NPD:
KNOW WHAT MATTERS TO SHOPPERS
Andrew Arnold, NZ Country Manager, Shopper Intelligence, shares insights into New Product Development (NPD) and why it’s important to get your strategy right. WHAT’S DRIVING YOUR NPD? HINT: IT SHOULD BE YOUR SHOPPER! In a previous life on the supplier side, I recall having a conversation with a category buyer covering the usual topics – promos, pricing, ranging etc – when the conversation turned to NPD. ‘When were we going to be launching a new product?’, I was asked. My reply was that I didn’t know, as our NPD cycle was driven by offshore markets and we rarely if ever produced something new specifically for New Zealand. The buyer replied that she was a bit confused by my answer as ‘this category needs NPD to cycle against sales from previous years’. At the time that comment didn’t really register with me a great deal, but in recent years as I have been working in shopper data I often think back on that conversation. The truth is, the role of NPD is so much more than just a tool to cycle against sales. And a crucial 10 THE SHOUT NZ – SEPTEMBER 2021
component of your NPD strategy is to know what matters to shoppers, and how that influences how you should do it. FISH WHERE THE FISH ARE Retailers will want NPD, that is obvious. They have their reasons. But it’s vital to know what role your shoppers see NPD playing in their minds. The reality is, there are going to be different attitudes to NPD across different categories and different shopper groups – some categories will have shoppers that expect NPD on a regular basis, but there will also be categories where NPD will just get in the way if it’s done too often. Take the example of craft beer or craft cider: these are categories where shoppers have very high expectations of NPD, which means they expect to see new things on a constant conveyor belt. Not highlighting new products or new ranges
Andrew Arnold, NZ Country Manager, Shopper Intelligence With 20 years’ worth of experience in NZ FMCG, Andrew has worked in a wide variety of sales and insights roles with the likes of Red Bull, Gordon & Gotch and Energizer. During his career he has led sales and insights teams to develop insight-led strategies that drive both retailer and category growth.