We’re lucky to work in the food industry. How many other industries are there where it’s so easy to see what our trade customers and competitors are doing? With the growth of online shopping and data providers like Acuity Pricing it’s not even necessary to leave the office.
If you are embarking on a new product development (NPD) or reformulation project, it’s important to visit as many stores in person and online as possible.
But why? We’re all busy with meetings to attend and reports to write – surely, you’re not going to learn much from visiting some stores? You’d be surprised. Often store visits can be the catalyst for a new product, new packaging or reformulation. For example, seeing competitors gain shelf space and end-aisle promotions because they’ve addressed some of the challenges of high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) legislation may convince colleagues to reformulate more quickly than planned.
If you supply supermarkets, you’ll be disadvantaged if you’re not in stores at least once a week. This is a very fast-moving industry. Prices change at the press of a button, promotions change frequently, new products are always being launched, and stores don’t always wait for the range review to change their merchandising.
A former Tesco buying colleague used to religiously visit the same set of competitors’ stores every week. He was checking for the same things that he expected his suppliers to be aware of: new products, promotions, packaging changes, changes in adjacencies, new merchandising, etc.
When I worked in the Tesco buying team, every Tuesday at 7am I met the trading director and a buyer in store. We reviewed pricing, merchandising, packaging, how new products had landed and reviewed what was happening on shelf. Retail really is detail, and not all the details are visible on a screen or in a market research report. The trading director became Tesco’s chief operating officer, and he continued to visit stores, so I guess store visits must have their use.
If you can’t manage physical store visits on a weekly basis then online stores are still an invaluable source of information. When it comes to new product development, retailers like Ocado, Planet Organic and Starry Mart often stock more niche products than the biggest supermarkets. These can provide a wealth of product ideas for your own category.
Overseas stores are a useful source of inspiration for NPD too. If you can’t persuade your business to send you abroad for store visits, adopt some American zip codes (or Australian postcodes) and register for home shopping – it’s a great way to see product innovation.
At ZERO2FIVE we’ve helped numerous companies to better understand their categories before developing new products or reformulating. Thanks to Food and Drink Wales and the HELIX Programme we can access data and consumer insights from sources such as the Food People and GlobalData. This desk research combined with a client’s understanding of their category gained from store visits is a great start for NPD.
With a bit of planning, a sat nav and a commitment to see more stores, you’ll learn more about customers, competitors, new products and gaps in the market than you will from spending another hour in a Teams call.
Martin Sutherland
Commercial and Marketing Director, ZERO2FIVE
