I'm looking for 3 (or more) examples of (preferably) well known, very
succesful marketing/ product introduction efforts.

They must have taken an existing idea from one industry and put a new
twist or clever variation on it and used it to launch something
succesful in a different area/industry.

Chazb --

Marketing is a continual positioning effort to penetrate new audiences
and sub-segments.  All of the major consumer industries are
continually repositioning themselves with new applications and
audiences.  Some of the most-dramatic are where a traditional product
is taken from a male to a female audience:

1.  Victoria's Secrets was not a new retail concept.  Fredericks of
Hollywood was a long-standing lingerie retailer in the United States. 
But Victoria's Secrets made it easy for a man to buy "unmentionables":
"Case study: Victoria's Secrets" (McGinn, Feb. 1, 2001)
http://www.mbajungle.com/magazine.cfm?INC=inc_article.cfm&artid=1303&template=1&date=Feb2001

2.  A reverse case of taking a man's product to female audiences
occurs every day in professional sports.  New baseball stadiums have
been constructed across the country with one major goal: make the
sport more comfortable for women.  It's done by dramatically
increasing the bathroom facilities; adding variety to the menu of
foods; and making other shopping opportunities available.

But the most-dramatic move was probably made by the NBA in introducing
a league of female professional basketball players.  A Google search
using the terms at the bottom of this answer show how extensively the
league is used to reach active women.  This CBS Sportsline article
discusses demographics of those who attend WNBA games -- and
professional sports marketing in general:
CBS Sportsline.com
" Women's pro sports: Business at the WNBA season kickoff" (Horrow, May 6, 2004)
http://cbs.sportsline.com/general/story/7310122

3.  Pharmaceutical companies are famous for adapting drugs from one
market to another, as frequently a drug has primary and secondary
benefits.  Eli Lilly's marketing of Prozac is a very interesting case:
the drug has been expanded in its application from an anti-depressant
to use in fighting PMS (among other applications).  Lilly also knows
that taking prescriptions daily is a problem for many people and has
introducing a Prozac Weekly to meet those needs:
Forbes.com
"Prozac To Fight PMS Under New Name" (Herper, July 10, 2000)
http://www.forbes.com/2000/07/10/mu5.html

There are a number of good marketing studies done in the Harvard
Business Review series that treat real business issues in detail. 
There is one about Prozac and Paxil:
Harvard Business Review
"Marketing Antidepressants: Prozac and Paxil," (Moon and Herman, May 14, 2002)
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=502055

4.  And you're living through an era where aspirin -- a pain-killer
discovered by Bayer at the end of the 19th Century -- is being
dramatically repositioned for heart and circulatory system health:
"The Centenary of Aspirin: Wonder Drug of the Twentieth Century" (Childs, undated)
http://www.ul.ie/~childsp/CinA/Issue59/TOC43_Aspirin.htm

HealthLink / Medical College of Wisconsin
"Aspirin Underused in People with Heart Disease" (March 13, 2000)
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/954375151.html

Just this week an AMA study portends the expansion of aspirin
marketing into the role of fighting breast cancer.  Note that it
already has a role in fighting other cancers, though it's not been a
major marketing thrust yet for the aspirin marketers:
Science Daily
"Aspirin Use Associated With Reduced Risk Of Breast Cancer," (May 27, 2004)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040526070626.htm

5.  More than one dot.com has been forced to reposition itself
dramatically when the initial business model failed.  However, one of
the most pro-active companies has been Jeff Bezos' online bookstore --
now an online department store:
Managing the Digital Enterprise
"Amazon.com Case Study" (Rappa, April 19, 2004)
http://digitalenterprise.org/cases/amazon.html

Harvard Business Online
"Amazon.com: Evolution of the e-Tailer,"  (Burgelman & Mesa, March 30, 2001)
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=SM83


6.	Imagine that you sell a product that is:
?	used dominantly on one day each year in the U.S.
?	marketed little outside the United States
?	is bitter to the taste and requires substantial amounts of sugar to
make it palatable

How do you make the cranberry marketable?  It's been an issue that has
faced the Ocean Spray cooperative for decades.  Every University of
Chicago GSB  marketing student analyzed one of a pair of Ocean Spray
cases in the late 1970s -- back before cranberry juice blends became a
popular health drink:
Harvard Business Online
"Ocean Spray Cranberries B" (deBruiker and Modig, April 1, 1975)
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=575040

Despite a battle over the corporate structure of Ocean Spray, the
company has continued to innovate in finding new ways to market the
bitter cranberry:
University of California/Davis
"Ocean Spray at the Crossroads" (Amanou-Boadu, Barton, Boland, undated)
http://are132.ucdavis.edu/Cases/OceanSpray-v12.pdf


7.  I know that you think you have enough military models but
repeatedly experience in the armed forces expands knowledge of
products or activities.  Many attribute the rise of baseball at the
end of the 19th Century to soldiers having been exposed to the game
during the Civil War (the hotly-debated Abner Doubleday connection).

There are at least 3 civilian adaptations of military vehicles that
have become popular.  First, the Hummer:
BusinessWeek Online
"GM Bets that Size Does Matter" (Welch, July 22, 2000)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_29/b3792071.htm

The GPW -- which you know as the Jeep:
Early Jeeps Pages
"Jeep History,"  (de Almaeda, undated) 
http://www.off-road.com/~early/history.html

And a more complete history of the Jeep in the post-war era:
About.com
"Jeep History," (undated)
http://4wheeldrive.about.com/od/historyofjeeps/

Volkswagen's military courier car, marketed in the U.S. as "The Thing":
"The 'Thing' from Volkswagen,
' (Houchangnia, December, 1995)
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/5081/ModelAutoReview.htm


Google search strategy:
"marketing to women"
"Victoria's Secrets" + marketing
WNBA + marketing to women
Marketing Prozac
"aspirin use" + "heart attack"
"Ocean Spray" + marketing
evolution of Amazon.com
marketing the Hummer
history of the Jeep
Volkswagen + Thing


Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Thanks much, good job.

1. Segway personal transporter (http://www.segway.com/).  A hugely
successful initial introduction based on whispered reports that
inventor Dean Kamen had a revolutionary new product code named
"Ginger" that would transform cities and urban transportation.  See
http://www.dynopower.freeserve.co.uk/homepages/it.htm

The Segway was adapted from motorcycles, bicycles and gyroscopes--I
admit that the Segway is perhaps not an introduction in an unrelated
field, but I still think it shows an example of using preexisting
technology in a new way that lead to a successful product
introduction.

2.  Microwave ovens.  Raytheon took military radar technology and
applied it in the totally unrelated field of kitchen appliances to
come up with the first RadarRange in 1946.  See
http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html

3. Silly Putty started out as a wartime effort to develop synthetic
rubber.  See http://www.sillyputty.com/history_101/history101.htm
(click on the "Silly Putty Timeline" link).

Are these the types of things you are looking for?

Yes. Very good. The microwave example is the best. 

Segway example is interesting but not too good because it is still
questionable whether that product is going to be a success.

Silly putty not bad, but that's two examples from the militaty.

So if I could get two other examples, in addition to the microwave.

Also if they could be geared more towards Marketing twists rather than
Investion twists, if you know what I mean. Your examples were probably
created more by engineers and scientists. I want things that were
created by sales/advertising/marketing people.

OK, how about soy milk?  Soy started out as baby formula, right, then
through a lot of money and marketing spin we now know it as a
"healthy, delicious alternative to dairy for millions of lactose
intolerant adults."

And what about prunes, given a whole new life as "dried plums?"  Ten
years ago prunes were for old people with constipation--now they are
cool and sophisticated: "Napa Valley Dried Plums".

You apparently do not want examples from the same industry, so enough about food.

How about dog collars?  Was it through marketing and media
manipulation that they became a fashion statement?

And what about Nextel taking good old walkie-talkie technology and
incorporating it into cell phones using those extremely annoying ads
where people sitting at a table speak to each other using the beeping
walkie-talkie function.  Based on "The Apprentice," which featured the
function being used prominently by the contestants, I would say that
it has been a successful product introduction.

Am I on the right track?