Sometimes, products morph. They’re made for one thing then, suddenly or gradually, used for something entirely different. It’s one thing to refresh or refurbish a brand. But, in these cases, it was the repurposing of a product and a reinventing of the brand. Imagine coming up with a campaign to introduce Heinz Ketchup as a motor oil. One particular product had rather limited success as a surgical antiseptic, a treatment for sweaty feet, a floor cleaner and, we kid you not, as a cure for gonorrhea. The company’s revenues took off once they marketed the product as a mouthwash, the now familiar Listerine. But wait! There’s more.
Pemberton’s French Wine Coca
Dr. John Pemberton (pictured) was injured during the Civil War and became addicted to morphine. He was a trained pharmacist and decided to come up with a cure for that addiction. The result was a drink that contained alcohol and cocoa leaf extract — the stuff cocaine is made from. Not surprisingly, the mix was originally marketed as a tonic that relieves exhaustion. The cocaine related ingredient was taken out in 1903. Today you obviously know it as Coca-Cola!
Burst Your Bubble
Back in the late 50s Marc Chavannes and Alfred Fielding were trying to come up with a textured wallpaper. They sealed two shower curtains together to create it and then tried selling it, unsuccessfully as wallpaper, then greenhouse insulation. IBM came to the rescue in 1959 when they used it to keep their 1401 computer safe in transit. Bubble Wrap was born.
Lemon-Lime-Lithium
It was 1929 when a drink called “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda” was released. It was meant to treat depression and, in fact, contained lithium, hence the “lithiated” in the name. In 1950 the lithium was taken out and today we know it as 7UP. Some say the 7 in the name refers to the atomic weight of lithium. Some say the “UP” is for the better mood it put people in.
Pie in the Sky
Back in the late 19th century a man bought a bakery in Connecticut and turned it into a pie company. After his death, the company continued to thrive, and in the mid-50s reached a peak production of 80,000 pies — per day! The pies came in a plate-shaped tin. Some inventive Ivy Leaguers from Yale discovered a use for the tins once emptied of the pie. They began to hurl them around the campus and as the UFO got close to its intended target, they would yell “Frisbie” as a warning. The man who bought the original bakery was William Russell Frisbie. The spelling was changed to Frisbee for the toy.
Steady as She Goes
This didn’t involve a change of marketing plans, but it did involve a change of purpose. In 1943, Richard James, a naval mechanical engineer, was working on springs to support and stabilize instruments on rough seas. He accidentally knocked a spring over and it “stepped” down, walked, and came to a stop upright. His wife found a word in the dictionary that means sleek and graceful; the Slinky was introduced to the public in 1946.
Water Displacement, 40th Attempt
Originally, it was used to lubricate nuclear missiles during the cold war. A small San Diego based company called Rocket Chemical created the stuff which can be found today in about 80% of American households. The name is an abbreviation for water displacement, 40th attempt.” It’s the WD-40 right there on the shelf in the garage.
If there’s a moral to the story it’s that a change in direction can turn mediocre into magic. 3M once came up with an adhesive that was supposed to be super strong. It wasn’t strong at all. The bond it created was so weak you could easily peel things apart. For ten years they didn’t know what to do with it or how to market it. A change in management changed that.
