Six ways to pivot your product and company

Is your business stuck?

Six ways to pivot and break out of the rut (with real-life examples):      

• New market + Same product
• Same market + New product
• New market + New product
• Enhance existing product + New market
• Better product (compete on the same metrics) + Same market
• Differentiated product (compete on different metrics) + Same market

New market + Same Product:

• Arm & Hammer baking soda: Repositioned the exact same product from a cooking ingredient to a versatile, natural cleaning agent and deodorizer.

Same market + New Product:

• Nestle Nespresso machine and capsules: The company added to its offerings in the coffee portfolio with the Nespresso machine and capsules, joining their existing Nescafe and Dolce Gusto coffee mixes.

New market + New product

• Meta (Facebook): Bought VR hardware company Oculus in 2014 and has since introduced products such as the Quest 2, Quest Pro, Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses and Horizon Worlds.

Enhance existing product + New market

• LEGO Mindstorms: Enhanced the classic building blocks experience by adding in a programmable robotics component. With Mindstorms, LEGO was able to capture material market share in the STEM education market.

Better product (compete on the same metrics) + Same market

• Apple iPhone: On the hardware (not software) front, the iPhone has more or less competed yearly with other phone makers on the same broad metrics (CPU speed, camera quality, battery life and storage capacity)

Differentiated product (compete on different metrics) + Same market

• Bose QuietComfort Earbuds: Same core technology from original over-ear noise cancelling headphone (QC 35) but adapted to earbud form while staying in the same wireless noise-cancelling headphone market