CPG Success

According to a new report by Catalina Marketing, 1.5 percent of shoppers determine the success or failure of a new CPG product. The findings of the report add to a flurry of recent data that support the absolute need for superior execution of at-retail merchandising and marketing services. The study looked at the purchasing behavior of 41 million consumers at 20,000 food, drug and mass stores. Here are a few of the top line observations from the report:

Just 1.5 percent of shoppers made up 80 percent of volume for the average new product in the study.

These shoppers were worth 1.6 times the value of the average new product buyer.

Top category buyers were 3.8 times more likely to try a new product than the average shopper.

Top brand buyers were 5.8 times more likely to try a new brand extension in the category.

Top category and brand buyers repeated at a significantly higher rate, 19 percent and 28 percent greater than average.

The battle for market share goes on daily at-retail. These findings show that the top category shoppers that are responsible for a large percentage of sales are also way more likely to shift brands if they encounter shelf conditions like out-of-stocks, missing shelf labels or distribution voids. They are also highly open to sampling new products.

These are just a few of the nuggets of information contained in the report. You can download your copy here. The bottom line is that the data seems to support the notion that just a small amount of shoppers drive the success of a new product. That makes the target small, concentrated and way too valuable to risk by failing to execute at the store and shelf level.