The Pacesetters: Top-selling new products

Crock-Pot Classics was a great opportunity for Con-Agra because slow-cooking is on the rise; in fact, more than 80 percent of American households own a slow cooker, and 20 percent of families use it on a weekly basis, according to an NFO World Group Appliance Study. That’s a lot of slow-cooked meals each year.

Bertolli's Dinner for Two scores for convenience and indulgence. That helps account for its success despite the fact that the brand was new to the frozen dinner category.

Walker notes there are several commonalities every year among the Top 10 Pacesetters. “They tend to be in large categories with high household penetration and purchase frequency,” she explains. “They also tend to be extensions of well-known brands from leading CPG manufacturers. This year, Bertolli was new to frozen dinners, but the brand is known to Italian food lovers via the olive oil category. Every other brand was well known in its category.”

Another commonality and key factor in rolling up big sales is the number of SKUs under the wing of a single “new product.” Big brands typically support a new launch with multiple SKUs –15 in the case of the Slim-Fast line, seven for Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs. “This year, they averaged five items per brand,” according to Walker.

In the beverage category, she says the winners were comprised of popular flavors “done better than before.” For example, “Lemonade is refreshing, and Gatorade Lemonade adds electrolyte replacement and carbohydrates for energy,” says Walker. The indulgence factor was addressed well, too. “Bertolli Dinner for Two offers a variety of restaurant-quality Italian meals, and Budweiser Select offers light beer drinkers a more robust flavor.”

Although more than 1,500 alcoholic products were introduced in 2005, Budweiser Select accounted for a full 45 percent of sales of all new beer, wine and hard liquor purchases, according to Anheuser-Busch. Even more remarkable is that 28 percent of those sales are incremental, coming from adults who previously were not buying beer, the company claims.

2005 New Product Pacesetters: The Top 10

	SKUs	$ millions
1. Slim-Fast Optima line	15	$166
2. Budweiser Select beer	4	123
3. Frito-Lay Light snacks	5	112
4. Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs	7	107
5. Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper	4	106
6. Kraft Carb Well multi-category line	20 (declining)	89
7. Bertolli Dinner for Two	5	88
8. Gatorade Lemonade	4	80
9. Coke C2 mid-calorie cola	2 (declining)	77
10. Banquet Crock-Pot Classics	4	71
Source: IRI InfoScan Reviews (Year-one sales in food, drug & mass channels, excluding Wal-Mart)

2004 Pacesetters – One year later

	2004 sales ($ millions)	2005 sales ($ millions)
1. CarbSmart ice cream & frozen novelties	$137	$47
2. Pepsi Vanilla & Diet Pepsi Vanilla	125	49
3. Diet Coke with Lime	119	112
4. Sprite Remix	113	87
5. Yoplait Nouriche smoothie	89	51
6. Smirnoff Twisted V malt beverage	83	97
7. Healthy Choice Flavor Adventures frozen dinners	80	77
8. Nabisco Ritz Chips	76	56
9. Dannon Light ’n Fit Carb Control smoothies & cups	75	72
10. Mountain Dew LiveWire	72	15
Source: IRI InfoScan Reviews; food, drug & mass channels (excluding Wal-Mart)

Walker points out it is more common for a brand’s sales to decline in year two than to increase in sales. A look at the 2004 Pacesetters confirms that pattern for all but one product, Smirnoff Twisted V flavored malt beverage.

2006 Pacesetters-to-be (launched 2/05 – 12/05)

	Projected year-one sales ($ millions)	Weeks on the market
1. Kraft South Beach Diet line	$210	44
2. Dreyers/Edys Slow Churned lite ice cream	111	28
3. Coke Zero	83	36
4. Pepsi with Lime (diet & reg.)	79	36
5. Diet Coke with Splenda	74	36
6. Coke with Lime (reg.)	68	48
7. Sara Lee Soft & Smooth bread	68	24
8. Dreyers/Edys Dibs	63	32
9. Chips Ahoy Snack ’N Seal cookies	56	28
10. Nestle Pure Life still water	55	40
Source: IRI InfoScan Reviews; food, drug & mass channels (excluding Wal-Mart) Sales from each brand’s launch through 12/26/05, with estimates for total year-one sales.