Touhey began looking for new ways to inject excitement into his products. "Consumers are rarely able to verbalize what their real needs and problems are," says Touhey, who had previously worked at Bayer as a product manager for Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine. "When a moderator in a focus group asked about problems people had with basketballs, the number one answer was probably grip. But once the conversation was steered toward inflation, every hand would shoot up. Everyone had a story." Spalding managers had been aware of inflation frustration for years, but little had been done to address the problem.
The idea that changed how Spalding approached inflation hassles occurred on Thanksgiving Day, in 1998. As Touhey watched his father get ready to carve the family turkey, the birds plastic pop-up ther-mometer gave him the idea for a minia-turized pump that would reside inside the ball when not in use. ....
Spalding continues to seek out new insightsand not just by watching ballers on the playground or weekend warriors on the diamond. "A colleague clipped an ar-ticle about Pull-Ups diapers, of all things, that talked about how the diaper holds uncomfortable wetness against the toddlers skin for five minutes so that the kid seeks out potty training," says Touhey. "It got us thinking on new tangents. How could touch and feel become a part of learning good techniques for throwing a ball? Maybe new materials could show a thermal handprint on a football, so you could see if youre throwing with the right grip."
Jeremy B. Dann, "Spalding: An Idea with Bounce," Technology Review.com, April 2005
