I took over a group in Philips that were hell bent on redefining a category of products. Small screen television. The products were not used in living rooms, but rather kids rooms, bedrooms and kitchens and there was a feeling that you could redefine these objects to be more appropriate to the environments they were being used in. So the group had redefined them as pieces of furniture, toys, elegant objects, semantic interpretations of information etc, etc.

We learned the hard way that a person going into a mass retailer to buy a 14" television expects and is looking for an object that fits their mental image of the object television. You can do amazing things with the design of such an object, but then you need to sell it in a store that is known for amazing objects, not mass produced mass marketed products for the masses!

Great leasson in understanding the consumer! Served me well for the rest of my active design management career.