The success and buzz created around products that are only available for a matter of weeks or months are every marketer’s dream, as they know that the odds of launching a new product that will do well are high. However, this success is subject to a number of factors: packaging, product, and consumer reactions.
For brands like Coca-Cola for example, who are celebrating the World Cup with a limited edition FIFA bottle, they have dressed up an already successful product in theme, ensuring that when customers are in-store, Coca-Cola will be their soft drink of choice. However, when brands like Lucozade use the opportunity to offer new flavour choices, it’s advisable to research and test the new flavour combination concepts ahead of launch as failure to do so may result in the product being left on the shelf. It’s not uncommon for brands to use such an occasion to trial their new product development to assess their appeal and potential to become a permanent part of a range, but this is an incredibly costly way to do so.
The other factor that will affect the success of limited edition products during the World Cup is the success or failure of the teams participating and the reaction consumers then have towards them. To show its support for the England team, Mars ice-cream has added an on-pack promotion to its packaging. The question is, how will the product fare if England get knocked out of the cup early on? Will it end up in the reduced section if shoppers fall out of favour with the team? If it was a fashion item such as a t-shirt supporting the home team, it would almost certainly end up moving straight to the sale rail if we dropped out early. In this instance, however, Mars has retained its original ice-cream product and it’s just the packaging that’s changed, so the outlook is less bleak than it might first appear.
A successful limited edition product from a packaging perspective needs to be timely, all encompassing and, without doubt, fully affiliated with the event to ensure credibility. When it comes to trialling new flavours however, brands need to look ahead at what consumers might like to find on shelf at the present time and see which combinations might appeal given the sudden burst of interest in Brazil to really capture their attention. That’s why real-time research and foresight is critical.
That said, events like these do provide a potential testing ground for launching a new product in the long-term and this is valuable testing ground for brands to capture shoppers’ unconscious thoughts and perceptions of products alongside each other in-store, providing valuable live feedback to brands via the vypr app.
This approach isn’t new to product development but it is new to the FMCG industry. It’s actually a model adopted by the Tech industry who test and learn throughout the product development cycle, adapting and iterating new concepts before, during and after their launch. There is huge potential for the FMCG industry to adopt the same strategy when it comes to product testing and development. Although it might, at first, seem labour intensive to apply so much focus to product validation, the savings of time, money and resource in the long-term will have a direct effect on product success in the short and long term.
Source: Ben Davies, CEO and founder of vypr. This is a personal blog and views expressed are his own.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024