And then I think back to the good old days of my youth when we had cotton clothes, which were washed and blued, and sent off to the corner dhobi for starching and ironing. These shirts and trousers and saris and skirts and even suits of Belgium or French linen were worn crisp and creased just right. Then Dupont scientists discovered synthetic fabric and changed the world. I've graduated into wash and wear, nylon and terylene, terycot and terywool. We needed fewer clothes and fewer visits to the laundry. My uncle, who had a chain of laundries in Mumbai, had to change his line of business.

I think he converted some of them into hair cutting salons. It was much before the banking boom or they might have become branches of banks.

Now it would seem that there could be an improvement on clothes washing machines that remove dirt with ultrasonic waves. Just put the clothes into water and switch on the current. There will be no need to use soap or detergents as we do now. The Japanese need every square foot of floor space in the house since their homes are so small. So the march is on for a flat TV set that can be hung on the wall like a photo frame. And we see the beginnings of the development with the heavy advertising of the Flatron TV from Samsung. This has been quickly followed by their major competitors in India, Philips who even show a TV screen on the ceiling in the TV ads!

Necessity is the mother of invention?
Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no.

Many years ago, I was surprised when nitrate tablets for heart patients were administered sublingually. My concept of drug administration before that was swallowing liquids or tablets/capsules, or taking an injection. But sublingual administration of nitrates was shown to give rapid absorption as well! Then there were tablets that were placed subcutaneously (below the skin) and the medicament was absorbed slowly over one or two months as was intended. A slow release, convenient reservoir of medication, never thought of before!

And now, I read a newspaper report that diabetics can inhale their way to better health. Diabetics are to receive a veritable shot in the arm with Pfizer Inc., the US-based drug multinational, manufacturing powered insulin, which is to be inhaled rather than injected into the system. Pfizer has signed up with Aventis for the purpose and is building a plant in Germany for its manufacture.

The drug and its inhaler, which is in the final stages of clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration, is expected to hit the US market within the next year. Analysts have predicted that the drug, which has blockbuster potential, could reach drugstores by late 2001. The new drug is expected to offer relief for a growing diabetes problem fuelled by an ageing and more obese world population.

Bad breath is a problem with many people. They have to either hold a mirror in front of their mouth, blow and sniff or be told about it by their spouses. Now there is a product called BreathAlert. It lets you know whether your breath has gone sour by measuring volatile sulphur components given off by bacteria in the mouth, a major source of odour. A graphical display registers the presence of no, slight, moderate or strong halitosis.

Such creative, innovative developments are also evident in basic industrial products. In the past, while the advantages of aluminium were generally accepted as non-corrosive, light, non-rusting, totally recoverable and strong, in many applications, it lost out to steel and other metals like tin because of cost. In June 2000, however, Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminium producer, said it was testing smelting technologies that could reduce the price of the light metal by as much as one-third and also make its production environment friendly. Analysts said that the technologies, which would require much less electricity to produce aluminium, could have a far-reaching impact on many industries. Much cheaper aluminium would reduce the demand for steel and glass with which it competes to make auto parts and beverage cans. The smelting changes would also slow the growth in demand for electricity.

Aluminium intensive automobiles, aided by better fuel cell technology, would be closer to widespread adoption. Aluminium could also strengthen its position in beverage containers. This development can change the face of the industrial world! Innovate or perish, this slogan is being taken more seriously than most people imagine.

While reading a very interesting book called What Makes Winning Brands Different by Buchholz and Wordemann from Germany (published by Wiley), my attention was caught by the example they gave of a fruit juice that was losing market share. Market research tells you that your beverage is more watery, sweeter, more artificial and less fruity than 100 per cent juices.

In other words, there is no clear purchase motive. How do you turn this product into a strong, growing brand within just a few months? Where do you even begin to look for a solution? Think about it for a minute.

They then applied their code and placed the brand in a different mental drawer for the customer. Consumers have so far assigned us to the mental drawer of juice and rightfully compared us with 100% fruit juices. Now our job is to place our brand into a different mental drawer, sparking new brand growth. But which one? The most promising candidate is soft drinks! And here are the successful factors:

Acceptance: Will consumers accept the product as a soft drink? Here, the fact that it is not as thick as 100 per cent juices actually strengthens the case.

Potential: Does the new mental drawer offer better growth opportunities than the current market? The answer is yes. Here too the soft drink market is up to 10 times larger than the 100 per cent fruit juice category.

Uniqueness: What will differentiate the brand in the new category and give it a unique edge? Our brand is now less watery, not as sweet, less artificial and contains more fruit juice than other soft drinks.

Conclusion: We have achieved a complete turnaround. The same characteristics that registered as negatives in the initial mental drawer now add up to compelling benefits in our new, larger market.

Buchholz and Wordeman need greater recognition in the English speaking world. They have good ideas and they put them forward in a straight and simple manner. Marketers would do well to adopt much of what they say.

But all that has been said only proves that marketers need to constantly go beyond the boundaries. (Walter Vieira is president, Marketing Advisory Services, Mumbai)