At Catalyx, we believe that the most successful innovations come from looking beyond the obvious, a principle that drives our 5 Rules for Taking Your Innovation Beyond the Obvious. Reframing the familiar is rule number 2, and it is a powerful way to unlock new opportunities.
Innovation is often seen as a quest for the new, but some of the most impactful shifts arise from refining what already exists. In consumer goods, successful innovation often lies not in creating something entirely unrecognisable but in taking the familiar and giving it a fresh perspective. This process, far from being merely incremental, has the potential to disrupt industries and reshape consumer expectations.
By identifying the untapped potential in existing products and transforming them to meet evolving consumer needs, brands can generate significant growth and maintain market leadership. It’s about deepening relevance, enhancing connection, and simplifying complexity.
And often the innovation is a simple and low cost evolution to something existing:
- Spice Tailor Meal Kits – Simplifies complex home cooking.
- Upside Down Labelling for Ketchup – Eliminates the frustration of squeezing out the last drop.
- Salad in a Bag – Removes the inconvenience of salad preparation.
- Peloton Static Cycles – Solves motivation challenges in home fitness.
- Olly Vitamins – Makes vitamin supplements simpler and more appealing.
Instant Ramen: The multi-billion dollar power of a plastic cup.
Instant ramen, first introduced by Momofuku Ando in 1958 with Nissin’s “Chikin Ramen,” revolutionised food by offering a quick, easy-to-prepare meal. In 1971, Ando took this further with the launch of Cup Noodles, packaged in a self-contained cup for convenience. While instant ramen was already a popular meal, Cup Noodles elevated it by introducing a variety of flavours, higher-quality ingredients, and positioning it as more than just an emergency snack—transforming it into an indulgent experience.
This shift appealed to consumers’ need for both convenience and flavour, setting Cup Noodles apart in the market. By 2021, Nissin Foods reported over 50 billion units of Cup Noodles sold globally, solidifying its iconic status in instant food (Kyodo News).
What made Cup Noodles revolutionary wasn’t just improving the product—it created a new category: noodles in a cup. Before its launch, instant noodles required additional steps like boiling water and using a bowl. Cup Noodles changed this by offering a complete, portable meal that could be enjoyed anywhere, catering to fast-paced lifestyles.
Today, the noodles in a cup category continues to thrive. The global instant noodle market, valued at $59.94 billion in 2025, is projected to reach $73.99 billion by 2030, with cup noodles dominating 54.2% of the market share, translating to approximately 65.04 billion servings annually (Research and Markets, GlobeNewswire).
This article is part of our Innovatively Speaking series. Explore the full library here.
Refining the Familiar: Understanding Consumer Needs
The success of transforming the familiar lies in understanding evolving consumer expectations. Consumers may not always articulate a need for a new version of a product they already use, but they are often seeking experiences that feel more aligned with their lifestyles or simply a better solution to a tension they have (static cycling at home is mind numbingly boring until you have a personal gym instructor motivating you, lettuces are such a faff, which is why you will pay a huge amount more to get them in a prewashed in a bag…) . Whether through simplicity, quality, or improved experiences, the real opportunity lies in refining and enhancing what’s already there to deliver on the need or experience that bit better.
Take Dollar Shave Club, for example. They didn’t focus on creating a new type of razor. Instead, they saw an opportunity to simplify the experience and make it more convenient. This isn’t about inventing something new; it’s about enhancing the familiar and aligning it more closely with what consumers need today.
How to Make the Familiar Feel New
To successfully elevate the familiar, you need to look at what consumers expect and find ways to offer To turn the familiar into something new and desirable, you have to start by understanding what’s holding consumers back from the ideal experience, not just functionally, but emotionally and culturally too. What are they settling for? What compromises have they normalised?
Then, go deeper. Really, really, really get to the core of what they want to feel. Not what they say they want, but the underlying emotion or identity they’re chasing.
Next, look around. Find inspiration in other categories, behaviours, formats or occasions. Think: new pack formats, added convenience, heightened enjoyment. The magic often comes from combining a few of these into something fresh. Take water, put it in a can, brand it like beer and you get Liquid Death, a $1 billion business.
Here’s how to approach it:
- Spot what’s in the way – Identify the frictions in the current experience: practical, emotional or social.
- Get to the emotional core – Understand the deeper feeling consumers want, even if they can’t articulate it.
- Scan for fresh ingredients – Find ideas from other spaces that could unlock that emotional need.
- Smash things together – Combine familiar cues in unexpected ways to create something new, exciting and intuitive.
- Test, learn and iterate – Keep refining until it lands just right.
That’s how you take what people already know, and turn it into something they never knew they needed.
The Role of the Catalyx Innovation Triple Diamond
The Catalyx Innovation Triple Diamond approach provides a structured framework for those looking to elevate the familiar. It ensures that product development doesn’t happen in isolation but is instead deeply aligned with consumer needs and broader market shifts.
- Identify the Desire: Understand the changing needs and evolving desires of consumers.
- Define the Recipe: Develop an offering that amplifies familiarity while meeting emerging expectations.
- Develop the Product: Bring the innovation to life, ensuring it resonates emotionally and delivers tangible value, all while keeping the product grounded in what consumers know and trust.
The Triple Diamond ensures that your efforts to elevate the familiar are rooted in solid consumer insight and practical execution, making innovation predictable and successful.
Conclusion
Elevating the familiar isn’t about small incremental changes; it’s about transforming how consumers relate to the everyday products and experiences they use. It’s about looking beyond the obvious and anticipating how the familiar can be made more meaningful, relevant, and impactful. By shifting perspective, brands can create offerings that surprise, delight, and most importantly, meet evolving consumer expectations.
Reframing the familiar is just one of the 5 Rules for Taking Your Innovation Beyond the Obvious. These rules guide brands to move beyond the obvious and uncover hidden opportunities to create truly disruptive innovations. Ready to take the next step in your innovation journey? Let us help you elevate the familiar.
The 5 Rules for Taking Your Innovation Beyond the Obvious
- Identify Hidden Tensions – Uncover the deep-rooted needs and desires that consumers aren’t expressing outright but are driving their decisions.
- Reframe the Familiar – Look at the everyday in a new light and transform existing products or experiences to meet evolving consumer expectations.
- Balance Opposing Desires – Cater to consumer desires that once seemed mutually exclusive, such as convenience with quality or indulgence with health.
- Simplify the Complex – Reduce friction and complexity, offering consumers a seamless and intuitive experience.
- Create Emotional Resonance – Build deeper connections with consumers by tapping into their values, identity, and emotions.
Or, if you’re ready to take your next innovation beyond the obvious, schedule a consultation today to put the Catalyx Innovation Triple Diamond to work for your brand.
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(Independent research conducted by Catalyx)
