We had a great evening at The Hatchery Chicago, both networking and learning from IRI’s Executive Vice President, Larry Levin,  a recognized thought leader in new product innovation. Larry shared IRI’s thoughts and ideas surrounding the challenging and highly rewarding world of innovation sparked by small, “dark horse” brands.

 New product innovation is a cornerstone to success for any company in the consumer packaged goods space. Many companies rely on as much as 10% of their annual sales coming from new product launches. The trend of smaller companies quickly winning in today’s CPG environment has created a new mantra for “failing fast” so that time is not wasted getting new products to market. In IRI’s most recent New Product Pacesetters, 40% of new brands were from small, or “dark horse”, companies. These companies are surprising and delighting consumers across the country with new products that are “designed for me”. These small companies are breaking through with innovation and sparking a consumer innovation revolution.

Larry's slide deck can be accessed here.