Too Many Walls

You as a consumer must have seen so many new products being launched in quick succession. How consumers adopt new products is a challenging question marketer’s face today. The time taken for consumers to adopt a new product is vital as there is a number of brands, which may enter a product category once the viability for a new product, are established in the market. There have been products which never caught on (or took decades to catch on) despite of the consumers being exposed to new product concepts for a sustained period of time.

• Frozen Vegetables – In the sixties, a leading multinational launched a brand of packaged green peas, which failed. Today Safal, a brand from the makers of Amul butter, is attempting to create awareness about frozen vegetables.
• Liquid detergents – Ezee has been in the market for a decade but hasn’t taken off as have other detergent forms.
• Electric cars which never really caught on in advance markets (during the last 25 years) are about to be launched in India.
• Cornflakes, which have been in the market for the last three decades, could never really penetrate Indian Homes. But with the entry of Kellogg’s some awareness seems to have been created.
• Pharmaceutical major Boots introduced Paltab, a soft-drink tablet in orange and pineapple flavors it the mid-sixties. Till date, no other manufacturer has attempted to make the product.

For the new products to make an impact on the consumer’s mind, you have to keep in mind the following factors –

• Does the innovation (or the new product) bring in discontinuity in the habits of the consumer?
• Is the timing right of a specific type of marketing communication?
• Do cultural factors play a major role in the marketing of the concept?
• What kind of enhanced value does the product offer to upgrade
• The consumer if functional utility is the unique selling proposing?
• The extent to which consumers will be able to try out the product (triability).

Acceptance of New Products