Product Innovation Does Not Mean Starting From Scratch

Innovation does not mean blowing everything up and rebuilding from zero, but someone forgot to tell a lot of the brands launching new products right now. New format, new ingredients, new packaging, new name, new everything. The result is a customer who is so overwhelmed by what is unfamiliar that they put the product back on the shelf and grab the thing they already know. The competitor with one interesting twist and a familiar format just took that sale.

Victoria Berk built Know Good with a clear philosophy: if the ingredient list is the innovation, keep everything else as familiar as possible. The product is new. The ritual is not. And keeping the ritual familiar is doing more work than most brands realize, because every unfamiliar thing you add is one more thing the customer has to figure out before they will buy.

Her chocolate chip cookie dough comes in a break-and-bake format, pre-scored and ready to roll, because that is what people already know how to use. The ingredients are cleaner and the nutrition profile is better, but breaking off a piece of dough and putting it in the oven works exactly the way people already expect. That detail is the reason a customer who has never heard of Know Good will pick it up and feel comfortable enough to try it.

The product itself is new, so let's try and keep everything else as familiar as possible. It feels kind of risky to be buying something new, but there's the familiarity around it. That is enough comfort for people to hopefully be willing to try. — Victoria Berk, Founder and CEO, Know Good

Consumers carry real risk every time they try something new

Every time a customer picks up a product they have never bought before, they are running a fast and mostly unconscious calculation. Is this worth spending money on? What if it tastes wrong or does not work the way I expect?

That calculation usually ends with the customer reaching for the product they already trust before they ever give yours a chance. Brands that understand this do not try to win on novelty alone. They find the one thing worth changing and build everything else around what the customer already knows.

• A product that introduces only one new thing gives the customer one reason to hesitate and one compelling reason to try.

• A product that introduces five new things gives the customer five reasons to put it back on the shelf.

• A product that keeps everything familiar except the one thing worth changing lowers the barrier to trial without diluting what makes it different.

There are more ways to innovate than most brands realize

Product innovation could just be the delivery is the same but you're getting better ingredients. Or it's the same ingredients but a different format. It doesn't have to be reinventing the wheel. It could just be a wheel that works better and moves faster. — Michael Maher, Founder, Cartology

Fruitist did not invent blueberries. They put them in an on-the-go container and created a consumption occasion that did not exist before.

Smearcase FroCo did not invent cottage cheese. They built a protein ice cream and led with the cottage cheese inside it, and that is the innovation that turned it into something people actively seek out.

In both cases, the ingredient was not new. Fruitist changed the format, Smearcase changed the delivery, and that one change was enough for each.

The brands that win at product innovation are the ones who identify the single most meaningful change they can make, execute it with clarity, and build the rest of the experience around what the customer already understands.