation, until IBM used it as safe packaging material for its computer for delivery to customers.
Now, what makes scientists, inventors and successful entrepreneurs proceed with their failed creations, no matter how hard they tried? What is pushing them to persevere? There’s not one single reason. But let me hazard a guess: Many of these scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs have a reputation to protect. Many of them want to conquer many things. There’s no such thing as Plan B at least in their minds. If there’s Plan B, it must be called Plan A for a different purpose or product.
Very recently in 2018, there’s one experimental cancer drug that has been repurposed as potential cure for Parkinson’s disease. “Researchers at Oxford University have managed to give second life to an experimental cancer drug known as tasquinimod, which has now shown promise in preventing Parkinson’s,” according to a report by Michael Irving in New Atlas.
“Tasquinimod emerged as a promising drug in fighting solid tumors, with most research focusing on using it to treat prostate cancer. The drug made it through to phase three clinical trials, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to extend overall survival rates in patients, and after those disappointing results development was discontinued for prostate cancer treatment,” the report said.
“But the work wasn’t for nothing – the clinical trials so far have shown that tasquinimod is well tolerated by the body, and it could still potentially help treat other illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease,” it added.
But that’s not all. The so-called infamous “little blue pill” known for its brand name Viagra was first intended to treat hypertension and angina, until it became apparent in clinical trials that it also induced penile erection.
What did we learn out of these repurposed experiments? Failure in one is success in another. And if there’s one idea that we could learn from Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln, it’s none other than this principle: “Success is going from failure to failure without losing one’s enthusiasm.”
Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management as a fused specialty. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.consulting
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