In recent years, new product innovation in the mass consumer sector has experienced a considerable decline. Mass consumption, which encompasses food, beverages, drugstores and personal care, has seen the launch of new innovative products take a back seat for certain supermarkets. Mercadona and Lidl They take the cake as the chains that carry out the lowest percentage of distribution of product innovation. This has led some brands to open a war with the main supermarkets that are contributing to this issue.
The report Innovation Radar 2023, which Kantar has prepared, focuses on this issue. Specifically, during the year 2023, only a total of 89 innovations were launched on the market, plummeting the figure by 43% in the last 13 years, which is a very low figure. Manufacturer brands are consolidated as the driving force of Spanish innovation, since they are responsible for the 88% of total innovations introduced to the market in 2023.
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Of them, Spanish manufacturers are the ones that have launched the most innovative products on the market, during the year 2023, a figure even higher than that of 2022. In data, national companies are the ones that have launched the most innovations, with a percentage of 53% compared to the 47% that non-national ones have issued.
This report reflects that the distribution of innovation by supermarket chains continues in the same trend of recent years, reductionist. At the top of the list of supermarkets that distribute the least innovative products in their establishments is Mercadona.
The Valencian chain takes the cake with 0%, given that in the last year it has not incorporated a single innovative product onto its shelves. It is often located Lidl, with 4% of innovative products from manufacturer brands. Behind them, with a little distance, is Aldi, Día and Gadisa, all of them with 9% and Ahorramás with 16%.
On the opposite side of the scale is Carrefour, with 61%, Alcampo, with 38% and Eroski with 29%. These are the three supermarket chains with the highest levels in terms of introducing new products on their shelves during 2023, closely followed by El Corte Inglés, with 25%.
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One of the main problems reflected in the study is that only one in five innovations launched during the year 2023 were successful. This report also points out that the success of these depends on the degree of novelty, their ability to satisfy the new preferences or needs of consumers and the good level of distribution that supermarket chains make of them. Among the manufacturers that have made the most innovative launches, Lactalis, Suntory, P&G and L’Oreal stand out.
