While more than half the new products launched into the market fail, many more would succeed if they didn’t try to fight existing customer habits. Business research conducted by a team from the University of Southern California clearly shows that new products that fill in a gap or add to the choices of existing habits tend to do much better than those that are completely new. An example could be made between tofu and soya milk. The former started getting made in the US in 1878, a more than a century before the latter was first prepared. Yet, sales of tofu gained very slowly while soya milk grew quickly mainly due to the fact that it could be used as a milk substitute, a positioning that tofu never had. Customer habits are the final frontier, and marketers must position their brands as extensions of existing ones, even if they are from rivals’ stables. Their former foe would now be their ally.

Source:https://knowledge.insead.edu/marketing/marketers-should-leverage-not-fight-consumer-habits-7411

Uploaded Date:21 October 2017