The future for brands lies in passing over control to consumers

BASES, a NielsenIQ business, has released the winners of the highly anticipated ‘BASES Top Breakthrough Innovations’ 2021 awards, its annual list of successful innovations by brands across India along with exclusive details enshrining winners’ strategies and how they conceived the brilliant ideas.

NielsenIQ BASES is a leader in helping companies build brands through innovation, renovation, strategy, and go-to-market optimisation, and is a trusted partner globally, and across industries. BASES helps maximise brand success end-to-end through advanced predictive analytics, behavioural science, proprietary databases, expert advice, and agile, digital technology platforms.

NielsenIQ BASES uses different evaluation criteria for innovations that are meant for mass consumption vis-a-vis those that target a niche audience. This varies depending on whether the objective is to garner long term revenue gain vs short term, growing the category pie, gaining share within the category or just staving off competitive pressure. NielsenIQ BASES scrutinized innovations across 100+ categories with a minimum 18 months in-market presence in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) & OTC (Over the Counter).

“When assessing innovations, there is no ‘one size fits all' approach anymore. It is crucial to know the company's objectives and innovation strategy. An essential factor to consider is the strength of the innovation over time in sync with revenue objectives and other criteria. In the post-pandemic era, Indian consumers have become health conscious and altered their choices to be more environmentally-friendly, this trend is visible across product categories.” said Vidya Sen, South Asia Lead, NielsenIQ BASES.

It is October 2021, but Covid-19 is still a matter of concern in growing and developing markets like India: 9 out of 10 Indian respondents interviewed in the BASES survey express concern about Covid-19 and 80% of Indians consider hygiene products to be more important today versus pre-pandemic. Covid-19 has only increased the sense of health hygiene consciousness and concern for the environment while reducing mobility. Innovations that made it to the ‘Top Breakthrough Innovations’ list are very conscious of this shift in consumer behaviour, and healthy, natural and sustainable are core to their product offerings.

(We got this information in a press release).