One of the challenges facing many FMCG marketers today is the LAPD of NPD

The issue is that too many new products or services are being “caught” by the LAPD…

• Launch (in a blaze of glory and if you’re lucky some A&P in year 1)
• Abandon (budgets get cut, focus shifts to next big thing and so sales drop)
• Panic (ensues)
• (Retailers’) Delist

The reality of increasing product portfolios, continual pressure for new news and increasing media costs, means that the old models of innovation need to be reviewed

Our experience suggests that there needs to more focus in the development stage on

• The development of clearer, simpler and stronger propositions and their supporting reasons to believe coupled with the use of more initial idea screening
• The role and development of the pack -the silent salesmen – which must work harder and often is the most important communication vehicle the new product will have. This in turn leads to more Packcept or Pack focused research – rather than full concept testing.  The rationale being that the consumer won’t get to see or hear all the “words” there are on a standard concept – or the communication that would have done this role – so a truer test is to focus on the pack

In the connected retail environment developing in the UK the trend for social, location based and mobile forms of exchange are on the increase. Fuelled by growth in smartphones and data networks the integration of the digital world with the in store shopping experience is on the rise. Two thirds of smartphone users in the US say they use them while in store, with 9% using them for coupon redemption. The latter point highlights that it’s not only technological shifts driving the behaviour; economic conditions are also leading shoppers to make smarter decisions using whatever platform they have at their disposal.

I’ve seen recently that shopper marketing departments are growing and the focus of many is to understand how digital integration can support and enhance the shopper experience. It’s a noble quest and one I’m sure will pay dividends in the future. If shopper marketing planning fails to recognise that a great deal of shoppers research and planning is affected digitally and via social media, even for in-store purchases, then they could be missing out.

Key to understanding the role of integrated media for brands in the shopping environment is as follows:

• Forget AIDA – what does the journey now look like and where can/does digital play a role?

• Get SoLoMo – Bring shoppers the right content, media or offers at the right time using their smartphones as the intermediary.

• There is no single answer – research how the role of digital integration can function most effectively in your category and for your shoppers.

At the Value Engineers our Digital Strategy Team can help with all three.

To find out how your brand can be lucky in love this year, take a look at our Valentine’s Quiz and make your way through the relationships maze. When you get to the bottom, you’ll discover our secrets to building a happier, more fulfilling relationship with your consumer…

Our research predicted back in May that Obama would win a second term but also that he would win the swing states of Ohio and Florida (currently being processed Obama winning with 97% of votes collated) AND we also beat the pollsters and the bookies in all the states we tested in (Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Texas).

Why Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Texas? Because we knew that they have predicted the results of the election in 12 of the previous 13 elections.

Bookies had Romney as the favourite to win Florida and whilst it was continually polled in October, Romney was considered by most to be the eventual winner.

And we also know which parts of the candidates’ propositions drove voters’ choices!

Just think how our approach might be drive successful concept testing and portfolio management!

Apple has being using the name of Ax chips for quite a while in iPhone advertising, but the rest of the market has kept relatively quiet, preferring to boast about number of cores and gigahertz. But this seems to be changing, as component brands show attempts to play a more prominent role.

One example was a recent advertising campaign by Snapdragon, run across different countries. And then came even more recent one in a form of a cooperative campaign by Motorola and Intel for the new RAZR i smartphone.

These are quite similar examples of ingredient branding, but the history behind these two brands is not the same. While Intel is a chip manufacturer well-known from the early “Intel inside” days and now stretching into mobile, Snapdragon, despite being widely used, seems to be less well known to general smartphone buying public. Nevertheless, it looks that Qualcomm (owner of the Snapdragon brand) has decided to change the situation and is move the brand from tech specification sheets into the consumer mind.

Thus, what we’re getting is another layer to the war of brands in the smartphone category. The top one is a master brand, e.g. Apple vs. Samsung, vs. Nokia. Then comes the layer of sub-brands or product lines: e.g. iPhone vs. Galaxy vs. RAZR. And now, not even mentioning various operating systems, we have an intensifying competition of branded components: A6 vs. Snapdragon vs. Atom… For iPhone, the overall experience and the eco-system make technical components somewhat irrelevant; but for the kingdom of Android, the specs often make the difference and this where the ingredient branding is trying to fight its battle.

It would be very interesting to see how this will unfold and whether any substantial amount of consumers would ever care about the brand of the chip-set in their phone to substantiate Qualcomm’s or Intel’s investments in this type of communication…