Hasta La Creative!

As most marketers know, product launches don’t prove their worth in the first year. It’s year two that really counts, as consumers either make repeat purchases or move on to the next shiny object. And the truth is, most new products fail to clear this hurdle.

But who has made it? And what can be learned? Nielsen gives some clues in its 2013 “breakthrough innovation report,” which singles out 14 winners after examining more than 3,400 consumer packaged-goods that hit shelves in 2011. All of the winners achieved at least 90% of year-one sales in year two.

Some of them come from some pretty staid categories like dinner kits and oral care. But they all relied on what Nielsen describes as “demand-driven insight,” or identifying the “unarticulated desires, partially expressed needs and recurring frustrations in consumers’ lives” which is a lot easier said than done.

Continue reading at AdAge.com