Shopper marketing blog

Launching new products in the New Year can be quite an adventure, it's no secret that the road to success for any NPD is filled with many bumps and mostly arrives at a dead end. As reported by Harvard Business Review, a staggering 90% of new products face failure within their first year, despite the substantial investments by FMCG manufacturers in R&D, marketing, and advertising.

To help your new products have the best possible start in the New Year, we'll explain the crucial role of consumer reviews. Here are four compelling reasons why securing a good number of consumer reviews as early as possible is essential for the success of your new offerings.

PS For even more on why reviews are critical for NPD, see our post 10 Reasons why Shopper Reviews are vital for Successful New Products.

Are you preparing to launch new products? Harvard Business Review reports that 90% of new products fail within the first year, despite significant investments in research, development, marketing, and advertising.

To improve your chances of success, it's important to obtain consumer reviews as soon as possible. Here are ten reasons why consumer reviews are crucial for all new grocery products:

 Reasons why shopper reviews are critical to new products are:

1. Answering for shoppers: "Will I like it?"
2. For instant shopper credibility
3. You look like a bestseller
4. Shopper read reviews for products they don't know
5. The in-store opportunity
6. Reap long term benefits
7. Increasing popularity of reviews with shoppers
8. Your competitors are growing reviews
9. Actionable insights
10. Avoid early delists

We surveyed members of CheckoutSmart to understand their experiences of shopping during Covid-19 and their views on how their behaviour will change when things "more or less return to normal". In total 4,324 members responded, over 3,100 of whom are also online grocery shoppers. 

The survey focused on how their grocery shopping experience had changed pre and during Covid-19 restrictions and their personal expectations on how their behaviour will change going forward. This blog article contains a summary of the most relevant results. More detail on specific topics may be available, please contact us to hear more.

The most significant finding is that online shopping could still grow even faster post Covid if retailers can address the two major concerns shoppers have of slot availability (which is surely just a matter of time) and the cost of delivery which must surely come down with scale and the the recent move by Amazon. 

With all the pressure from retailers and the fact that many brands have postponed their FMCG NPD launches until the second half of the year, we thought it would be helpful to review the shopper marketing options available to support NPD in supermarkets.

For those new to working with the major supermarket retailers in the UK, navigating your way through the variety of shopper marketing options can seem like the proverbial minefield. We've spent the best many years working for FMCG suppliers and supporting them as an agency. With our collective experience, we have broken down the pros and cons of each option in the hopes it will help you identify the best course for your product's unique marketing challenge.

We've grouped our thoughts under the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself when you are planning a shopper marketing campaign:

The 3Ps of Supermarket Shopper Marketing

When launching your long-planned and lovingly-developed grocery NPD into supermarkets, it’s critical that it appeals to and is tried by the target consumers. Getting it into the hands, baskets and homes of the right grocery shoppers can be a daunting task, but here’s what you need to remember and how to go about it.

Supermarket shoppers are the key to NPD success as they are the ones who actually pick the product off the shelves and take it home, regardless of whether they, or someone else in their household is the end consumer. This is the crux of  Shopper Marketing and understanding the art  of getting shoppers to Pause, Pick up & Pay for your product is known as the 3 Ps of shopper marketing.