Crown jewels… een pack of biscuits as a handbag!
Successful products are the crown jewels for a company, but how do you achieve that? Is there still hope for new crown jewels in the future? The definition of a successful product is different for everyone. For me that means quality, without all the fuss around it. Success based on quality? Yes there is hope! It’s not always fair, it’s certainly difficult…
The potential of a successful product, the chance of being labeled ‘crown jewel’, depends on quite a few external factors and obstacles that have to be overcome. First there is the government as very dominant and decisive for the authorization of ingredients, the nutritional values and therefore the decision maker of the recipe?
Then there is the supermarket as ruler of the shelves that determines whether it will even get a chance in the store. Every retailer has such a department of taste police, but do they really look at taste or quality? The decision often stands or falls on the basis of the profit motive and that is a pity. After completing all the questionnaires, winning several prize fights and ultimately scaling up the product that meets all requirements, the real verdict takes place… the consumer.
When a product has the face of a celebrity, a product seems to score immediately. The consumer makes his choice not only on the basis of personal preference, but is also motivated to buy products that the environment expects of them. How important is quality if the consumer is so visually oriented that people buy products because they are instagrammable?
Nowadays, a pack of biscuits should not only be eaten, “no, you also wear it as a handbag!” Or are there still consumers who choose real quality products and who really taste them? Yes, fortunately there are. And I admit, a product can be of very good quality and have a very nice look. That combination therefore seems to be a condition for success.
But because of all this, product development is not made easy for us R&D people. We are seen as a jack-of-all-trades (someone who has more than extraordinary manual skills in all fields). That’s us!
Every day we crack our brains, come up with creative solutions, are very patient, obedient and move along with everything that needs to be changed or adjusted along the way. It has to be, because there are so many requirements that it is almost impossible to develop a high-quality, successful, innovative, within the regulations, without abnormal cost prices and with a beautiful jacket, outstanding crown jewel above ground level.
A successful product, a crown jewel based on quality alone…, it’s not fair, it’s certainly difficult. I don’t blame anyone, everyone has their reasons and there is certainly hope for the future. But I don’t need all that fuss, that handbag is not important to me and certainly not what anyone else thinks of it. Quality is what I’m committed to!
