The First Year’s a Charm; IRI’s take on CPG launches

IRI has unveiled its list of the most successful consumer packaged goods (CPG) launches of 2016 in its New Product Pacesetters report, a benchmark analysis of exceptional first-year CPG sales success for newly launched products.  


“The top product launches of 2016 highlight the three P’s of successful innovation—prevention, personalization and pizzazz,” said Susan Viamari, vice president of thought leadership for IRI. “Each plays an essential role in driving awareness and engagement in today’s marketplace. Personalization is perhaps the most talked about, and desired, phenomenon in marketing today. Keying in on consumer preferences is critical because of the sheer volume of information in front of people at any given time. Products that are delivering small and powerfully targeted solutions that grab consumers’ attention and make them feel and look great are resonating and making a huge impact.”


“Technology and know-how are allowing CPG marketers to not only understand consumer needs and wants, but also to respond to them more effectively than ever before,” added Larry Levin, executive vice president of consumer and shopper marketing for IRI. Technology-enabled personalization is making a powerful statement by helping consumers get better results and experience excitement and relaxation in the ways they prefer—a factor that is “abundantly clear” across the wide range of 100 top-performing non-food brands, which had median year-one dollar sales of $17.6 million, according to IRI.


The leading personal care launch came from Gillette. The razor brand’s parent company, P&G, also topped the charts with Tide, Crest and Old Spice. L’Oréal and Henkel also made the top 10 with Garnier and Persil, respectively.


“As a result, average year-one dollar sales from even the most impactful new product launches are continuing to decline, a trend we noted in Pacesetters during the last couple years. Certainly, mega launches surpassing $100 million are still occurring, but the brands in the middle of the pack are getting the squeeze as smaller, more targeted brands are capturing a growing share of Pacesetter sales,” said Levin.


More info: IRI New Product Pacesetters