>> suppliers push NPD boundaries, but why so many failures?
In the week that Coca-Cola did the sensible thing and killed off its troubled Dasani water brand, we bring you a collection of thought-provoking articles that tackle what is arguably the biggest issue for this industry: how to turn great ideas into true moneyspinners.
As any decent marketer will tell you, innovation is vital. Without it, companies stagnate and die. But when it comes to npd, experience suggests that eight of 10 launches in grocery will bomb. With that track record of expensive failure, it would be understandable if companies chose to ignore their marketers and started to become risk-averse - particularly those operating in a highly competitive sector like ours where there’s intense deflationary pressure and margins are under pressure.
Given all of that, suppliers and retailers should be applauded for the fact that they continue to push the boundaries with their programmes of innovation. As I have said in this column many times, I do worry how long that investment can be sustained if price pressures don’t ease. But I was reassured to see that companies, big and small, exhibiting at the Food and Drink Expo and CRS shows in Birmingham last week appeared to have lost none of their enthusiasm for product development. From Purbeck’s awesome chilli ice cream to Kellogg’s brave move into the highly-competitive bagged snacks sector with Special K Lite Bites, there was NPD aplenty.
Clearly the problem is not a lack of ideas. It never has been. So why does this industry generally do such a poor job at turning great ideas into commercially successful products? Perhaps part of the answer can be found in the research we publish in our special report, which reveals that the ‘innovations’ consumers rate as the best are actually flavour extensions to existing products. Nothing wrong in that. But do enough marketers appreciate the fact that consumers like to play it so safe? And do these same marketers do enough of the right sort of research before being given the green light to launch a new product? The key words are ‘right sort of research’. Think about it. I’m sure Coca-Cola’s marketing team asked consumers whether they thought bottling pure water was a good idea. But if they had asked British consumers whether they would buy treated Sidcup tap water, I wonder whether Dasani would ever have been launched in the first place.
making great ideas pay off
In the week that Coca-Cola did the sensible thing and killed off its troubled Dasani water brand, we bring you a collection of thought-provoking articles that tackle what is arguably the biggest issue for this industry: how to turn great ideas into true moneyspinners.
As any decent marketer will tell you, innovation is vital. Without it, companies stagnate and die. But when it comes to npd, experience suggests that eight of 10 launches in grocery will bomb. With that track record of expensive failure, it would be understandable if companies chose to ignore their marketers and started to become risk-averse - particularly those operating in a highly competitive sector like ours where there’s intense deflationary pressure and margins are under pressure.
Given all of that, suppliers and retailers should be applauded for the fact that they continue to push the boundaries with their programmes of innovation. As I have said in this column many times, I do worry how long that investment can be sustained if price pressures don’t ease. But I was reassured to see that companies, big and small, exhibiting at the Food and Drink Expo and CRS shows in Birmingham last week appeared to have lost none of their enthusiasm for product development. From Purbeck’s awesome chilli ice cream to Kellogg’s brave move into the highly-competitive bagged snacks sector with Special K Lite Bites, there was NPD aplenty.
Clearly the problem is not a lack of ideas. It never has been. So why does this industry generally do such a poor job at turning great ideas into commercially successful products? Perhaps part of the answer can be found in the research we publish in our special report, which reveals that the ‘innovations’ consumers rate as the best are actually flavour extensions to existing products. Nothing wrong in that. But do enough marketers appreciate the fact that consumers like to play it so safe? And do these same marketers do enough of the right sort of research before being given the green light to launch a new product? The key words are ‘right sort of research’. Think about it. I’m sure Coca-Cola’s marketing team asked consumers whether they thought bottling pure water was a good idea. But if they had asked British consumers whether they would buy treated Sidcup tap water, I wonder whether Dasani would ever have been launched in the first place.
making great ideas pay off
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