We live in the time of true and genius innovation. Most creations today aren’t original ideas, yet a modification of something that’s already made. In many ways, this streamlines the product because of the familiarity. Many innovations aren’t even known as innovations because they’ve grown far past their original rival. This is the exact case of Oreo cookies; and the rivalry, was between two brothers.
Jacob Loose created the Hydrox cookie, which was a chocolate cookie with vanilla filling. Sounds familiar, right? His brother Joseph Loose created the exact same cookie and marketed it as “Oreos“. I couldn’t imagine the arguments at Thanksgiving dinner. It took time to build demand for the Oreo cookies. During this time, Hydrox was the favorite. This was, until the 1950’s when everything changed with a rebrand. In the 1950’s Oreos raised their price, and was met with more demand for the cookies. The knock-off surpassed the original, and it would stay the way for the rest of time.
