Enabling innovation: Lessons from Crystal Pepsi
From sparkling milk to vitamin-enriched coffee, customers are resistant to anything out of the ordinary. In this crossposting from The Conversation, marketing professor Kyle Murray considers the lesson’s learned from Crystal Pepsi’s similarly epic fail.
We tend to think that innovation is driven by new discoveries or advances in technology. Yet the problem with new products is often not an engineering challenge, but a psychological one.
In fact, it seems to be much easier to develop a new product than it is to find people who are willing to buy it. In the consumer packaged-goods business alone, approximately 33,000 new products are introduced every month (Mintel Global New Products Database). Too many of them fail.
Crystal Pepsi is a classic example.
Almost 25 years ago, Pepsi introduced a new clear cola, believing it would quickly grow to be a billion-dollar brand. They named it Crystal Pepsi because it was bottled without the dye that gives standard Pepsi its caramel hue.
