The definition for an innovative product has to be creative, but I believe something that is creative is not always innovative. The Freestyle Fountain is the first – an innovative product capturing creativity in design and function. Why do I believe this? Because first, it just looks appealing. It’s contemporary, sleek, and modern. The white swirls that go around each fountain capture the Coca-cola feeling. The functions are many. Have you ever noticed the difference in taste between opening your own can of coke versus getting it at a fountain drink? The carbonation and flavor is much stronger in a personal can. This new machine mixes the drink ingredients in cartridges inside the machine as a consumer presses on a drink he/she wants. The taste is fresher. It also has a wireless device that detects the drink bought, time it was bought, location, etc. This information is sent directly to headquarters! The researchers at Coca-cola can figure out exactly how much of what drink is consumed in what segment of the market. They can also figure out the popularity of each drink. This helps marketing and sales strategize for maximum profit. It’s INGENIOUS. In the article, “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” they said “experiments will become far more pervasive and persuasive as information technology improves and testing grows faster and cheaper.” The keyword here is PERSUASIVE. The accuracy of quantitative marketing is catching so much detail that you cannot deny the statistics. Companies can use these numbers to persuade the public to believe what they want them to believe. Also, now that data can be collected quickly, the article said that something collected at the beginning of the day could be a full-blown experiment by the end of the day. With new experiments constantly running at a much faster and cheaper rate, I believe innovative products and services will spring up faster than ever before. Another great function with the Freestyle Fountain is that you can choose up to 120 flavors of everything including teas, juices, water, etc. LASTLY, because the machine creates the drinks through the inside cartridges, it could potentially bring clean water to impoverished areas without having to send millions of liquid bottles worldwide. I personally love this product because it takes marketing research to a whole new level, while having future capabilities of helping impoverished nations with clean water. Dean’s innovation is unselfish. He always has the less fortunate in mind. For someone who goes to church regularly and strongly believe in helping others, I very much support this product. If in the future this machine can be sent to hundreds of poor nations, we could save tons of money and effort from digging wells for clean water. They can just plug in their Freestyle Fountain, and clean water is CREATED!
