drive sales of your products

HOW TO DRIVE SALES IN YOUR FMCG’S. PRICE REDUCTION IS NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER

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

Reduced Sugar Free Stevia Alternative Sweetener

Sugar. Is it Really the “Dietary Villain of Our Time” and What are Food Manufacturers to Do?

Last 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

Quantitative Market Research FMCG Australia

Get Your Pack Right, But Don’t Ignore What’s Inside It

A 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

Innovation R&D Research Development Sensory Australia

A Great Innovations/R&D Team are Worth Their Weight in Gold

People 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