4 Case Study Firm’s Background
6.2 Niche Innovator Strategy
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6.2 Niche Innovator Strategy
Niche Innovator Strategy focuses the company’s attention on several different segments of clothing end customers, whose demand is not met yet. The target niche market are senses-impaired people, who can’t perceive the clothing like other people (For instance, visually impaired people, who can’t see the colors of the clothing, or the clothing itself). The strategy is based upon the innovative approaches towards the proposal of new clothing: each sense impaired group of population has its own difficulties with the perception of clothing, like visually impaired people, for example, can’t see the colors of clothes. In its turn, such a niche market, as visually impaired people, can also be subdivided into other niche categories by the type of visual inability. As identified, such subniches constitute large groups of population, which makes them very promising markets.
Beneath, two toolboxes are proposed to identify the niche and subniche markets (on the basis of visually impaired people).
The proposal is based on the idea of five senses of a human body, discrepancies between the existing market and the potential one, and emotional-utilitarian needs.
Humans have five senses, that compensate for each other; if it so happens, and a person loses one of his senses either completely or partially, the human body automatically seeks to make up for its’ loss with the increase in intensity of other senses. For instance, it is well known that deaf people begin seeing better. Here, I take an example of the sense of seeing (sight) and its variations to find new market opportunities. Figure 5 introduces the framework of human senses:
Figure 5. Framework of Human Senses
sight
touch
taste smell
hearing
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dyeing, all the clothing design with different variations of fabric and colors is made for the people who see. But what about those, who don’t see? Here we can try to expand the already existing market from those, who are capable of seeing, to the ones who are not. This is a method of discrepancy- looking for the consumer, opposite in needs to the mass market consumer.The category of seeing can also be divided into three subcategories by the intensity of inability to see: “people, who don’t see because of outside factors”, “people, who can’t see partially because of health problems”, and “people, who don’t see at all”- blind people. This idea is represented in Table 3:
Table 3. Degrees of seeing inability.
Types of seeing inability
people, who don’t see because of the outside factors
people, who can’t see partially because of health or inborn problems
people, who don’t see at all- blind people
T-shirts on children on public beach,
Temperature detecting clothing,
UV level detecting clothing and accessories,
Sweating t-shirts in public places,
Sweating t-shirts at competitions (Olympics)
Staff for color-blind people Braille script clothing,
Clothing with temperature variations,
Clothing with 3D pictures,
Clothing with specific smells
Each of the subcategories contains ideas, which are proposed particularly for the groups of people in each subcategory. The ideas are based on changing the variables of seeing inability, and the two variables, characteristic of the industrial dyeing- dyes and fabrics.
Subcategory 1: people, who don’t see because of the outside factors
1) T-shirts on children on public beach
Here, the idea is that when a family goes out to the beach, the biggest concern of parents is to trace their child, swimming in the sea, and among the crowd of other people. Thus the children
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By applying such a technique to the swimming clothing, we create a utilitarian need satisfaction (for parents) of distinguishing children, and at the same time satisfy the emotional need of children, by creating a new experience of color changes on their swimming clothing. Visually the idea is presented in Figure 6:
Figure 6. Inability to see because of outside factors (beach)
2) Temperature detecting clothing
The idea behind the title is to make the elements of clothing change in color, as the temperature of the clothing changes. Such a technology is known as thermochromism. For instance, it can work very well in hospitals. There are a lot of patients in a lot of wards in the hospital, and it takes tons of time to check their body temperature with a thermometer. So, why not dyeing their hospital gowns with the dyes, that change in color with every change of the body temperature? Thus, a nurse will be able to detect the rising body temperature of any patient at the very instant, when the door to the ward opens.
UV protection Ability to easily distinguish the
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This usage of dyes satisfies both the functional need of the sick patient to be recognized as soon as possible, and the functional need of the nurse to save time on the patients’ check. Visual comparison of products can be found in Figure 7:
Figure 7. Inability to see because of outside factors (hospital)
3) UV level detecting clothing
This idea describes an already existing photochromic dyes technology. This type of dyes reacts to different levels of UV, and is usually applied to optics, such as lenses. It can also be used in the textiles industry.
Thus, that technology perfectly fits Asian countries, where women care much about the UV level in the daytime, and always take UV-protective umbrellas wherever they go. If such umbrellas or any other piece of clothes on the woman change color with the change of the UV degree in the atmosphere at the present moment, it will help the woman figure out, whether she should carry an umbrella, put an anti-UV cream on the face, or not.
Such UV degree detecting dyes have two utilitarian values of controlling the amount of UV contact with the skin, and minimizing (or optimizing) the protection measures during the day, if unnecessary. Considering this idea refer to Figure 8:
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Cleanness Warmth Indication of rising temperature of the
body
Common hospital gown
Our color-changing-with-temperature hospital gown
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Figure 8. Inability to see because of outside factors (UV detection)
4) Sweating t-shirts in public places
Here the same idea of color change is discussed, but from a different angle. The biggest discomfort people suffer, when going out is sweating. Sweat brings two major problems: it smells, and it creates shapeless visible wet spots.
To solve the problem of smelling and sweat wet spots, we can use one of the two variables:
either fabric, or dye.
First, we can change fabric, for instance, of a t-shirt, from traditional one to the bamboo fabric.
Bamboo fabric is 3-4 times more absorbent than cotton- it wicks moisture from skin, so that when a person sweats, the skin doesn’t stay wet, sweat gets absorbed and evaporates quickly. It is also anti-bacterial and anti-fungul, so it stays odor free. So, two benefits in one.
Second, to tackle the wet sweat spots, we can use the dyes, that change the color of clothing, when the fabric gets wet or its temperature rises (as when the body sweats, its temperature rises).
Thus, the whole piece of clothes will change to the color of the wet spot.
To fight the smell, hypothetically, we can use dyes that activate themselves when a person is sweating, and neutralize the smell of sweat or begin radiating a different odor, which is stronger than sweating smell (I haven’t found such a technology, but, theoretically, it can exist).
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Protection from UV Control of UV amount contact with
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comfort. This idea is expressed in Figure 9:Figure 9. Inability to see because of outside factors (smell protection)
5) Sweating t-shirts at competitions (Olympics).
The idea of sweating t-shirt can be extended to other application areas, such as sporting events.
At any major sporting event the sportsmen are strongly prohibited from taking steroids. The problem is that many of them do take steroids, and it is very hard for the sports committee to identify such a fact. The medical tests for steroids identification are very expensive, and at the competitions, even at the Olympic games, not every sportsman is checked for the prohibited steroids, only random samples are taken.
But in the sportswear or underwear, that the athletes put on, can be used special dyes, that change color, if the sweat of the sportsman contains an overly high amount of certain chemical or biological elements, which can indicate a high probability, that the athlete took the prohibited drugs before the competition. When indicated, the athlete is obliged to go through the test for steroids.
Thus, the sampling for steroids at the competition gets more accurate.
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covering the body self-confidence from staying dry and
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Certainly, once produced, such clothing would be of great functional value at all major sporting competitions. This idea is represented in Figure 10:
Figure 10. Inability to see because of outside factors (Olympics)
Subcategory 2: people, who can’t see partially because of health or inborn problems
1) Staff for colorblind people
Colorblind people constitute a large share of population: more than 8% of men, and 0.5% of women are colorblind. These people suffer from inability to distinguish certain colors. There are two types of color-blindness: inability to see red and green colors, and inability to see blue and yellow colors.
Why not helping those people out ? Separate lines of all kinds of dyed fabrics from table cloth to clothing can be created especially for the colorblind. The clothing, for example will be dyed only with the colors, the colorblind distinguish best, and the color-blind people will feel confident, when buying any clothing piece from this particular store, that they won’t be mistaken by choosing the wrong colored jacket or trousers, that won’t fit each other.
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Such a product at the same time will be both of high functional value, by negating the risk of choosing the clothing item of a wrong color, and of high emotional value, by letting the colorblind people feel absolutely confident. This idea is conveyed through Figure 11:
Figure 11. Inability to see because of health or inborn problems (color-blind)
Subcategory 3: people, who don’t see at all- blind people
Now, there are totally blind people, they don’t see anything. How, using dyes and fabrics, should we convey all the impressions of the visible world to them? The answer is: through the rest of five senses, like touch and smell, for example.
1) Braille script clothing
A blind person can’t see any cool signs on his clothes, like “Nike”, “Be cool”, “I love surfing”, and other slogans and motos. So, we can use the Braille alphabet, that the blind can touch, and thus, perceive the same information on his hoodie or t- shirt.
2) Clothing with temperature variations
Every and each color has its own temperature. With certain intensifying elements such temperatures may be stressed (a cold color, like blue, will become colder, and a warm color, like red, will become warmer). Blind people have more sensitive fingers than the others. All said, the
risk of choosing the clothing item of wrong color
self-confidence
Special clothing for the colorblind
Common clothing
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blind will be able to understand the change in color patterns on their clothing, just by touching it with their fingers.
The above mentioned idea is an assumption, basing on theoretical premises.
3) Clothing with 3D pictures
There are special editions of books for blind or half-blind children. The peculiarity of those books is in their page layout. The drawing on the pages are printed in 3D manner with different types of fabric, attached to the pictures, so that the blind children could touch the pictures and understand what is depicted there just by touching the pictures with their fingers. Also, the brighter than usual dyes are applied to the pictures.
Such a technology can be easily transferred to the clothing and other items, that is, for instance, t-shirts for blind people, that have the same 3D pictures with additional attachments of different fabrics, and brighter colors on them.
4) Clothing with specific smells
Also, to create pictures on clothing, the dyes that emit smells when warmed up, can be applied.
Thus, a blind person to understand what is depicted on his shirt, may rub any place on it, and when the temperature increased, the picture of banana rubbed, for example, will begin emitting the smell of banana etc. The blind person will be able to identify any of the objects on the clothing by rubbing or touching them, and smelling.
The four above mentioned technologies may give the completely blind people the functional value of socializing in the society and understanding the latest social trends through clothes, and a large emotional value of feeling uniqueness of each piece of their clothes not through seeing, but through touching and smelling. The aforementioned value curve for the blind is given in Figure 12:
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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Ability to identify logos
and motos
Ability to identify colors
Ability to identify pictures
ability to identify the
essence of pictures (by
smell)
Common clothing clothes for blind people
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7. Balanced Scorecard
To make the strategy expressed through the balanced scorecard, we have to follow the succession: Themes formation → Objectives formation→ Measures formation→ Targets.