Question: You have read that sometimes an innovative product needs to create a customer. Think about the smartphone when it was first introduced. Did anyone think that a mobile phone was a device to be used for anything but making a phone call? Doubtful, but RIM (Research in Motion) released the Blackberry and thousands of business executives found that there was value in having email at their side at all times. And from the Blackberry the smartphone market was born.
This article: How to Market a Brand New Product discusses this issue at length in the context of the Snuggie and the Romba.
Other ideas include the Nintendo, Whole Foods Market, Taco Bell, Chipotle; all companies that created markets that did not exist before they released their products.
Your Assignment: In 2 - 3 pages, focus on an innovative product that was released to the world and created a market and customer base that did not exist before.
• Why did the product succeed?
OR
• Did the product fail regardless of the excitement of the innovation?