How a bar of soap changed the world as we know it forever
In June 1974…
Norman Woodland created something that we take for granted nearly 50 years later.
It was clearly world-changing technology - years ahead of its time.
The US Grocery Sector had come up with the initial idea of a Universal Product Code to speed up the tedious task of stock control.
They put the idea out to tender, and some of the world's largest computer companies started working on the project.
No one really knew how it would work initially, what form it would take, what it would look like, nor how they would sell it.
Norman and his team at IBM were involved, battling out the idea, competing with these futuristic technology companies.
There was little difference between the competitors' versions. Norman’s idea was a rectangular strip - others were in the form of concentric circles. They all did the same job.
But how Norman differentiated himself from his competitors with the now well-known barcode product he created was crucial. And the rest is history.
All the big tech companies presented their idea to the grocery sector, and gave logical, rational arguments as to why theirs was the best.
Pages of graphs, flow charts, data and research were all meticulously presented to show why they believed their version was the best of the bunch.
Meeting after meeting, chart after chart, data that was almost identical made it very difficult for one of the presentations to stand out. It became a very linear, rational process of choice. And no doubt incredibly boring.
Then it was Norman and his team from IBM’s turn to show the jury what theirs could do. And what others couldn’t.
But instead of following the same pattern of mind-boggling information, from Norman’s briefcase he pulled out a bar of Camay soap.
Norman stuck a little sticker on it. A sticker with a number of small vertical bars.
He stood at one end of a checkout counter and with little effort, pushed the bar down from one end to the other. The group who had gathered to watch the presentation - which in fact became a demonstration - were amazed.
Because “Soap - 85 cents” appeared on the checkout screen.
He casually walked down the aisle, picked up the soap and did it again. Although this time he slid it through faster. And then faster again.
In that one demonstration, he showed how his product worked. He knew the grocery sector didn’t care for the technology behind it all. How with no effort, they would instantly benefit - and for good.
They just wanted to see something that was simpler, better and easier. And they got just that.
Because Norman understood how people work. Not how we think they work.
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