Innovative dairy sees no sales boost in Germany

A retail sales (including dairy products) survey in Germany has found that 71% of all innovations launched in the market are pulled off the supermarket shelves within just one year. The survey was carried out by GfK marketing research with the help of communication and marketing expert Serviceplan and the German Brands Association. It also found that leading brands lose on average almost 40% of their loyal, regular customers every year.
Probably not unconnected with such results is the additional finding that marketing managers in Germany change jobs every two to two-and-a-half years on average.
Another sobering fact emerging from the marketing questions is that almost half of the 100 most expensive advertising campaigns in Germany are revised and relaunched within two years of introduction. The main point made by the results, according to the survey organisers, is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to measure the success factors of dairy or other household brands. Market success depends on brand loyalty and the associated regular customers. But only 30% of success factors can be measured. The rest includes long-term emotional influences extremely hard to quantify. The result is increasing uncertainty by brand managers as to whether a launch will be successful and remain a market success, for any length of time.
More information (available in English): www.serviceplan.com