2006 NEW PRODUCT PACESETTERS: NEW CPG BRAND LEADERS
 EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
FEB/MARCH 2007

IRI's Times & Trends highlights new developments and critical events across all major CPG categories and channels, providing powerful benchmarking data to help guide your strategic decisions. This issue summarizes findings from the annual IRI New Product Pacesetters report, which ranks the most successful new CPG products. This free summary is also accessible via the GMA/FPA Web site at http://www.gmabrands.com/publications/gmairi.cfm

INTRODUCTION
Now in its twelfth year, the annual IRI New Product Pacesetters report celebrates the year’s most successful new CPG brands. These brands truly beat the odds: less than one quarter of new brands exceed the $7.5 million hurdle for year-one sales that is required to earn Pacesetter status.

The New Product Pacesetters illustrate that despite low historical success rates, success is attainable.
This report provides a detailed assessment of this year’s winners to reveal the product benefits that resonated with consumers, the trends to watch for future new product opportunity and sales benchmarks to consider when evaluating new product introductions.


 KEY FINDINGS

2006 was a highly active year for CPG new product introductions. This past year was one of the most active in recent history with over 1,700 new CPG products introduced; success rates, however, have changed little over the past decade, with less than 5 percent reaching $50 million or more in year-one sales.
 

Health and wellness remain top priorities. Healthy options offering convenience and sacrifice-free taste dominated the food and beverage top-10 Pacesetters, led by Kraft South Beach Diet and Dreyer’s Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream. Consumers rallied around new products that make healthier eating simple and easy.

Leading new non-food brands offered enhanced performance. This year’s non-foods Pacesetters continued to raise the performance bar, with two-thirds offering enhanced consumer experiences through new technologies or improved effectiveness. Number one Pacesetter Gillette Fusion is a prime example.

Consumer choice continues to multiply as new varieties are introduced. The proportion of Pacesetters offering new varieties increased substantially versus the historical average this year in both food and beverage and non-foods. As manufacturers and retailers increasingly seek growth among niche segments, market trends will drive more targeted varieties over the next several years.

Manufacturers are seeking sustainable differentiation through new brands. Growth in the use of new recipes, new formulas and new technologies points to increased manufacturer efforts to create sustainable differentiation. These advances are presumably more difficult to replicate than single flavor extensions, for instance.

Convenience is back. After a lull in the number of new products introduced with convenience benefits over the past two years, convenience is back and is stronger than ever with a host of successful new life-simplifying products. This is good news for consumers, whose convenience needs have never waned and who look for convenience as a critical benefit paired with other high-demand benefits including health and wellness and enhanced performance.

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Source: IRI's Times & Trends Reports
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services to the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries.