NielsenIQ Bases reveals 2022 top breakthrough innovations in South Africa
Bases, a NielsenIQ company and leader in helping companies build brands through innovation, renovation, portfolio and pricing strategy, as well as go-to-market optimization, has released its highly anticipated 2022 Top Breakthrough Innovation report. For over a decade, this list has been the gold standard for recognizing innovation and global success in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) space. The 20 winners among this year’s innovative brands in South Africa comes from a wide range of categories across food, personal and home care and beverages.
The award recognizes successful product launches across all strategies, from launches that managed to disrupt their categories and expand their brand to targeted plays that did not intend to appeal to the mass market but were meant to please a specific target.
In addition, the new report recognizes winners who transformed their categories by offering innovative benefits before they went mainstream, as well as new brands to the market.
Despite ongoing crisis mode: consumers still show an appetite for innovations – opportunities for smaller brands
Faced with inflationary pressures, looming economic crisis, supply chain disruptions and rising energy and commodity prices, many brands may naturally hold back on innovation, often focusing on their existing portfolio. Recently in South Africa, the shopping landscape has changed, with shoppers putting more control over their purchasing choices than ever before.
They cut down on the number of times they go to stores, giving them less chance to interact with products (and especially innovations) in store and for those products to make a real impact on the shelf. But when they do go to the stores, they make those less frequent trips count, shopping more categories and buying as much as 17% more units per trip than they used to. Because of that, innovations have to work even harder to capture attention and make an impact on the less frequent trips consumers take.
“Base’s Top Breakthrough Innovation Awards prove that new product development remains a viable growth strategy for manufacturers, especially as consumers continue to show a strong appetite for relevant innovations,” says Maria Zaki, NielsenIQ Base’s South Africa Manager. “Our latest data shows that only a fraction – 6% – of global customers are averse to new products right now. 94% of grocery consumers today are open to trying new things.”
A trend that not only large players can benefit from, but also small and medium-sized brands, considering the role of the full picture of new product activation. “Social media continues to play a very important role in enabling innovation, and so does packaging – 71% of customers claim to buy new products based on the package,” adds Zaki.
The recipe for successful innovation hasn’t changed, but agility is key
“The experience of pandemic years in general terms did not change the recipe for success. You still need a good idea, a good product and a good activation strategy to succeed. However, the way of mixing the ingredients together has evolved. To create a good innovation, brands must be relevant to consumers, making it easy for them to understand what the product is about and why they need it. They must ensure that their innovation is perceived as genuine and authentic. Finally, they should be creative in their marketing strategy and bold to experiment , concludes Maria Zaki.
The winners of Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation 2022 in South Africa:
For more information on this year’s Breakthrough Innovations winners and to learn from their successes, please visit our Breakthrough Innovation webpage.
