Reduce your size by 98% and conquer the world!
Stanislas Dallest
As the homo sapiens, products also evolve!
At POS Potential we are always curious of best practices of operational excellence within the FMCG world and today we’d like to share an example of product innovation focused on packaging, and more specifically on pack size.
Due to the current high demand for hydroalcoholic gels, personal care companies like Beiersdorf have added to their ranges products such as the new Nivea Hydroalcoholic Solution.
This category has experienced a massive growth rate in 2020, evolving from a use limited to health care professionals and a few “germ-fearing freaks” to a global reach and beyond as we are convinced that hydroalcoholic gel is even used on the international space station as we speak!
Despite an organic growth driven by extraordinary market conditions, manufacturers have had to adapt the “product” to a more massive market use and a much more demanding public… I don’t know about you but at POS Potential we have identified up to 30 gel variants at the office!
We identify three phases in this product development:
- Industrial bottle:
- Target market: healthcare and professionals
- Distribution channel: wholesaler
- Format: large containers / “bulk”
- Price: cheaper, one liter sells for 2/3 euros
- “Geek” dispenser
- Target market: anti-germ freaks + my grandmother
- Distribution channel: specialized stores / drugstores
- Format: non-portable dispenser
- Price: more expensive, one liter sells for about 20 euros
- Spray for the whole family:
- Target market: the world… including you, me, our parents and all your neighbors.
- Distribution channel: all hyper and supermarkets / Glovo / Amazon /…
- Format: portable dispenser (spray/bottle/wipes…)
- Price: “the new normal”, one liter retails for about 10€
At every stage the product evolves, providing new benefits to users and offering an increasingly intuitive and personal experience.
At the commercial level the availability of the product has become total since we find it at any point of sale and always with several formatting options.
This example shows us how a category can evolve as its penetration on the market increases, providing new benefits to the consumer and improving their experience. In this case, if we had to keep a single element, we would say that the downsizing of the packaging has been the key, evolving from 5-liter containers to as little as 100ml tubes in some cases: a 98% decrease!
In this example of category development one can talk of “survival of the smallest” ?
If you’re reading this, you’re one step away from selling more and better! Did you enjoy the read? Please, tell us more!
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