Creative Marketing Approaches: Create a New Twist on Your Old Product

Kentucky Fried Chicken has been around for a long time. The company got its start during the great depression and opened its first franchise restaurant in Utah in 1952. A lot has changed since then. Its original founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, sold his interest in 1964. Along the way, the company recognized emerging health trends and officially changed its name to KFC. It has added spicy chicken, chicken poppers and even chicken bowls to its repertoire. One thing that hasn’t changed is that it still makes fried chicken. The new offerings aren’t really new. They’re a new twist on an old product. 

If a new twist is good enough for Colonel Sanders, it might just work for you, too.

There are several different ways you can put a new spin on things. One way is simply by changing your marketing. Granted, it’s a skin-deep change, but it may mean a lot to your bottom line. It’s no surprise that different people in different marketing segments have different needs. Could someone outside your usual demographic make use of your product or service? Quite possibly. To affect this type of change you need to emphasize different aspects of your offerings. Maybe you have a chocolate bar and you’ve been highlighting its rich and decadent taste to your customers. However your chocolate bar is also made from natural, fair trade ingredients. To expand your business, you can draw attention to this fact and break into a socially and environmentally conscious new market segment. It’s the same chocolate bar, but with a different image. A new twist on an old product. 

Another way to put a different spin on an existing product is to offer a similar product with a variation. Is there a natural outgrowth for your product? A related market you could tap into? Milton Bradley quickly realized that many people were bored during long car trips and introduced travel-sized versions of their classic games. Coke failed miserably with its ‘new Coke’, but has had success in combining their classic taste with fruity new flavor combinations, resulting in Orange Coke, Lime Coke, Grape Coke and the classic Cherry Coke. It’s still the Coke you know and love, but now there are more choices. Customers like choices. 

If you’re looking for ways to expand your product list, why not ask your customers? Their feedback can be invaluable to you. Find out how they’re using your product or service. Very often their answers will suggest an obvious route for you to take.

These days it’s not enough just to have a great product. Even if you market it successfully, it still may not be enough. You have to adapt to a changing market. Some companies have completely restructured their business to make an entirely different product. You often don’t have to go that far. Giving your old product a great new twist may be all you need to stay in the game.