As a busy manufacturer, it can be all too easy to focus on the day-to-day demands of running a business and take your eye off what’s going on in the rest of your product category and beyond.
However, to remain competitive, it’s important to understand where your products sit in relation to your competitors and to be able to evolve your range in response to the latest consumer trends, whether that be the growth in demand for non-high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) products, pressures on household incomes or even a clamour for salted caramel flavour products.
Competitor benchmarking and trend research, therefore, should both be an integral part of your product development process and a regular date in your calendar to coincide with key launch seasons.
Competitor benchmarking can be carried out in a variety of ways, from monitoring and reviewing products online, in retailer catalogues and magazines as well as through store visits. Typically, several competitor products are purchased for a multi-disciplinary team to review and the process will consider and compare all aspects of the products and packaging, including retail price, product specification, on pack information, packing format, and organoleptic properties such as appearance (internal, external, raw and cooked), aroma, flavour and texture. If a more quantitative analysis of how your product compares to the competition is required then sensory panel testing can be incorporated as part of this process.
Trend research goes beyond only looking at what your direct competitors are doing. It can involve visiting innovative restaurants, shops and cafes, to see what is going on at a smaller scale in your category, as well as reading trend reports, checking out the latest social media trends, and looking at what’s happening in retailers in overseas markets. This can help you to identify potential opportunities before your competitors do.
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Once you’ve undertaken competitor benchmarking and trend research, all this new information can trigger in depth discussions and promote creative thinking to generate ideas for new product concepts or refinements to existing products, which could improve profitability, product quality, health credentials or process efficiencies.
All these activities take time and expertise which your company might not have. If you’re looking for support with competitor benchmarking or trend research to help drive New Product Development (NPD) or Existing Product Development (EPD), then ZERO2FIVE can help.
We can:
- Plan and lead competitor benchmarking activities
- Carry out trend reviews and organise trend safaris - we have access to thefoodpeople trend database through Welsh Government
- Facilitate product development ideation sessions
- Undertake all aspects of NPD or EPD, including recipe development, following a best practice Stage Gate process
To find out more about how we can help, please get in touch:
https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/health/zero2five/Pages/Contact-Us.aspx
