WD 40 – the smart straw
Author: Anton JosephOn August 31 2009 The Australian reported that WD 40 is seeking customer help for new ideas. It is all about making products work smarter. This is not the first time the company has turned to its customers for ideas of innovation. The smart straw was the result of earlier customer input.
The story of WD 40 lubricant (since 1953) and the smart straw is a lesson in modern day innovation. The website of the WD 40 company in San Diego constantly flashes the message:
“The smart straw has taken your old favourite and made it even easier to use “
WD 40 (so many uses …… so little grime), a name so famous the product is in 8 out of 10 households and it is claimed that more people will use it than dental floss. W and D stand for water displacing and was first invented for used to fight gathering rust in the U.S Atlas rockets .
Talking to Peter Day of the BBC Garry Ridge, the CEO of the WD 40 company recalled a great saying by the founder of the company, Jack Barry: “Don’t be a blind dog in a meat house”. If an opportunity pops up spare no effort to plug that need.
The innovation at WD 40 that has been applauded widely was the simple step of attaching the straw permanently to the spray can. Consumers have been complaining about losing the straw when using the spray. In its down position it sprays normally but once locked it delivers the product through the straw. Though simple the attached straw transformed the image of WD 40 worldwide.
One of the striking phenomenon at WD40 is the level of customer participation in product improvement and innovation. In 2000 the company ran a contest searching for 2000 popular uses of WD 40. It received nearly 400,000 entries in the U.S alone and the company web site now contains 2000+ uses. If not for the feedback from its customers where would WD 40 be today?
The Economist in its article “Innovation” dated 27 August 2009 cites Peter Drucker as suggesting areas where companies should look for opportunities to be innovative:
- Unexpected success that is rarely dissected to see how it happened. This could possibly in sales among certain groups of tax agents practising a specific area of the law (superannuation or small business entities)
- Any incongruity between what actually happens and what was expected to happen
- Any inadequacy in a business process that is taken for granted
- A change in industry or market structure that takes everybody by surprise
- Demographic changes
- Changes in perception brought about by changes in the economy
- Changes in awareness caused by new knowledge
Maybe the ‘6 Thinking hats’ of Edward De Bono is a good start at quality innovation.
Tags: Innovation; customer participation, Six Thinking Hats
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September 14th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
What I find interesting about the WD 40 story is why this is the exeption rather than the rule. Why is it that companies find it so difficult to allow their customers the ability to participate in the ‘evolution’ of the product they are purchasing and then listening to that feedback.
As far as they ‘6 thinking hats’ go certainly changes in your market need to be analysed and exploited but is that what the ‘true’ innovators over the years have relied on?
When you look at the ipod, iphone, facebook etc are these not new products which have created a new market of their own. everyone had a phone, CD player and email but these innovations. Granted this has been made possible by new technology and pushed forward by changes in awareness as a result of this new technology but waiting until someone has come up with the idea is often too late.