Product Innovation In The Time Of COVID-19

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many grocery retailers have made the decision to cancel semi-annual shelf resets, slamming the brakes on planned new product and line extension launches. This leaves consumer goods companies wondering what to do with the pipeline of innovation and provides an opportunity to review short-term innovation, its role in the market, and new approaches to product or varietal introduction, through the eyes of the end consumer. Brand protection is essential to ensure that your business remains profitable and successful.

In the COVID and post-COVID environments, consumers will demand safety, transparency, and accessibility from brands, products, and retailers. They will also be seeking simplicity and comfort as antidotes to the uncertain journey to the “new normal.” Many new products slated to launch are already in production, and driving trial is essential to any successful innovation. In the longer term, it will be critical that retailers and consumer goods companies understand the emotional, psychological, and economic drivers, the “why” behind behavioural changes; what those changes look like; and how, going forward, they will impact consumer purchase behaviour. This may require facing the fact that our current definition of innovation, at least as it applies to products, needs to be radically revised.

The Blog was originally posted by foodengineeringmag.com, click here to know more in detail.