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B2B PR agency insights – the FMCG brand innovation deficit

Simpatico PR’s B2B PR agency thought-leadership series Ahead of the Curve offers a brief digest of some of the newest thinking in marketing, technology and creativity that our team is working with on behalf of our clients.


B2B PR agency insights - the fmcg brand innovation deficit
B2B PR agency FMCG Brand thought leadership

Have FMCG brands forgotten how to innovate? Or are they tying themselves in knots with brand heritage and values, which are strangling innovative product ideas?

Or are they too bound in by commercial guide rails set by manufacturing and logistical management? Either way, the UK’s £134bn FMCG industry seems to be running out of product innovation ideas.


Our work B2B PR agency work with FMCG brand innovation consultancy The Forge has seen us delve into the issue affecting FMCG innovation and new product development (NPD). 


We have looked at the impact of the creator economy on more established brands and FMCG companies. We have asked whether the way in which NPD is done needs to change, we’ve looked at shrinkflation and how FMCG brands can find alternative routes to drive growth without damaging trust.


When was the last Cadbury's Cream Egg-style launch?


You can see the problem every time you enter a supermarket or convenience store - shelves are full versions or varieties of a core product whether that’s a novelty flavour, or a product re-formulated into bite-size formats for occasions. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these tweaks to existing formulas, but when was the last Lynx, when was the last Cadbury’s Cream Egg?


And that’s a big issue as supermarket own-label penetration nears 40% or more of the market in the UK. And, the creator economy is snapping at the heals of FMCG brands in a wide variety of categories from health and beauty to burgers and beverages, coming from seemingly no-where to create huge buzz and massive sales.


The Forge as looked at these issues in a series of articles for the Grocer and other retail and marketing trade media. In a column for The Grocer titled “How FMCG can learn from YouTuber success stories.



“Influencers and creators build brand desirability through the intensity of their relationships with audiences, which involve continual two-way communication and interaction. The individual creator or creator team may be talking to millions of people, but to the teenage boy in his bedroom, it feels personal.


“There is an opportunity for brands to be more creative and focus on comms that create a dialogue, feel personal and bring audiences into a relationship that is fun to be part of. This requires a razor-sharp focus on exactly who that audience is.”


The own label FMCG challenge

A follow-up piece for The Grocer titled “Six reasons own label is set to dominate NPD and three issues holding brands back”, looked at the advantages own label products launched by retailers have over traditional FMCG brands.


The article concluded that there are six reasons why retailers are set to dominate NPD. [Excerpt]


“Retailers aren’t manufacturers. They aren’t constrained by the need to build production capacity to make new products, which means they can jump onto new trends quickly.

“Their category teams have invested in consumer data capacity, analysis and AI, helping them spot trends across categories and providing a detailed picture of where, how and when innovations can succeed.


“The supplier infrastructure generates a steady stream of inspiring new concepts and products, ready to commission, launch and scale.”

Shrinkflation alternatives


In another article, this time for FMCG CEO magazine, The Forge explored the controversial issue of shrinkflation which has hit the headlines in the national press on regular occasions and is firmly on the radar of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), looking at what FMCG brands could do instead.


The piece argued, [excerpt] “brands could take the radical step of being open and transparent with their consumers. Go ahead and shrink the product if you need to, but make it clear on the packaging. You might just find that acting with integrity will be better for the brand in the long term.


“Alternatively, offer different options. Rather than just, say, reducing the olive oil in your spread from 21% to 10% and pretending that the product tastes the same, how about creating a new, cheaper version and letting people who love the original make the choice to pay a little more for it.”


Our next area of B2B thought leadership is sustainability marketing and how brands should adapt their approach to achieving sustainable growth. The team at The Forge are asking whether sustainability marketing is dead in the wake of the backlash against greenwashing and difficulties faced in making sustainability commercially viable in the FMCG space.



We help companies win more coverage through expert B2B PR thought-leadership - working in simpatico with your B2B marketing and business development team.

We are a highly experienced B2B PR agency team specialising in thought-leadership and media relations.


We help companies create brilliant PR-friendly content ideas that will interest editors and reporters. Our team of ex-journalists will help you articulate your expertise and win media coverage month after month, delivering a real return on PR investment.


Responding to changing business needs, we only employ senior people with the experience to deliver great results and work with you closely in day-to-day partnership. We’re designed to be an expert extension of your PR, marketing and growth teams.


Since 2010 we’ve worked with some of the biggest names in advertising, technology innovation and design. We have expertise in specialist fields such as fintech, edtech, payments, sustainable business, AI, CX, data management, adtech, match, commerce, retail media, OOH, TV and radio.


Our clients value direct access to our senior team who can:

- Confidently deliver informed and knowledgeable PR advice based on years of experience working in public relations and in the media.

- Consider the long-term goals of your business, and the impact that any PR will have on this, through our understanding of broader business objectives.

- Offer innovative and creative PR and content ideas through our extensive experience of working in a variety of industries and sectors.

- Draw upon trusted and established relationships with journalists, Editors and publications which have been built and developed over many years of working together.

Our approach


We create thought-leadership content through the Book of Ideas© which solves a key B2B PR agency challenge – how to deliver a sustained, high-quality thought leadership programme.


Our approach captures lots of ideas through journalistic interrogation which can be channeled into media relations, owned channels, social and B2B marketing.


It helps facilitate a better press-office function by mapping expertise across a company and the issues and opinions you want to project. In other words, it makes news-jacking faster and better.


It creates a better media coverage hit rate, because we tailor content to engage journalists.


It is a tried and test formula that puts you and us in control of your B2B PR.

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