Most Successful New Products of 2009
March 22, 2010 - Information Resources Inc. (IRI) releases a list of the most successful new consumer packaged goods food and beverage brands and non-food brands of 2009. The report, titled "New Product Pacesetters", analyzes exceptional first year sales success for newly launched products. It highlights brands that have achieved stellar results, featuring innovations designed to cater to consumer needs and desires in a recessionary environment characterized by frugal habits and overall hesitance to try new products.
"These brands represent true attention to detail when it comes to delivering what consumers want and need in a difficult economy," says IRI Business Insights Practice Executive Vice President Anne Berlack. "In 2009, New Product Pacesetters scored big despite the challenges of launching new products in an era of conservative and rapidly transforming consumer shopping behaviors."
"These brands represent true attention to detail when it comes to delivering what consumers want and need in a difficult economy," says IRI Business Insights Practice Executive Vice President Anne Berlack. "In 2009, New Product Pacesetters scored big despite the challenges of launching new products in an era of conservative and rapidly transforming consumer shopping behaviors."
Here are the results with analysis from IRI:
The top 10 food and beverage brands of 2009 are reflective of consumers looking for fun, interesting products for at-home and from-home dining with a greater focus on wellness.
"Many consumers feel hesitant about trying new brands during tough economic times," says Berlack. "As a result, we've seen tremendous growth from brand extensions, bringing to market a new product by leveraging a pre-existing, trusted brand."
These brand extensions have historically not outsold newly-developed brands, but, this year, they've succeeded by providing a fun twist on a traditional product and/or by delivering against consumer values of maintaining high-quality and health-wise meals and snacks that can be enjoyed at home or on the run. Among these products are low-calorie, low-sodium soup and high-fiber whole grain bread.
In the non-food segment, the top products showcase the same self-reliance and "do-it-at-home" strategies as the most popular food and beverage brands. From health care to beauty care, shoppers are saving money by giving themselves treatments at home and relying on over-the-counter health products. People also snapped up products that made their daily routines more efficient or pleasant.
As with the food and beverage categories, non-food product introductions were largely extensions of well known and trusted brands in 2009. In fact, across both segments, more than 90 percent of 2009's New Product Pacesetters are brand extensions, highlighting manufacturers' focus on offering new products with trusted brand equity behind them to attract skittish shoppers.
The findings of this report were compiled based on IRI New Product Profiler, IRI Consumer Network and IRI InfoScan Reviews. To download the full report, visit http://us.infores.com/Insights/Publications/TimesTrends/tabid/106/Default.aspx.