Why launching more products does NOT (automatically) mean more sales
When you're in the early stages of your business there's all too often the temptation to launch MORE products, MORE flavours, MORE sub-brands in order to drive sales. Its the exciting part of being a startup and creative entrepreneurs can get caught up in aaaallll the options of new product development from flavours to packaging, new consumer targets and more.
While this is fun - its also a recipe for rapid overwhelm and cash that runs out faster than you can imagine. You'll spend months and months on creating the 'new', and then... You get stuck.
The impact of being distracted by all the shiny new things are many:
😫 Capital demands go through the roof
New ingredients, new packaging, new manufacturing runs, new marketing collateral like photography, new ad campaigns… you get the drift. Its not a simple ‘add on’. Its capital that you have to spend upfront before the sales hopefully come in.
😫 Your MOQ stay low, and you're COGS stay high
Its a risky move to go straight to high volume initial production runs, which is why you’re stuck with low minimum order quantities for packaging, unique ingredients, production time - and your cost of goods is NOT likely to be optimised.
😫 Your retailers start asking 'what are you going to delete to bring this new SKU on shelf'
Retail shelves are not elastic unless you’re purely online, and even then there’s a limit to how much variety consumers want… some is good - too much is too much. If you can show a track record of adding major incremental (new) sales without a lot of cannibalisation, then you might have a good chance of not facing the “one in one out” request. But this takes time and a LOT of effort & focus. Do you have this?
😫Your customers get confused by too many options (decision overwhelm is real)
We all like to have some degree of options especially when it comes to food and drink. But you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that the best selling pie flavours are mince, mince & cheese and steak - with everything coming a long way down after the list after this. There is a novelty factor that can be helpful to remind people about your brand but approach this with caution. No one needs 15 varieties of nut butters to try and decipher whether they’re smooth, crunchy, smunchy, almond, roasted almond, deep roasted peanut - or any other flavour combo.
In the rush of shopping, it can be easier to either reach for the familiar OR walk past altogether if its just too much…
😫 Your marketing team spend all their time creating new content for all the new things, and struggle to work out where to prioritise for best results. Unless you have endless marketing budget - its easy to get caught up in creating cool new content endlessly. New products need a LOT of new content and support to get traction. This means your core can get easily overlooked and lost. Its hard to prioritise when you’re on the hampster wheel of continual ‘launch & leave’.
😫 You're juggling ALL the products with manufacturers, retailers, ad campaigns and partners.
This is fine if you have a large team and can handle the juggle. There’s a limit to how much a small team can handle - and your budget is going to be pulled in every direction.
So what should you do instead?
DOUBLE DOWN ON WHAT WORKS... and sell as MUCH of it as you can.
You'll find its easier to sell in to retailers and consumers because....
🙌 Demonstrate a proven track record of success for new retailers
🙌 You improve your presence with EXISTING retailers, and get better positioning with each category review
🙌 Simple message you can focus on for ALL comm's & marketing activity
🙌 You'll be come known for doing 'your' thing best
🙌 Word of mouth can spread - because people KNOW what to recommend to friends
🙌 You know what to say 'no' to (and what to lean in more on)
If you want to be a household brand you MUST focus on your bestsellers.
If you're just starting out it might take some time to figure this out, but once you do its time to DOUBLE DOWN
I’ve personally delivered a 20%++ growth in both topline revenue AND profit from cancelling all NPD and focusing on selling what sells… it took some adjusting but it was WELL worth it for strengthening our commercial base before taking on and launching new things.
