Innovation and promotions vs. growth in retailers
This week – innovation and promotions vs. growth in retailers: new product introductions are a key driver; but more promotions are not!
Also, global FMCG trends in March show declines but the market remains much higher than historical norms.
Like for manufacturer brands, new products in retailers are an important driver of share growth. On average over 5 years, the most successful share winners introduced 30% more new products than share losers. Retailers need new products to grow.
- Comparing the biggest retailer share gains by category vs the biggest losses, there is no difference between the amount of the category being bought on promotion. So promotions have to be in line with competition but no higher or lower.
- As expected there was a downturn in the FMCG market in March compared with the peak lockdown panic last year. But globally and for W.Europe this still represents a significant increase vs 2019. The global patterns of decline in Feb.20 and increase in Feb.21 are due to Chinese New Year which was very low in 2020 due to the earlier lockdown.