Just like every year, many innovations arrive on the shelves during spring. While they are sometimes highly visible due to POS displays or eye level facings, they may not be visible to shoppers. Beyond the inevitable ND follow-up, we wanted to remind you how important it is to properly highlight these within the store, for a successful launch.
Discover our key indicators on the 4 innovations monitored this year:
3 challenges for a successful launch:
1. Be present at the right place.
Diffusion is definitely the most scrutinized indicator, while launching an innovation. It needs to be present to be bought, but it has to also be at the right place! A product will not make an impact on the same customer profiles, depending on its location.
Mezeast, which has just been launched by Nestlé, targets the same consumers as Old el Paso and is mainly established alongside Tex-Mex products. However, there are still 16% of stores that have set up elsewhere, often with oriental products.
The same observation has been made for Perrier Energize: more than 10% of points of sale do not install it with flavored water and prefer to position it with energy drinks or within a Perrier division.
2.To be at eye-level
Once the product has been located in the right department, it is necessary to highlight it. For this, having a sufficient number of facings and positioning at eye level is key because these two levers make it easy to find the products but also favor sales.
Mezeast benefits from a wide range and it’s the innovation that has most succeeded in standing out with an average of 11 facings and at least one facing at eye level in 79% of cases. Due to its bright colors and quality layout, Mezeast definitely makes an impression!
It is not easy to be on the right shelf, and a lot of new products can still be found at the very bottom or at the top of the shelves. Among the 4 monitored innovations, no facing was at eye level in one third of the cases! Visibility work is to be carried out in all points of sale.
3. Support launches with POS advertising
POS is an effective lever to offer visibility to the product and triggers the shopper’s interest.
For Topo Chico, who entered the hard seltzer category, which was still unknown in France a few months ago, the need to be highlighted on the shelves is all the more important. Despite an average of 12 facings and eye level positioning in 7 out of 10 stores, the innovation of the Coca-Cola group was the most difficult to find. Without POS in 88% of cases, the products fail to stand out in the beer department.