How marketeers can avoid falling into the ‘Asian abyss’

That’s according to Sam Waterfall, a senior consultant at Healthy Marketing Team in Singapore, is due to what he calls the “Asian abyss​”.

“The shop shelves are no longer the open invitation to innovators and marketers that they were five years ago​,” Waterfall says. “The task of navigating a successful launch in markets like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines is far more complex today​.”

The challenges arise from the retailers, global and local competitors as well as the ever more demanding consumer.

“That means that your launch can find itself on shelf but effectively hidden in full view—invisible to the consumer. This is the Asian abyss for new product development​.”

So how can marketeers avoid jumping off its edge and succeed in standing out and winning?

Over the last eight years, the Healthy Marketing Team has been working across Asia-Pacific to fine tune the innovation and branding success for food and beverage companies.

“When it comes to new product development, we’ve seen the good, the bad and the often very ugly​,” says Waterfall, the co-author of a book titled “The Four Factors for Growth Market Success​”.

“What’s more, based on the cases we’ve seen in category after category, we’ve developed a simple and reliable 12-point test which we can run with our clients​.”

Waterfall will explore these points at Food Vision Asia in Singapore next week, and reveal how balancing each of them and aligning them before a launch can transform the likelihood that a product will succeed.

The session will cover valuable success fundamentals for food and beverage brand owners and marketeers, including which of the four so-called “innovation spaces​" to launch into, how to support brand promise and influence consumer purchase, and testing the potential for a product concept’s success with a 10-minute pre-launch check.

Taking place from April 27-29, this will be the first time that the Food Vision Asia professional forum takes place in this region after becoming established over four years in France, and debuting in Chicago last year as Food Vision USA. 

It’s two-day schedule​ of debates, discussions and presentations will encourage interaction, networking and the exchange of ideas between food and nutrition industry leaders from across Asia and around the world.  

“Our programme will investigate opportunities for collaboration across global geographies​,” said events development director Christina Wood.

For more information on Food Vision Asia, visit www.foodvisionasia.com​