inKNOWvations: February 2007

Driving Growth in Consumer Goods

Sharon Flanagan and Carl-Martin Lindahl

A study of 480 product launches by North American consumer goods makers highlights the ability of certain marketing tactics to help spur revenue growth. The findings suggest that manufacturers should take a harder look at repositioning products toward new consumer segments, uses, and occasions—particularly at times when truly innovative, or breakthrough, products seem few and far between.

In the Boardroom convened a national panel of executives and experts to discuss how a company can effectively balance its short-term revenue goals with its long-term investments in growth from new innovations. The results of that roundtable discussion are below.

Despite the size and remarkable growth of emerging markets, a surprising number of companies are falling short of achieving their business goals. In fact, just 47 percent of the more than 440 senior executives surveyed by Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Industry Group said their companies had been extremely or very successful in meeting their revenue goals in emerging markets.

If you’re actively evaluating the processes that underpin your innovation and new product development strategies, then you'll want to plan to attend one or both of these industry-specific executive events, sponsored by the European Networking Group (ENG) ENG and Sopheon.