‘Difficult to sell’: Sir James Dyson’s frank admission about startling product
Dyson is known for shaking up industries with game changing products. But Sir James Dyson has admitted customers “didn’t understand” a recent launch.
EXCLUSIVE
He’s the entrepreneur that’s revolutionised everything from vacuum cleaners to hair dryers infuriating established brands in the process.
But there’s one recent innovation that Sir James Dyson has admitted was a “problem” and a “difficult product” to persuade consumers to shell out $1000 on.
“It did sell but nothing like we hoped for,” the founder of Dyson told news.com.au exclusively in New York.
“You can’t get everything right,” he added candidly.
He also hinted to news.com.au about a new product that could be in the works and has the potential to shake-up up a billion industry.
Mr Dyson was stateside to launch the retailer’s new Manhattan store in the heart of trendy SoHo, and to showcase the company’s new suite of beauty products including a revamped hair dryer, connected curlers and a pivot into hair creams and serums.
The New York opening comes two years after Dyson opened a similar global flagship on Sydney’s George St.
Dyson revamps shock product
One of the major new products Dyson was spruiking in New York was its OnTrac headphones.
It claims they have “best in class” noise cancellation allied with a “deep sub bass and high end brilliance”. The headphones can also be customised with different coloured ear caps and cushions.
“We’ve got high hopes for OnTrac,” said Mr Dyson, 77, who insisted the product’s sound quality exceeded that of competitors such as Apple and Bose.
But if the $799 OnTrac, looks familiar, well it is.
Outside it has a passing resemblance to – and inside its almost identical to – the Dyson Zone, the company’s debut headphones was launched into an unsuspecting marketplace last year. There’s one major omission though.
Teh OnTrac has completely dropped the eyebrow-raising visor/air purifier the Zone became famous – nay notorious – for.
The sound quality was top notch but its look was starling.
Put the purifier on and the wearer had an unfortunate resemblance to Bane, one of the baddies in Batman, or an extra in Mad Max.
“Unusual,” “bizarre,” and “absurd” were some of the kinder descriptions by reviewers at the time. And the $1000 price smarted for some.
James Dyson: ‘Difficult to sell’
“The problem with the Zone was that people didn’t understand what it was,” Mr Dyson told news.com.au.
“We understood but we didn’t explain it very well to the public.
“It was a difficult thing to sell because, was it a pair of headphones? Was it a personal purifier? And why do I need a personal purifier?
“So there were all these questions.”
But Mr Dyson was confident that the Zone would “have its day” due to persistent concerns about air pollution.
“I believe that people will gradually become aware that you need protection, and that’s what the Zone provides,” he said.
“It’s probably a bit ahead of its time but I believe it will (succeed) eventually.”
However, he said the tech that went into the Zone was “a really good start” into headphones which has led to the OnTrac.
“We didn’t have to change that much to turn it into really, really good audio headphones,” he said.
Dyson has also launched a new version of its Supersonic hair dryer, which now reacts to how close it is to the scalp and reduces its power accordingly to prevent heat damage.
There is also the Airwrap i.d. hair styler which it bills as a “connected beauty device”.
Users can bash in their hair profile to the MyDyson app, which will then program the curler to run a customised program of heat and cold over a specific time period.
Dyson swerve ‘quite obvious really’
But the product that’s grabbed the most attention is one that doesn’t contain any fancy electronics at all: Dyson’s new Chitosan hair care range of creams and serums.
A company which has taken on the likes of Electrolux, Miele, Remington and Philips is now coming for Schwarzkopf, Wella and Kerastase.
The Chitosan range uses a molecule derived from oyster mushrooms with the firm saying it can flexibly hold hair while maintaining movement and shine.
That’s in contrast, it says, to existing products that essentially glue hair strands together leading to crispy, stiff locks.
From hair dryers to hair creams might seem a huge pivot but Mr Dyson said it was “pretty obvious”.
“We’ve been working on hair science for years and understanding what makes hair glossy and shiny, what makes it weak, what makes it hold its shape, getting rid of flyaways,” he said.
“It’s quite logical because we make the device that creates the curl and (with the Chitosan range) we know how to make the curl stay in place twice as long.
“To do a formulation was pretty obvious really. It was staring us in the face”.
In fact Mr Dyson said it has had formulation scientists on the payroll ever since it started researching hair gadgets.
“So we’re letting them rip really,” he said.
At the SoHo store, Mr Dyson demonstrated Chitosan, $89 for 100ml, not by slathering the serum onto a model’s tresses, but by running it through his own hair.
This demonstration by a septuagenarian was a moment that made the rows of Manhattan beauty influencers chuckle.
But insiders told news.com.au that Mr Dyson has always been a hands-on force behind the firm the bears his name.
For instance, the new blush pink shade of the Supersonic hair dryer, fresh for Christmas gifting, is inspired by the strawberries Mr Dyson grows on his own farm.
Hint at future Dyson product
Mr Dyson confided to that he had worries whether its swerve into serums and creams would pay off.
“You never know when you launch a new product whatever it is it’s going to sell, life isn’t that predictable,” he said.
“But that’s the fun of it. That’s the excitement.”
And if the pivot works, could we see more hair products from Dyson into the future?
A shampoo perhaps, asked news.com.au. that could really shake the foundations of Australia’s $1 billion hair care industry?
Mr Dyson smiled and said, enigmatically: “That would be interesting wouldn’t it.”