Danger of congestion in the product range

No new product enters the market successfully "just like that". Not for any business. To become a commercially successful product, it must first be brought up to speed in sales. It has to get into the "traffic flow" of the existing assortment and "ramp up" - in terms of its distribution level in the trade and its sales quota at the POS.

If this does not work, if the new product cannot be brought on a par with the successful products, then it will stand in the way of the faster products, certainly by the time it gets to the POS. Every day it deprives the other products of the opportunity to be seen and bought by their customers - and its company of the opportunity to do business.

The more weak products clog the way to the market, the less often the strong, "revving" products in sales find their way to the customer. In road traffic, this would be called "slow-moving traffic on the motorway". In business, this can be measured by the degree of distribution and the sales quota. Especially in a difficult or even declining market environment, the product range management should keep a close eye on this - value creation and growth of the brand depend on it.

Less is more

In particular, the introduction of new products should be well prepared and closely monitored with this in mind. If this does not happen for some reason, for example if too many new products with too low a degree of innovation are launched in too short a time, the paralysing effect on the dynamics of the assortment can intensify further - and the slow-moving traffic can turn into a veritable traffic jam.

Because if the number of innovations is too high, there is a growing danger that the new products will also get in each other's way. They deprive each other of the resources needed for market penetration in sales, advertising support and product optimisation. Even promising high-potential products then find it difficult to ramp up sales, establish themselves among customers and advance their brand in terms of content.

This is not how it should be. More focus, more conscious action and more smoothness are desirable. Especially in a recession. Marketing, sales, production, HR, IT, ... all areas have to work very closely together for this. If you want to raise the potential in your product range policy.

Author: Bastian Schneider