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* In last Christmas' Top Products Survey The Grocer flagged up 16 Star Product launches. Six months on, how have these lines fared? What lessons can be learnt about NPD? Karen Dempsey reports
It's a tough life for a new product. Once the launch gun has been fired it can be hard to keep up the momentum.
The odds are against them from the start. Information Resources says the number of new products that succeed has fallen from one in six to one in seven (the criterion for success is that a product must achieve either sales of L1m or more in its first year or 2% share of category).
Client service director Chris Morley says: "Brand extensions or products using the name of an already successful brand have twice the chance of being a success. Those promoted in the early stages have more chance than those that aren't. And, of course, gaining distribution across retailers is key."
But even with all the right ingredients in place, success is still not guaranteed - as we have discovered by charting the progress of the 16 Star Products identified in our Top Products Survey (December 16 2000).
While most are jogging rather than sprinting, one has gone permanently, one temporarily, and one is thinking about it.
Cadbury proved Information Resources' point about brand extensions when it rolled out white chocolate Flake variant Snowflake last autumn.
It was one of the biggest successes of last year (thanks in no small part to Anthea Turner). Sales of Snowflake in October and November alone topped L4m. Total sales, in such a limited time, exceeded L5m.
Tony Bilsborough, media relations manager at Cadbury, says: "It was flying off the shelves as fast as we could put it in wholesalers' warehouses and we exhausted existing stocks. Rather than upset the trade we decided to take it off and relaunch it later this year when we're confident we've got enough stock."
Lever Faberge's extension of its Lynx bodyspray brand has lured young men early in their shaving lives and at the same time has taken on rival products such as Gillette's Mach3. Sales of the Lynx Shaving System have topped the 8m mark since launch last October, and buyers indicate it...