Candela - planes that float

The definition of 'a product that sells itself' is when the product itself is so noticeably distinctive when compared to the category in which it plays in, that it literally creates its own force field of hype because of how remarkable it is.

In fact if there is one, golden rule of successful promotion it's 'be noticeable'. Take the time to have a look around; the vast majority of promotional efforts are bland, dull, boring and very easy to skip over. Rule #1 is to not be boring or predicable.

Candela is a Swedish boat manufacturer that purposefully chose to make electric boats. There are however numerous problems with simply converting a conventional boat into an electric boat; so they gathered a broad, expensive team of experts to solve the problem.

The solution? Instead of creating a boat, they designed a plane that floats on water; cause just because a vehicle travels on water it doesn't automatically mean that it should be a boat, right? Hydrofoil technology literally turns the boat into a plane that cuts through water with very little resistance.

Luckily the engineering solution then elegantly also worked as the marketing solution.

How do you grow an unheard of electric boat brand with a product that does look or function like a boat? You appeal to the competitive spirit of boat owners by breaking a world record of course...

Granted Candela are still a long way off from commanding a decent share of the global recreational boat market at this stage, but the market is primed for the possible future success of alternatives like this.

BTW - how big is the logo on the side of this boat in the video? Jeez - we can heard the marketing director literally shouting at the poor director to get that in the shot.

This brand (and its products) are a great example of blurring the category boundaries to create a new innovation. By strengthening its association with aviation the Candela products form something new that potentially serves the traditional boating market as well as the non-boating market looking for something more luxurious.