- It seemed like a good idea, but you didn’t ask the consumers.
Does your food product solve a real-world consumer problem?
Does it satisfy a real-world consumer need?
Does it make real-world consumers feel good about themselves?
If you want to launch a successful food product, you need to be able to answer at least one of these questions in the affirmative. The best way to do that is to get your target consumers involved from the start. This might mean mining them for product ideas or soliciting feedback on concepts before you jump into development. Either way, your consumer base is a valuable resource you’re going to want to use if you want your food products to be successful.
- Your sales and marketing team never talked to the research and development team.
While it’s important to have defined roles within any company, keeping teams too separate will only hinder the success of your food product. For example, your research and development teams need to know what your target consumers want and why. Your sales and marketing teams will benefit from understanding more about the why and how of research and development. And your executives will be able to make better decisions regarding which new product ideas to pursue if they’re collecting input from everyone first. Sharing knowledge enables the entire company to work towards the common goal of creating a successful food product and decreasing failed food products.
- The competition beat you to market.
You just launched a food product that hundreds of consumers said they wanted, but your sales are lackluster to non-existent. What happened? The answer could be a lack of market research. Maybe your competitors launched a similar product at the same time. Perhaps there were already too many products that satisfy the same need or solve the same problem and they’re limiting your market share? If you don’t analyze your competitors and take a close look at the products already on store shelves in your segment before you sink dollars into development, you’re risking a failed food product.
- The price wasn’t right.
It’s also possible for food products to fail if their price is higher than their target consumers are willing to pay or too low to make a profit. This is another area in which market research is essential. If you don’t understand the spending habits of your target market, you risk pricing your food product out of their budget. And if you price it too low to try to grab sales from the competition, you may not make enough profit to sustain production. Michigan State University has an interesting article on pricing your food product for profit here.
- Your marketing efforts were focused on the wrong targets.
If you want your new food product to be successful, you have to maximize the number of consumers who know about it and have access to it. In the case of a food product that is sold direct to consumers, this might mean online advertising on the right websites, social media ad campaigns, or even email campaigns. But for companies who rely on sales in the grocery sector, the approach should be very different. Reaching consumers means getting your food product on grocery shelves–and that requires focusing your marketing on the retailers themselves.
FreshSource represents premier food brands and growing manufacturing companies in every aisle of the supermarket. We have relationships with premier retailers across the U.S. and can facilitate product resets, pop-installs, and displays for new food brands and products (food broker). Learn more about what we do and how we can help you avoid food product failure at freshsource.info.