Have you noticed that sometime over the past 10 years - the entire hand-washing experience has gone through a technology driven revolution? Where there used to be a simple bar of white soap sitting beside the sink, sometimes scented, sometimes shaped like a seashell, there is now a hands-free, infra-red actuated pump that dispenses an anti-bacterial goo, which is available in a full suite of designer colors? Step back and think about how amazing that is, and how it came to happen. The "job" of the product hasn't changed - the soap is still there to clean your hands. But everything else about the product is different, including the delivery mechanism. It is a transition that created new opportunities in a market that was surely defined as mature and priced as a commodity. Is there a soap visionary out there who saw it all coming and had a road-map that led to electronic dispensers in every home? Or was it just the fascinating market system at work? In this case it was more likely the result of multiple innovators chipping away at niche markets until an external event like the H1N1 virus came along and changed the game. As we often say, success is not the result of a perfect business plan or an unbeatable IP strategy. Success sits at the intersection of preparation and opportunity, and although you may have little control of when (or if) opportunity will show up, you can certainly be prepared to take advantage when it comes knocking on your door.
Just something to consider next time someone tells you that your market is mature and that there is no room left for differentiation.
