New Product Launches and Consumer Insights

Volume 15, Number 3 Article by S L Rao September, 2003

New Product Launches and Consumer Insights: A Recounting :

S L Rao, who began his career as a management trainee in Hindustan Lever, describes his experience of launching new products from 1957 to 1976, a period when the consumer had limited choice and the manufacturer, limited options. While studies of consumer attitudes, habits and preferences were in their infancy, consciously or intuitively, consumer behaviour was at the core of all product decisions. Over time, the consumer’s concerns began to be integrated into all decisions relating to new products, and marketing strategy became business strategy. Many products and brands that dominated consumer franchise for years have declined or disappeared with the changing economic situation, new consumer and market contexts, competing products, and lack of nimbleness of the company in changing product images and forms to meet consumer expectations.

Detailing his encounters with brands such as Sunlight and Lifebuoy soap, HIMA dehydrated peas, Chiclets and Dalda, S L Rao draws the attention of the contemporary marketer to several aspects, particularly the importance of being ‘in touch’ with the consumer through personal observation along with quantitative data and market research, of having the right marketing mix at the right time and the potential of the poor in constituting a mass market.

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