In a time when the supermarket giants are driving prices down, down, down, how can you stay on top of the game, maintain product quality, and continue sales growth for your products?
Delivering a good product experience is essential to repeat purchase and will help drive organic sales growth. Most consumers will not re-buy an inferior product – no matter how cheap it is. People are willing to compromise on product quality when buying a cheaper product, but there is a limit.
At a recent research conference in Sydney, Damian Young – General Manager Marketing at Chobani, spoke about Chobani’s success story and the strategy they used to drive sales from around $200k when they first launched in Australia in 2011, to over $90 million in 2016.
Young explained that they had a low media budget and had to come up with a sound strategy to drive growth in the presence of many long standing competitors like Yoplait and Ski. There were four key parts: Read more →
FMCG’s: How to Reformulate with Success!
/in reformulation, Sensory Research /by adminHumans are amazing at detecting differences in things, particularly in food and beverages. With our refined senses, we can distinguish small changes in taste, mouthfeel, appearance and smell.
Never before has consumer feedback on products been so transparent and instant. When consumers are unhappy with a change in their usual product they are quick to jump onto Facebook and Twitter to voice their outrage.
When reformulating, FMCG producers must avoid alienating their loyal users. If a new formulation is not liked or accepted by the current users of the product, then the producer risks losing precious market share and negatively affecting brand perceptions.
It’s not just small players who can fail to transition to a new formulation, any sized company can be at risk. Here are some recent examples. Read more →
HOW TO DRIVE SALES IN YOUR FMCG’S. PRICE REDUCTION IS NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER
/in New Product Development, Product Optimisation, Sensory Research /by adminIn a time when the supermarket giants are driving prices down, down, down, how can you stay on top of the game, maintain product quality, and continue sales growth for your products?
Delivering a good product experience is essential to repeat purchase and will help drive organic sales growth. Most consumers will not re-buy an inferior product – no matter how cheap it is. People are willing to compromise on product quality when buying a cheaper product, but there is a limit.
At a recent research conference in Sydney, Damian Young – General Manager Marketing at Chobani, spoke about Chobani’s success story and the strategy they used to drive sales from around $200k when they first launched in Australia in 2011, to over $90 million in 2016.
Young explained that they had a low media budget and had to come up with a sound strategy to drive growth in the presence of many long standing competitors like Yoplait and Ski. There were four key parts: Read more →
How to Avoid a FMCG Reformulation Disaster
/in Product Optimisation, reformulation, Sensory Research /by adminHumans are amazing at detecting differences in things, particularly in food and beverages. With our refined senses, we can distinguish small changes in taste, mouthfeel, appearance and smell.
Never before has consumer feedback on products been so transparent and instant. When consumers are unhappy with a change in their usual product they are quick to jump onto Facebook and Twitter to voice their outrage.
When reformulating, FMCG producers must avoid alienating their loyal users. If a new formulation is not liked or accepted by the current users of the product, then the producer risks losing precious market share and negatively affecting brand perceptions.
It’s not just small players who can fail to transition to a new formulation, any sized company can be at risk. Here are some recent examples. Read more →
Sugar. Is it Really the “Dietary Villain of Our Time” and What are Food Manufacturers to Do?
/0 Comments/in Consumer Trends, New Product Development /by adminLast Sunday night (14/6/15), 60 Minutes ran a story called ‘Secret Sugar’. Leila McKinnon described sugar as “the dietary villain of our time” and Allison Langdon opened with “many of the foods marketed as healthy are in fact choc-full of sugar…there’s a massive industry pulling every trick in the book to get you and I hooked on sugar”. It is true that we are consuming much more sugar than we should. However, I believe the problem is largely a result of a lack of nutritional education amongst consumers, rather than a deliberate ploy by food manufactures to get us hooked on sugar.
Food manufactures add sugar to their products to make them taste good. Have you ever tried a biscuit without sugar? It is bland and tasteless. A product like chocolate is too bitter and almost inedible when sugar is absent. Sweetness is required, in some form and amount, to help make our food palatable. Read more →
Consumers are Demanding Natural Colours & Flavours. So Why are Some FMCG Manufacturers Hesitating to Change?
/0 Comments/in Consumer Trends /by adminDuring the last seven or so years consumer demand for “No Artificial Colours or Flavours” has been rising. Most consumers are aware of the negative press artificial additives have attracted about adverse health effects and hyperactivity in children, so why haven’t all food and beverage manufacturers made the change?
Dewi Suryani of the flavour and fragrance company Firmenich, says that the main barriers for some manufactures are: Read more →
Is the Quality of Your FMCG In-Line with its Price?
/0 Comments/in Product Optimisation, Sensory Research /by adminQuality and price are perceived as positively correlated by consumers. In general, as price points increase, so does our perceptions of quality. This holds true for many brands, however, we can all recall examples of when we have bought a cheaper version of a product and been pleasantly surprised by its quality (expectations were exceeded), and also when we have bought a more expensive product only to be disappointed (it failed to deliver).
In the world of food and beverages, quality is directly related to how much consumers like a product and how it delivers on key sensory measures such as taste, texture, aroma etc.
A good strategy for producers of FMCG’s is to keep on top of how your product and its competitors are performing on key sensory measures with a routine category audit. This enables you to track the quality and purchase interest of your product versus competitors over time, and make sure yours is consistently performing at an acceptable level. It also gives you insights into any changes Read more →
Get Your Pack Right, But Don’t Ignore What’s Inside It
/0 Comments/in New Product Development, Product Optimisation, Sensory Research /by adminA client came to us needing to check the consumer acceptance of a new beverage they had launched. The new product had achieved great success initially, however, after a few months sales steadily declined. Their solution had been to change the pack design, but this didn’t produce the desired effect so they engaged our help.
When asked what research had been conducted during the NPD process, the answer was none. Some rudimentary tastings were conducted around the lab table and that was it. We suggested that an unbranded/blind taste test of the product range be carried out with their target market to determine if the products were performing at an acceptable ‘market ready’ level. Not surprisingly, the research revealed that the drinks were less than satisfactory on tasting. None of the variants met the benchmark for an acceptable product to be launched into the market place. Read more →
Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) – Questionnaire Content is King
/0 Comments/in Questionnaire Design /by adminHave you ever come across the term GIGO? It was commonly used in the early days of computer programming and essentially means that the quality of output is determined by the quality of input. Here is an example of GIGO for questionnaire content/design in sensory research…
A new client came to us with a problem. They had conducted sensory research on their new snack product and discovered that it needed improvement. The results, however, did not provide any clear direction on what needed to be changed to achieve a better result. Upon review of the questionnaire, the problem was clear. There were many questions about the products intended use and its appearance, however, questions about its aroma, taste and mouthfeel were limited. The product contained an outer chocolate layer, and the only question about chocolate was ‘How Much Do You Like The Chocolate’. There were no questions specific to the thickness of the chocolate layer, hardness of the chocolate on biting, the speed of the chocolate melting in the mouth, and the sweetness and bitterness of the chocolate. The sensory questions on the snack’s filling were also limited. Read more →
A Great Innovations/R&D Team are Worth Their Weight in Gold
/0 Comments/in New Product Development, Product Optimisation, R&D /by adminPeople who are experienced, passionate about their work, and genuinely care about making a difference usually succeed in their career – regardless of their industry. In the case of Innovations or Research & Development (R&D) for Fast Moving Consumer Good’s (FMCG’s) these characteristics are invaluable.
Consumer sensory research is usually conducted prior to the launch of a new product. We therefore get to see the standard produced by many different R&D teams. Some only ever produce mediocre products that require many changes and usually further sensory research. Some are inconsistent and either hit or miss the target, while others consistently produce market ready products. It is the latter group that provide cost efficiencies for their company and the best chance of success for their new product. Read more →