The best product mashups multiply what people already love.

A soda trend shows up online:

People start mixing Sprite with iced tea.

Not as a stunt, but because they love the combo.

Then eventually, Sprite + Tea becomes an actual product on shelves in the U.S. and Canada.

What started as a hack becomes a SKU.

We’ve seen this pattern more and more.

Trader Joe’s turns lasagna soup into a product after the idea circulates in recipe pages.

Fast food chains package pop culture moments into menu items.

Brands are observing, then formulating, testing and codifying.

There’s an old buzzword for what’s going down.

Synergy.

Overused in the 90s when I was cutting my business choppers, mostly in boardrooms, but the underlying idea still holds.

Two things come together and create something bigger than the sum of its parts.

The important detail is where the pairing comes from.

If it starts with consumers, it feels obvious, helpful and good.

If it starts with a brand, it risks feeling pushy.

Sprite and tea happens to work because the combination already lived in people’s kitchens, convenience stores, and online posts.

They already liked it enough to take the trouble of making it themselves.

The product didn’t teach consumers anything new, but simply removed the work.

That’s the opportunity for all product makers.

Look at what your buyers are already combining, modifying, or hacking together.

Those behaviors are often signals of unmet product potential.

How are some customers already creating “better versions” of your product on their own? (Trigger any memories?)

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing agency at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.