Successful innovations – Part 2

What makes certain innovations successful and why do others disappear from stores? According to a global study conducted by Nielsen, those who want to put a new product on the market have to know how receptive consumers are. Nielsen examined in 19 European countries how willing consumers are to try new products and detected considerable differences. For instance a rather high proportion of Italians (42 percent), the British (34 percent), the Irish (32 percent), the Turkish (31 percent) and Spanish (30 percent) agree with the statement ‘I like new things. I am always looking for new brands and products’. On the contrary, this ratio is only 14 percent in Poland, Portugal and Hungary. 72 percent of Hungarian consumers – this is the highest proportion in the group of countries examined – agree with ‘From time to time I buy new brands or products, but most of the time I stick with my favourites.’ Another Nielsen study on 31 countries revealed that 61 percent of Hungarians say they don’t try it if a new product appears in stores – the European average in this respect was 46 percent. If a company decides to develop and market a new product, it has to be able to make consumers notice it in stores.