p176-177 - Adam Bass.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 14/09/2018 16:38 Page 176
THE BASS LINE
A fail safe idea Learning the lessons of failure
As a longish-in-the-tooth licensing agent who has been present at the conception, birth and death of more new products than he’d like to remember, Golden Goose’s Adam Bass recommends that every NPD team should have one member tasked with the following…
Typically it is an organisation’s sales team who play a key role in developing and floating new concepts with their retail buyers. Retail buyers are desperate for consumer-dazzling in-store innovation: their shelfspace and overstock risk on a new product is tiny compared to a manufacturer so, provided the product idea is credible and the manufacturer is prepared Here are some to fund promotions and intechniques your store marketing, the average Head of Failure retail buyer is minded to say might like to yes more often than you might expect. Despite this, implement: once the buyer has indicated • Hold a pre-mortem interest, organisations tend In his book Thinking, Fast to rush forward to hit ranging and Slow, Daniel deadlines, blindly bringing a Kahneman suggests that, new product blinking into the world Above: Market research before every project or new initiative is backed, into consumer behaviour that consumers don’t necessarily want meant P&G had to add a team meeting is held called a ‘pre-mortem’. or need. It doesn’t have to be this way… fragrance to their odour The aim of this exercise is to fast-forward a neutralizing Febreze. dystopian year into the future, strip away the Promote the Voice of Dissent intoxication of anticipated success and explain why the project failed – and then do everything possible How many of your business development and to avoid these explanations. innovations team are pessimists? I’m guessing none. We recently held a pre-mortem four months My suggestion is that every organisation should before the launch of a range of new products promote someone – working job title ‘Head of Failure’ under the Men’s Health brand. The exercise helped - to pursue any new product idea until they have fully us to hold back a marketing campaign that would answered the question “Why will this product fail?” otherwise have been focused on one new My contention is that organisations need a Head of product that was going to launch earlier than a Failure to rebut weak arguments as per the complete range. following examples below:
Argument for NPD
Counter Argument against NPD
l The total market share is £600M so all we need is 5% market share, which will gives us £30M in sales.
l The total category Advertising and Promotion budget is £1.2Bn so to achieve 5% market share will require an investment of £60M.
l This new product hits the trend for spicy Mexican flavours.
l The new trend for spicy Mexican flavours is already yesterday’s news and was only driven by a small group of early adopting consumers.
l The product is an exciting innovation that consumers want and understand.
l Consumers do not understand or want the innovation.
l The competition is stale and the category has not seen much innovation.
l The competition will react to our innovation by copying it and spending money to force us out of the market.
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LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2018