Product Changes Can Backfire — How Tweaks Risk Losing Customers and Revenue It's important to continuously innovate your products, especially since competitors are always trying to catch up. However, there are times when you have a best-selling "staple" product that is already perfect as it is. In such cases, making changes to it can do more harm than good.

Why do consumer products companies feel compelled to change products that consumers have been happily using for decades just the way they are? Didn't they learn the lessons from New Coke being introduced in 1985, only to be met with the backlash from all the die-hard fans of Original Coke that had been around since 1892?

Yes, I see the desire to constantly be innovating. But, consumer product "staples" are a little different than a piece of technology like an iPhone that requires new bells and whistles to be added each year to break out from the sea of competitors that are chasing them.

For example, we have all been eating Heinz Ketchup in its same form since it was introduced in 1876, with no reason to seek an alternative because the original works perfectly fine, just the way it is. But Gillette and Schick's men's care brands obviously didn't read that memo, as you will see in the case study below.

Related: How to Adapt When Your Business Stagnates

A case study

For many of my younger adult years, I was a loyal user of Gillette's shaving gel. One year, they decided to change the fragrance of that product from what I would describe as "fresh" to "musky." I tried all the other Gillette shaving gel variations to see if I could find the original "fresh" fragrance with no luck.

I even called Gillette to ask what happened to the original fragrance, which I was told had been discontinued. I had no choice but to try Schick's shaving gel product to find a "fresher" scent, which I did with their original Edge brand, which had been around, unchanged, since the 1970s.

I then became a loyal customer of Schick and used their Edge brand product for years. But then, guess what happened: out of the blue, Schick changed their product. The new product had a different "musky" scent, and worse yet, the gel did not come out of the can as a gel; it came out as a liquid that was hard to apply to your face. I called Schick to tell them about my experience with the new Edge formula, and all they thought to do was send me a $10 coupon for other Schick products, which I had no interest in buying.

Related: How to Evolve Your Core Product

So, you can guess what I did: I went back to sampling other shaving gels, including giving Gillette a second chance. Lucky for me, Gillette had returned to its original fragrance, and I was right back to where I had started, as a loyal customer of Gillette again.

Here are some of the key lessons from this story:

How much revenue are you going to lose from a product change?

I am sure the product managers at Gillette and Schick thought they were doing something good to improve their business, especially as the new employees on the team were looking to make a name for themselves. But how much revenue did Gillette end up losing by making a fragrance change to their core product?

I am guessing a lot, as they ultimately brought back their original fragrance after the fact. But I, as the user, wouldn't have known that until Schick tinkered with their formula and had me "looking for the exit."

Now, I can only guess how much revenue Schick will lose with this change based on all the negative customer reviews being shared on social media. But I will never know if they fixed their problem as Gillette did because I am now happy with the Gillette product and am not in the market to return to Schick (unless Gillette screws up again).

Related: Don't Change Your Brand Name — Unless You Really Have To

Always innovating may be the wrong strategy

If you have a great "staple" product that is a best-selling sales leader in the market, don't always feel the need to change. Sometimes, it is perfectly good just the way it is. Just ask Coke, Heinz Ketchup, Oreo Cookies, Welch's Grape Juice, Ticonderoga Pencils and many other consumer "staples" that are perfect in their current form.

Heinz once tried to switch to a purple color from their red color to attract more kids, but it failed miserably; they ended up retreating back to their basic red color. Imagine if Oreo used a strawberry-flavored cookie instead of chocolate, Welch's switched grape varieties from dark to light, or Ticonderoga took the erasers off the top of their pencils — we would not be very happy as loyal consumers of those products.

The point here is that innovation is critical for constantly innovating products (e.g., technologies, cars, appliances). But, if your product is a "staple" and consumers already love it, don't mess with a good thing.

Always do your market research

Before making a big change to your product, make sure you do your market research homework with your customers and ask them what they like and don't like about the new product, compared to the old product, to ensure your base level of revenues will be maintained.

The innovation will actually help take your revenues to new heights. Because without the market research, your team may think they are doing the right thing based on their personal instincts, but they could be capsizing the ship. Just ask Guinness how it went when they mistakenly introduced Guinness Light in 1979. People weren't drinking Guinness to save on calories; they were drinking it because it was unique, as it was a rich dark stout, versus all the other lagers and ales in the market. Their loyal drinkers would never be caught dead drinking a light version.

Related: 3 Strategies to Optimize Innovative Product Development

Closing thoughts

Now that I am shaving with Gillette again, I am curious how many years it will take before some new product manager gets the "itch" to tinker with the formula again, which may result in me going back to "Camp Schick" again.

Hopefully, Gillette will learn its lesson and better understand why its customers buy from Gillette in the first place. Schick is painfully learning this lesson with its decades-long customers seeking alternatives for the first time ever. But, for now, Gillette is "The Best a Man Can Get!"