A story about a company, a protein, and a society

1. A Little Innovation Story
about
Markus Giesler, @shapingmarkets

2. First Battle
(2002-2004)

3. Early ads
promoting
Botox Cosmetic
as a hedonic
pleasure…

4. …spark a new trend called
Botox parties

5. …but also negative stories
about a deadly poison.

6. Second Battle
(2004-2006)

7. To combat the poison image,
Allergan repositions Botox as
a miracle of medicine…

8. Hollywood actress Virginia
Madsen and her mother Elaine
explain this to the public.

9. However,
Botox's "cold"
medicine image
opens up a new
can of worms:
the frozen face...

10. …blaming Botox for
killing emotions.

11. Third Battle
(2005-2007)

12. To combat the frozen face image,
Allergan repositions Botox again.
This time as an expression enabler…

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

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

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

16. This is a caricature of Nicole Kidman
exemplifying this popular sentiment

17. Fourth Battle
(2007-2008)

18. Once again, Allergan has to shift
gears. To combat the Frankenstein
image, the company repositions
Botox as a performance booster…

19. For "mother and critical care nurse Angela,"
for instance, Botox is not a Frankendrug…
…it allows her to go “right back to work!”

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

21. Fifth Battle
(2008-2010)

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

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

24. Today, after many brand
image battles, Botox is
more widely accepted
than in 2002.

25. But it is not entirely beyond dispute…

26. No innovation ever is.

27. Not even this one…

28. …or this one.

29. Why is that?

30. Because path-breaking innovations
are never created in the lab…

31. …they are created in society.
Innovator
Bloggers
Competitors
Journalists Activists
Consumers Celebrities
Scientists

32. And they are sustained
through the stories we share.

33. Please share this one :)

34. This story is based on a scholarly article
about market creation by Markus Giesler
forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing.
It can be downloaded here.