The most successful products are those marketed for their health and fitness benefits, and more specifically, for their medical and weight-loss performance.
XTC collects and stores information about innovations according to their positioning in 35 countries, including France.
5 main classifications are used: pleasure, health, fitness, convenience and ethics.
On top of these classifications, there is a second level of categorisation to refine the positioning: health is subdivided into medicinal, plant-based and natural, pleasure into sophistication, exoticism, fun or variety of sensations, and fitness into weight-loss, cosmetics and energy/well-being.
TNS Worldpanel collects information from its consumer panel of 20,000 households to measure the performance of products in terms of the volume purchased and the levels of trials and repurchase.
Which categories of positioning are used the most?
Nearly half of all launches focus on pleasure and ¼ on convenience
It is worth pointing out that in terms of evolution, the trends which are used more and more are sophistication, weight-loss, plant-based products, the environment and saving time.
Which categories of positioning enjoy the most success?
Overall, products in the Health and Fitness categories have the highest success rates, and in particular medicinal and weight-loss products, followed by variety of sensations.
While the demand for medicinal properties in foods is not yet as high as in the United States, it does seem as though French people are more and more interested in the healing virtues of their food, at least in terms of the effects the products that they consume have on the body.
Are the successful positioning categories the same in all markets?
Some trends are “universal” in terms of success: the medicinal benefits perform well in almost all markets where this category has been used, as does weight-loss.
When the innovation is focused on the very essence of the market and consistently so, it works better:
- Pleasure in pleasure-related markets…
- Sophistication for alcoholic drinks and chocolate.
- Fun for confectionary and biscuits.
The Time-saving category works better in markets which already focus on saving time when preparing meals: tinned vegetables, starchy foods and frozen products.
Are the success rates the same in all target consumer groups?
While products marketed according to their medicinal or weight-loss properties enjoy the same success rates whatever the socio-demographic targets might be, some trends only appear in some: Fun and the Mobile culture among children, or natural benefits among the elderly.
This survey has been designed to help manufacturers focus their innovation work on the benefits that consumers are now looking for.
Isabelle Kaiffer, marketing director at TNS Worldpanel, and Olivier Hausheer, XTC director explain: “innovation that fails costs companies so much that it is a very good idea to maximise a product’s chance at success. The ability to meet consumers’ expectations according to markets or consumer profiles, benefiting from an extensive database, gives food companies a huge advantage.”
The “Innovations: winning positioning” survey is based on the analysis of 3,700 food products launched in France between June 2006 and June 2008, observed over a period of one year and covering all food markets.
If you would like to use or quote any of this information: source Panel TNS Worldpanel and XTC
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