Melissa Bernstein on why novel products need familiar forms to build trust. Her writing product succeeds because it's easy to picture; her grounding stones struggle because they're harder to explain. The trick is pairing something recognizable with a few surprising enhancements.
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Consumers unfortunately initially want things that are very familiar to them because that's how they trust a brand. Things that are too wacky or weird or mysteries in a box they have a hard time trusting initially. So the best products actually are the most familiar with some really cool twists that just give that element of like, whoa, I know what this is, but that is super cool. And I realized that's what writing was like. I have a lot of products, even these grounding stones, like, to me these are a lot cooler than writing. But people don't understand what they are because they're a little harder to like visualize and understand in a box. So the writing just filled that perfect sort of that, that perfect box of they get what it is, they use it on a daily basis. And we've elevated it and added these enhancements to the extent that it's very than anything they've used before.