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Something funny in the air? Chances are it could be an air freshener you havent smelled before. The category is exploding, and disruptive innovation is largely responsible. In 2000, U.S. sales of air fresheners were about $900 million. In 2006, the figure is $1.7 billion. Shockingly for the consumer products industry, a substantial portion of the growth has come from a new entrant, Procter & Gambles Febreze. How did it happen? The category had been stuck catering to mothers and older consumers. Indeed, the first air fresheners, from S.C. Johnsons Glade, were introduced in 1956 to target cooking and tobacco smells. By contrast, much of the recent growth has come from younger consumers. College students are seeking to differentiate their scents, and snap up products that enable them to tailor the scent produced. Tweens are buying fresheners that combine scents with plug-in light shows. Other young adults are buying Scent Stories, a P&G product that "plays different scents like different albums; it is even looks like a CD player. Febreze targeted a major job consumers wanted to get done: they didnt necessarily want a new scent, but just wanted to eliminate an old one. Demand comes from three sources. The products themselves generate demand, as their uniqueness gets noticed. Ad spend in the category is also way up, from $67 million in 2003 to $147 million in 2007, according to Kline & Company and Nielsen. Finally, scents by their very nature get noticed, and social networking has played a major role in stimulating rapid take-up in the youth market. Some lessons are instructive: 1. Think expansively about jobs to be done, outside of your product category. Entertainment was unlikely to be a job that marketers in the category had targeted before, but it is squarely addressed by some of the newer entries 2. Think stepping stones. Had P&G introduced Scent Stories at the start, consumers might have viewed it like some alien from Mars. But the company build a lineage of products that made Scent Stories seem a much more logical extension 3. Look to untapped markets, not those already aggressively catered to. Had P&G targeted mothers and older consumers with its initial entry, it would have faced very stiff competition from S.C. Johnson. The company big as it is was still able to compete asymmetrically 4. Examine ways to leverage social networking. Usage by a friend can be a far more persuasive influencer than the most clever ad. Find ways to make product usage more obvious Perhaps these marketers have given us fresh air in more ways than one. Source material for this posting comes from The New York Times, "Sensing Opportunity in Dormitory Air, January 3, 2007