Blog post # 3 - Is a great product also a successful product?

The question I asked myself was, if I made the world’s best product for a certain purpose, will it guarantee me success?

Lets take the case of the Rotimatic - https://rotimatic.com/

In the words of its creator – “Rotimatic is world's first fully automatic roti and flatbread making solution. For centuries women have spent time daily to make fresh rotis for their families, a task which is often described as a chore and a hassle. Rotimatic solves this problem and frees up people from the daily chore. Now healthy homemade fresh rotis are available at a touch of a button.”

On first thoughts, this is a product made specifically for the hassled women of south asia. They indeed spend hours trying to make rotis for their husbands, children and maybe the extended family. And a device like this can only be godsend.

But developed first in 2012 and winner of rave reviews from Mashable and Business Insider, the rotimatic is available mostly online with retail sales only in Singapore. It does not have a single retail outlet in India, Pakistan and for reasons unknown is not deliverable to south asian nations on online purchase either.

At a retail cost of $999, the rotimatic is essentially priced out in its core market of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where rotis form the staple diet, 2 times a day. So the best available product for making rotis, is essentially unsalable and unavailable in a potential market of over 500 Million families.

Why? Value. Value is not just technological superiority, but the confluence of utility, price, ease of use and availability. All products serve a need, but the successful ones serve the need at a great bargain. By bargain it may not necessarily be cheap, but the perceived utility should be greater than the perceived price a customer pays for the product. At the price point mentioned and the market it serves, Rotimatic may not be able to generate enough revenue and  is so handicapped to expand that they do not even have plans to distribute it to the target markets – “Currently we are not able to engage in distribution discussions.” – Their website apologizes .

So to answer my own question, the best product is not a recipe for success. It should address the right market, at the right price and at the right time. A product that is almost 3 years old will already have spawned competition.  It is only a matter of time when someone else with a similar idea would address the right market and provide great value for its customers, much unlike what Rotimatic is doing today.