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A Little Innovation Story

Markus Giesler, @shapingmarkets

First Battle(2002-2004)

Early adspromoting

Botox Cosmetic as a hedonic pleasure…

…spark a new trend called Botox parties

…but also negative stories about a deadly poison.

Second Battle(2004-2006)

To combat the poison image, Allergan repositions Botox as

a miracle of medicine…

Hollywood actress Virginia Madsen and her mother Elaine

explain this to the public.

However, Botox's "cold"

medicine image opens up a new can of worms:

the frozen face...

…blaming Botox for killing emotions.

Third Battle(2005-2007)

To combat the frozen face image, Allergan repositions Botox again.

This time as an expression enabler…

...as in your "stubborn eleven" shouldn't stand in the way of your

"perfect ten"

Yet, the idea of using technology to bring out human emotions sparks a new fear: the Botox Frankenstein...

Tempering with human nature will bring you blood, sweat, and tears…

This is a caricature of Nicole Kidman exemplifying this popular sentiment

Fourth Battle(2007-2008)

Once again, Allergan has to shift gears. To combat the Frankenstein image, the company repositions

Botox as a performance booster…

For "mother and critical care nurse Angela," for instance, Botox is not a Frankendrug…

…it allows her to go “right back to work!”

But isn't someone who needs Botox to operate effectively a “Botox junkie”?

Fifth Battle(2008-2010)

To combat the negative junkie image, Allergan has to reposition Botox (and its users) yet again…

Botox is like voting, a weapon of liberation...

Today, after many brand image battles, Botox is more widely accepted

than in 2002.

But it is not entirely beyond dispute…

No innovation ever is.

Not even this one…

…or this one.

Why is that?

Because path-breaking innovationsare never created in the lab…

…they are created in society.

Innovator

ActivistsJournalists

Celebrities

BloggersCompetitors

Consumers

Scientists

And they are sustained through the stories we share.

Please share this one :)

This story is based on a scholarly article about market creation by Markus Gieslerforthcoming in the Journal of Marketing.

It can be downloaded here.