Valvoline Easy Pour Bottle Voted Product Of The Year

Dutch brewing brand Heineken impressed judges with its exciting blend of drink genres, Strongbow Rosé Cider – made with blush red apples – a worthy winner of the alcohol category. On the lower ABV end of the scale is an American import, the hard seltzer, a tantalizing blend of alcohol and sparkling water. According to a recent report published by drinks brand Drty, the value of the hard seltzer category in the UK is a staggering £10.4m and growing. Ahead of the curve with its own take on the trend is Echo Falls Blueberry & Hibiscus Rosé Seltzer, a low-alcohol, calorie-light drink. Product of the Year winner and the aptly named Smashed Pale Ale is so convincing you might forget its alcohol count is close to zero.

Nothing’s worse than returning from the grocery store and realizing you forgot to put a household staple on your list, let alone put it in your cart. Or say you go to feed the dog or start the laundry and behold — the food bag is empty, and you used the last detergent pod yesterday. Consumer trends are a subject of intense study for brands — and of fascination for consumers, too.

Considering less than 10% of plastic ever made has been recycled— partially due to the varying success levels of recycling programs around the world — this type of packaging could help make recycling easier for the average consumer. Of consumers are actively looking for information about sustainability or recycling on packaging. Gen Z, whose members range from about age 11 to 25, is the consumer group most coveted by CPG brands.

Product Of The Year Usa Announces 2021 Award Winners

A new methodology for capturing customer input promises to galvanize the innovation process.  Technology leader of Air Filtration Media business with KC – Developed ground breaking new filter media used by major consumer products companies, e.g. 3M and Lowes, achieving double-digit annual sales growth every year. During this webinar, Building design hear the latest insights gleaned from IRI’s New Product Pacesetters™ study, an annual industry-recognized benchmark analysis of newly-launched CPG products that have achieved exceptional first-year sales. These brands are textbook examples of innovation done right and show what consumers want and need from CPG brands.

With winners across 41 unique categories, the innovative products were awarded Product of the Year through a national study of 40,000 consumers conducted by Kantar, a global leader in consumer research. Insights are provided via custom solutions and collaborative tools based on proprietary behavioral frameworks to help find answers faster, improving your speed-to and success-in market.

Product Of The Year Usa Announces 2020 Award Winners

For example, Nissan Design managed to figure out—through questioning and using leather samples—how U.S. customers wanted their new cars to smell. Harley-Davidson’s devoted customers can talk about how their motorcycles sound. They are able to express what they want because of their extensive experience with the product category and their educated, sophisticated tastes. Over the last decade, much has been written about the importance of listening to customers, and companies have spent millions of dollars trying to get inside the heads of their users.

For example, people asked to perform a task requiring the use of a wire are strikingly less likely to think of unbending a paper clip if they are given the clip attached to papers than if they see the clip loose. Another problem is that people may not be able to conceive of a solution because they have apparently contradictory needs. Kimberly-Clark wrestled with this problem when it developed Huggies diapers. Parents told researchers they didn’t want their toddlers to wear diapers any more; at the same time, they didn’t want their children to wet the bed. But the fact is, the traditional approach of asking customers for solutions tends to undermine the innovation process. (To learn more about the psychology of customers’ needs, see the sidebar “The Limitations of Listening,” by Harvard Business School professor Dorothy Leonard.) Customers only know what they have experienced. They cannot imagine what they don’t know about emergent technologies, new materials, and the like.

Product Spark

At the time, the company dominated the market for recreational watercraft. When it asked users what could be done to improve the Jet Ski’s ride, customers requested extra padding on the vehicle’s sides to make the standing position more comfortable.

Yet the question of how to listen to “the voice of the customer” remains a matter of debate. Because what researchers hear depends upon the degree to which customers know what they are talking about. As president of his consulting firm, he works directly with clients to plan and develop strategies for a successful innovation pipeline. He guides them to understand insights in their target markets and in planning for the rapid commercial success of the products they launch.

Innovation Management Coaching – Leadership coaching on innovation techniques, management and recruiting. Here you’re looking for a range of behaviors that define category opportunities and your consumers’ unmet needs. Once those are established, you can develop new ideas and start using quantitative research or focus groups to dive deeper into the importance of specific consumer behaviors.

What Has The Pandemic Taught Grocers About The Importance Of Technology?

Shoppers nationwide can also enter to win all 41 winning products in a Product of the Year sweepstakes hosted in partnership with Daily Mail TV. For more details, visit the Product of the Year Instagram page, here. Kawasaki asked customers to suggest improvements to its Jet Ski stand-up recreational water-craft. They requested side padding for more comfortable standing—never dreaming of a seated craft. Free Agile Research eBookDownload to learn how to create an always-on approach to market research. In-Home Usage TestsLaunch in-home usage tests to test your product with consumers.

When a consumer is at the store, they can pull up their smartphone app to see how much product is left in the container. Or, most crucial for safety, connected medication packaging can tell consumers if they’ve already taken their medicine for the day. Retailers are another player interested in the consumer insights connected packaging can provide to elevate BOPIS and omnichannel offerings.

Value And Premiumisation Are Present Within Each Of The Above Trends:

Pre-pandemic, it was estimated that Gen-Zers’ direct and indirect buying power was approximately $143 billion. Click here to enter your product or for further information on the awards click here. Money market essentials, analysis and data delivered to your mailbox with precision timing.

After the moderator captures a handful of these statements and adjectives, he or she translates each one into a desired outcome. A well-formatted outcome contains both the type of improvement required and a unit of measure so that the outcome statement can be used later in benchmarking, competitive analysis, and concept evaluation. The moderator addresses one statement at a time, rephrasing it to be free from solutions—words that inherently describe specifications or constraints—or ambiguities (words such as “easy,” “reliable,” and “comfortable”). Then the moderator confirms the translations with the participants to eliminate guesswork after the interview ends. It’s also important to select the most diverse set of individuals within each customer type. The more diverse the group, the more complete the set of unique outcomes that is captured. In Cordis’s case, interviewees included both cardiologists that performed many angioplasty procedures each month and those who performed only a few.

• Both shoppers and retailers know what Product of the Year stands for — which means it can build awareness of your new products and elevate your entire brand.
• Numerous sustainable packaging solutions are being rolled out or are in progress within the CPG industry.
• Once the interviews are complete, researchers make a comprehensive list of the collected outcomes, removing duplicates and categorizing the outcomes into groups that correspond to each step in the process.
• Small businesses can use the game to generate foot traffic, for a small fee.
• Incorporating device and consumable systems into their packaging repertoire is one way for CPG brands to meet consumers’ demands for sustainable packaging.

Perhaps the greatest prize for brands is the iconic Product of the Year logo that winning products earn the right to carry on their packaging. Bold, red and uniquely recognizable, the logo acts as a beacon to shoppers on busy supermarket shelves as an assurance of a product’s quality, leading to a 10-15% sales uplift. While virtually all companies in the world pursue “innovation” as a key driver of growth, very few are actually creating new business offerings. However, in a recent analysis we conducted across 44 leading consumer product companies, representing over $900 billion in revenue, we found that a small number of them are driving disproportionate performance from consumer product innovation. Based on this insight, we set out to understand what separates innovation leaders from everyone else, and analyze what these leaders are doing to drive greater returns from innovation. Beyond the convenience of knowing what you need and when, connected packaging can also help create a personalized consumer experience. Sensors and digital displays on food or medication packaging can provide consumers with specific best-buy dates and recall information.

But discerning the difference between what customers are able to say and what they want, and then acting on those unspoken desires, demands that companies learn to go well beyond listening.  Leader of Gillette Oral-B® Brush Ups™ Tooth Wipe development and commercialization program awarded as one of “The Best New Products of 2004” by Business Week Magazine with multimillion dollars in sales, year one. COVID-19 Consumer InsightsOriginal analysis of shifting consumer sentiment and behaviors. By following the Innovation Pipeline framework, the brand was able to uncover exactly what consumers wanted, ask them why they felt that way, and determine which ideas were the most compelling in their category. Continue iterating until you’re outperforming benchmarks, then you’ve hit the sweet spot. You’ll know you’re there when your consumers and/or your competitive brand users indicate your idea is more relevant than whatever benchmarks you have in place. By asking the right questions in consumer surveys, you gain valuable insight into the most important experiences that impact things like brand satisfaction, perception, equity, and usage.

What customer, for example, would have asked for the microwave oven, Velcro, or Post-It Notes? At the time the transistor was being developed, radio and television manufacturers were still requesting improved vacuum tubes. “In this day and age, consumers are more informed, and conscious, they look at the product, they touch it, they read the label, they research it online and read reviews. Use product mockups to conduct what is product innovation product testing on the packaging, messaging, logos, website design, digital marketing, creative ad concepts, pricing, branding, new product prototypes, and more. This allows you to base future iterations on methodical research and real feedback. Successful launches don’t just identify and profile customers, they learn to understand their every need and provide them with a solution before they’ve even asked for it.

“Better-for-you” snacking products are an obvious choice to meet consumers’ health needs. Innovation Our passion for developing exciting, award-winning products drives our culture of constant innovation. By knowing how consumers use their products, CPG brands can send tailored offers and information. For example, sensors could pick up that a box of baking soda is kept in a cold environment, not a room-temperature cabinet. The insight that the baking soda is being used to help keep the refrigerator smelling fresh might trigger a brand to send that consumer offers for cleaning products, not recipes for baked goods.

Product of the Year India has Nielsen India as their Research Affiliate since it’s inception in India, 13 years ago. The report includes information about each product’s performance across measures including appeal, satisfaction, advocacy, purchase interest and more. “This is the core benefit of the program with a proven track record of lifting sales and distribution growth,” Nolan says.