For FMCG companies, new product development is becoming increasingly important due to the growing richness and diversity of consumer demands. In actual marketing practice, many companies do place new product development in an important position, but why do most new products fail to achieve the expected success?
The product's claim is far from the true voice of consumers. With the development of the market economy and intensified competition, the variety of products in the market is increasingly rich, and consumers have a wider range of choices. The only criterion for a product to be ultimately accepted by consumers is whether it effectively satisfies a unique need of consumers. Products that fail to truly meet consumer needs will eventually be eliminated from the market, no matter how exquisite the packaging or low the price. Similarly, new products must fully satisfy a unique consumer need. However, in practice, many companies do not carefully analyze and research consumer needs before launching new products. They do not take the time to truly listen to the voice of consumers. Instead, they determine the concept and claim of the new product based solely on their own "inspiration" or idea, without effective testing. This often results in a concept and claim that the company thinks is good but is far from the true voice of consumers.
Insufficient analysis of target consumer behavior characteristics. The essence of marketing is to serve a segment of people. Specifically, any product cannot meet the needs of all consumers simultaneously; it can only satisfy a portion. In other words, different products correspond to different target consumers, who exhibit different consumption characteristics and preferences. However, in actual marketing, many companies only have a rough description of the target consumers before launching a new product. In most cases, they only define the gender and age range, without deeply studying the consumption characteristics and preferences. For example, what is the daily life trajectory of target consumers? What are their hobbies? When, where, and why do they consume the product? Without a deep understanding of target consumers, it is naturally difficult for a new product to truly resonate with them.
The new product is far from the company's original positioning. During development, a company leaves a relatively fixed impression on consumers, i.e., what the company does and what types of products it mainly produces. Considering changes in consumer needs, competitive environment, and the company's current situation, many companies adopt diversification or transformation strategies, such as a computer company diversifying into agricultural products, or a candy company transitioning to biscuits. When a new product is far from the company's original product category, it naturally surprises consumers. Due to the deep-rooted impression of the company, target consumers will doubt the "professionalism" of the new product, and acceptance will be discounted.
The company's brand awareness is not strong enough. Many companies launch new products merely to increase sales, without the intention or strong awareness of building a brand. As the I Ching says: "Aim high, and you may reach the middle; aim at the middle, and you may reach the low." If the goal of a new product is only to increase sales, the success rate is naturally predictable.
Simple copying and imitation. This is the most common pitfall in new product development for domestic companies. Many companies do not conduct market research or target consumer studies; they simply launch similar products when they see what sells well in the market. The so-called new products differ from successful existing products only in packaging or specifications, or even worse, they are blatant imitations. In practice, the most common phenomenon is that many private enterprises blindly copy the product categories, packaging, and specifications of well-known foreign companies, competing mainly through price wars and low-price competition. Such "new" products lack innovation and naturally struggle to succeed.
Excessive novelty. Unlike simple imitation, many companies pursue "new," "novel," and "special" features, resulting in overly unconventional new products. Many new products have novel packaging that catches the eye, but consumers need to look carefully for a long time to understand what the product is and its core claim. Another situation is that many new products pursue overly novel or professional concepts (e.g., functional foods using scientific language to emphasize function claims), but because the concepts are too novel or professional, target consumers do not understand them, and such products are naturally avoided.
Monotonous promotion methods. New product development has a strict scientific process from idea generation, concept formation, R&D, launch, and promotion. However, in actual marketing, most domestic companies are relatively "hasty" in promoting new products. Companies with resources may do some advertising at the initial launch, but for most with limited resources, they often just gather distributors for a new product launch meeting, offer stronger promotions than for old products, and consider it launched. At the same time, promotion methods are monotonous, relying only on channel promotions or low-price competition, lacking brand promotion activities that deeply communicate with target consumers, thus greatly reducing the success rate.
Unreasonable profit distribution among channel members. The success of new products depends on the efforts of channel members. The reason is simple: only through the promotion of channel members at all levels can new products achieve "face-to-face" contact with consumers. In actual promotion, due to the non-transparent pricing of new products, first-level distributors often intercept promotional resources intended for sub-distributors and terminals to seek excessive profits, directly leading to low enthusiasm at the terminal to sell new products, making success difficult.
Poor channel service quality. For channel members, new products mean high profits but also high risks. For distributors, if new products sell poorly, it means inventory backlog and capital occupation; for terminals, if new products move slowly, there is a risk of expiration. In reality, many companies turn a blind eye to distributor inventory backlog and terminal product nearing expiration or expired. Such channel service levels naturally cannot contribute to the success of new products.
Lack of persistence. Every product has its life cycle, and new products are no exception. For new products, it takes a long period of promotion or growth for target consumers to accept them. As mentioned at the beginning, the variety of new products is increasing, and companies are launching new products faster, so consumers are accustomed to new products and promotional activities, which invisibly extends the promotion period. Therefore, it is unrealistic for any new product to achieve rapid success in the short term. In actual marketing, many companies do not persist in promoting new products; if they do not see rapid growth in the short term, they easily give up. Then they hastily launch other new products, falling into a vicious cycle of development-promotion-abandonment-redevelopment, wasting resources and making success increasingly difficult.
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