For my colleagues at the University of Liverpool, Dyson’s success is a household story. It’s been said that Dyson is one of the country’s most respected innovators. In fact, in a BBC poll to name “Britain’s best entrepreneur,” Dyson himself was voted #2 to Richard Branson’s #1. (BBC News). But in the U.S. the leader has been Hoover … well, until last year, when Dyson took the top position.
Dyson’s modernist and innovative industrial design has been a key differentiator. The company claims to have gone through 5,000 prototypes before launching its first model. It also charges a premium price. Dyson stormed the market with an entirely new technology and also smartly pegged his unusual looking product with a luxury price point more than 200% higher than the industry average. Though the quality of Dyson products has been met with its share of harsh critics, the company has in only four years succeeded in challenging and beating out Hoover, the long-time incumbent.
There was a time, seems like yesterday, when more than half of American households used a Hoover-branded vacuum cleaner. Today, sales of the bellwether Hoover, invented in 1907, have been all but destroyed. According to the Financial Times, when Dyson entered the US market in 2002, the Hoover had a tight grip on its home turf with a 36 per cent share. In the past 12 months their positions have reversed, with Hoover’s share slipping to almost 13 per cent and Dyson’s sales going beyond the important 20 percent mark. Suffice it to say (with tongue firmly in cheek) that Hoover’s hearing a loud, sucking sound….
Posted by: Colin Mangham