What will make consumers buy your new product? Motivation is not enough…
- Consumer’s mind
When I visited the Vitafoods exhibition in Geneva in early May (Vitafoods is the annual European exhibition of functional ingredients) I heard colleagues in the healthy food and beverage industry witness that the number of new product launches were down as much as 50% in some categories, because of the recession. This made me recall some figures from GfK a couple of years ago about the danger of not launching new products. In a German study they compared Loser Brands and Winner Brands and the fact was that only 19% of Loser brands introduced new products compared to 63% of the Winner brands. So the analysis is clear - a winning brand is an innovative brand.
But since we also know that between 70 and 80% of all launches fail or perform below category average it isn´t enough to be just innovative. You must really know what will make the consumer choose your new product. And to focus on consumer motivation is not enough. According to GfK 58% of products flopped due to over-promising.
When we look at success factors of the Winning brands, it is clear that they understand how to give you both Motivation to buy and Permission to buy. The motivation to buy is what makes you reach out for a new product, grab it from the shelf and hold it up for a first inspection. Permission to buy is what makes you put the product back on the shelf or into your shopping basket. (Read more about Motivation/Permission in Wennström’s Four Factors of Success.)
As an example, “I really love chocolate, but I have promised myself to watch my weight. But this new dark chocolate with natural antioxidants from organic plantations really makes me feel good about my choice, so I give myself permission to buy”.
If you want to get more permission to buy chocolatre, just scroll down to the news about Chocolate being good for your brain below.
Enjoy!
PW
Apparently, 80% of persuasion is done on an emotional basis, with only 20% of a decision is made in a left-brain, logical way so brands should not be afraid to speak to consumer’s feelings.