‘Build It and They Will Come’. No, They Won’t.

The first part of that is a famous quote from a fictional film ‘Field of Dreams’ (note the use of the word ‘fictional’).

The problem is there are many companies that still believe that the consumer will simply come if they have built a product; that after the years of effort, prototyping and concept testing, that when they finally get it into the store that they have succeeded and they can go back and start all over again.

But they’re wrong. They’re missing arguably the most crucial part of the innovation process.

 

Follow Through

With a large nod to the Economist, ‘Once our new product is on the shelf we can celebrate and get back to innovating again’ so said an Innovation trainee, aged 52 😉

Companies (generally) do a fantastic job of innovating and renovating their product portfolio, but so often this final stage is not given as much importance, whether that be in their own market or a lift and launch push from HQ to regional markets. But this is the stage where we find out if the consumer can actually find it, buy it, open it, like it enough to buy it again etc. Why would you not want to know that for the next round of innovation, or more importantly, to ensure your launch doesn’t wind up in the delisting trashbin?

The effort to get a product onto the shelf still seems disproportionate to the effort given to get the consumer to take it off the shelf.

Even prior to COVID, the desire for clients to travel to where their products were sold, and to see how people shopped for them or used them, was already on the slide. The amount of companies taking a successful launch in one country and deciding to launch it in another with limited visibility or appetite to make changes was/is increasing. The stakes for a wrong move are even higher.

It’s crucial to the success of that launch that the company understands what people (shoppers/consumers) think of that launch, ideally prior, but also quickly thereafter, within the first few weeks of launching.

They need to understand:

• How it is performing?
• What do people think of it?
• Is the proposition right?
• Is it easy to find in-store or on the e-commerce grid?
• Is the price accepted?
• What’s the likelihood of repeat purchase?
• Does the product fill a gap?

All this before the first sales data is released, so companies can do something about it and not just wait for the dreaded call from the retailer.

 

The Age of Delisting Makes Proactivity Even More Urgent

Without a doubt, the ability to prove to the retailer that the issue is not one of a bad product, but that the issues that need to be addressed urgently are around a channel, shelf positioning, or category problem is absolutely vital.

Client-side managers broadly accept the 6P’s of Marketing (Price, Place, Promotion, Product, Pack, Proposition), but what they have lacked has been an affordable, actionable metric, operationalized as a benchmarking tool for their launches and an early warning signal for the things that will contribute to in-market success. Ideally, these benchmarks should be applicable to their or their competitors’ launches, against the same category or different categories.

We have been actively collaborating with clients to develop such a tool, and our validation tests have revealed some mighty interesting insights.

 

Benchmarking

Each of the P’s is crucial, and we’ve seen that success in one does not necessarily correlate to success in the other. The ability to visualize a total score as well as its component parts is crucial.

Worth noting that in all the studies we’ve done, the ‘Promotion’ P is definitely where the vast majority of issues exist. Makes sense. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if the target audience hasn’t heard of it or can’t find it, it would be silly to expect that there will be sales. Consumers will only buy your product if they’re aware of it (and we’ve added Purchase Potential as a 7th P).

A simple, easy to understand and actionable score, preferably in a dashboard, can give brands the unambiguous formula for post-launch analysis, and remediation if necessary.  In the inevitable “musical chairs” negotiation with the retailer, once sales data is available, it can be the evidence that performance post-launch is not necessarily about one thing the buyer assumes (when it’s clearly about something else). And if it is based on a video of what consumers are actually saying about each of the P’s, then it is an unassailable recipe for what to emphasize or what to change.

 

Retailers Love Products That Consumers Love

Retailers continue to reduce SKUs in their portfolio of products. The new products they will take on and retain will be the ones with proof beyond sales data that consumers love them . . . and why, and that they expect to buy them often from that retailer!

Brands who will be the winners in the new world of NPD musical chairs will be the ones who have the clear, easy-to-understand evidence that their products can help to grow category sales through increased penetration, frequency or basket spend.