Why not more?

This week’s articles we read about the many amazingly simply innovation that are being product to address the basic human needs people deserve to have in many undeveloped countries. I cannot help but think why are these innovations not reaching more people? Why is that millions if not billions of people know of  Coke but  not of VOTO, SOCCKET, and Ikea’ Shelters?

 I feel as though many of these designers, innovations, and architects are not utilizing the concept of Design Thinking or have a strong marketing plan target at the designated population.  In the article, Design Thinking for Social Innovation, it spoke of a young woman called Shanti who fetches water daily from her borehole about 300 feet from her home.  This water is not safe; however, Shanti continues to use this water instead of safer water at a closer locate treatment center. Shanti is foregoing the safer water due to a flaw in the design of the system. Shanti is unable to carry the 5 – gallon jerrican that the facility requires her to use.  The design of this system does not take into account the client’s needs and wants and does  not petition feedback. I wonder how many these organizations have taken time out to address how their product will meet the needs of the clients. For example Ikea’s Shelter are simply and amazing way to address the need of shelter for refugees. However who will build these shelters that take 4 hours to set up which I assume is much more time than setting up a tent? Who will ship these shelters to the refugee camps and ensure they are being built properly? The shelters can withstand the cold and heat of the desserts; however, what about the dust storms?  All these questions can be address by using the concept of Design Thinking. Ikea can sent out a team to spend time in refugee camp to observe and do research on how the camps function.   The information collected by the team can give insight on how to delivery and if necessary change accepts of the shelters.  Instead of  rolling out the shelters to hundreds of refugee camps and spending thousands if not hundreds thousands of dollar, Ikea can built prototypes to minimize risk or error. These prototypes can be set up in one or two camps to ensure they address the needs of the refugees.  In addition I think need these innovators need to utilize a strong marketing plan that emphasis an effective feedback system.   In order to truly see if your product /service is impacting the intended people you need to find out what people want from your service /product. I feel as though many people assume they know their clients' or customers' needs which can leads to many innovations being unused due to a misunderstanding of identifying their needs.  After all that being said why do you feel that many simple amazing innovations are going unheard of or not reaching more people?