FROM THE CONSUMER
Product differentiation is often difficult in an already saturated market
From the consumer...
Every issue, Danielle Pinnington from Shoppercentric tells us how the consumer is behaving to help you stay competitive
In the early days of my Market Research career I spent a number of years working with FMCG brands on sales volume estimation. We would be given new products to test among consumers, in order to model the likely volume opportunity, so that brands could take the go/no go decision, or fine tune their marketing and distribution plans to maximize the opportunity.
his was back in the 1990’s, and in those days, it seemed that as long as research showed that the idea was good, the packaging and advertising appealing, then the hard work was done and it just needed to be put on shelf to sell. I suspect those of you around in those days will look back with a fair amount of nostalgia, because so much has changed. I often see a statistic quoted that nine out of every ten new products launched fail in the first year. In the past that would have shocked me, but now it feels about right. My switch from consumer to shopper research
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was triggered by the sense that all this good work in the NPD pipeline was for nothing if the new product was shoved on shelf and left to fend for itself in-store. And this issue has never been more pertinent than now. The success of the retail sector over the last few decades has resulted in consumers having more choice than our grandparents could ever have imagined. The development of
even supporting an existing product takes a lot more effort than was ever the case in the past. And I would suggest that more of that effort needs to be focused on the point of purchase than brands perhaps appreciate. Why do I say that? Well, with so much choice, it is a lot harder for a product to get noticed. Of course, pre-store marketing is important for getting a product onto our radar or our shopping list
“The success of the retail sector over the last few decades has resulted in consumers having more choice than our grandparents could ever have imagined.”
self-service one-stop shopping through the growth of the supermarkets, and now the emergence of an enormous online sector, means that as consumers we have never had so many options. We can choose where to buy, when to buy, how to buy, and what to buy, and we can change each and every one of those combinations every time we buy. So launching a new product or
– be that a mental or actual list. We still need a trigger that encourages us to think about how a product might meet our needs, or the benefits an individual brand can offer us, or even a hook that simply appeals to us. But just as important is the opportunity to continue to market to consumers once they enter the store, because that is where the real challenges now lie.
In a store, if the product isn’t on the shopping list it is easily forgotten, especially when there’s a trolley full of items to remember, and 20 odd aisles to walk up and down. Even if the product is on the shopping list once in front of the fixture there are lots of options to catch the eye, and lots of promotions to tempt a consumer away from their first choice. If your product is on the top shelf, does that help or hinder? What about the bottom shelf and what’s to say that the consumer will even notice bay 3 in the category if they start at bay 1?
So, if you are working on the NPD pipeline, or worrying about the sales of your product – go shopping with your partner or a friend, and look at the category through the shoppers’ eyes. I will guarantee you’ll hear something that makes you re-think your marketing.
Danielle Pinnington is the founder & owner of Shoppercentric, specialists in shopper insight and trends research. For more information, visit
www.shoppercentric.com
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