The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2015
Philips launched a soup maker in India before checking whether India ate soup
The 2015 appliance heated and blended soup in one cycle, but never became mainstream because it asked consumers to build a new meal habit.
Philips Domestic Appliances India · 2015-04
What happened
Philips launched its automatic Soup Maker in India in April 2015, after the Philips air fryer had succeeded there. The electric kettle-style appliance heated and blended soup in one cycle, making a familiar product category in some markets into a convenient countertop device.
The category never took off. Versuni India Managing Director and CEO Gulbahar Taurani later said the company initially blamed weak marketing, then realised the product asked Indian consumers to change an existing eating habit. Dal, sambar, rasam and kadhi already filled much of the role that soup played elsewhere, while soup was rarely a meal in its own right.
Taurani described the launch as one of his biggest career mistakes in category creation: the company had fallen in love with the product before understanding consumer behaviour. The product was not merely asking people to buy an appliance; it was asking them to reorganise a meal around it.
Why it happened
- Philips treated the air fryer's success as evidence that another appliance category would transfer to India.
- The product asked consumers to create a new soup habit instead of improving a routine they already had.
- The launch was evaluated as a marketing problem before the company tested whether the underlying behaviour existed.
- The reward for changing the meal routine was not large enough to justify the extra appliance.
The lesson
Before building a category, test whether the behaviour already exists. A product that requires a new routine must offer a reward large enough to pay customers for changing it.
Sources
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