How New Product Pricing Impacts Staying Power

Companies dedicate significant resources to launching new products, carefully calibrating price points to reflect brand positioning, cost structures and perceived consumer value. Yet in the fast-paced world of FMCG, where thousands of innovations compete for limited shelf space, survival is far from guaranteed. This raises a critical question: does the price at launch influence a product’s staying power, where every extra day on shelf helps brands connect with consumers? Using Euromonitor’s proprietary AI-driven Innovation solution, which tracks when new brands and sub-brands appear as well as when they disappear from digital shelves, we can explore the relationship between price and longevity.

Entry price drives different staying power outcomes by category

For this analysis of staying power, defined as new brand or sub-brand launches that remain available on digital shelves for at least 12 months, we focus on two soft drinks categories: juice and energy drinks. Both categories continue to generate new product launches, yet they often follow different pricing strategies. Juice tends to be more commoditised, with consumers associating health benefits primarily with core ingredients. This makes the category price-sensitive, where premium pricing can act as a barrier to trial and repeat purchase. Energy drinks, by contrast, have embraced premiumisation, leveraging functional benefits and lifestyle positioning to justify higher prices and attract new demographics, including women and increasingly health-conscious consumers.

Looking across categories, price point plays a decisive role in whether new products survive beyond their first year. Juices tell a cautionary story. Premium launches underperform, with only about two thirds surviving compared to more than three quarters of lower-priced options. Shorter shelf life compounds the problem. If a high-priced juice fails to generate immediate sales, retailers rotate it out quickly. By contrast, energy drinks show the opposite pattern. Premium and mid-tier products are far more resilient, surviving at rates well above the soft drinks average of 75%. Longer shelf stability gives retailers more time to back the new products, but the real driver is consumer demand. When functional benefits and lifestyle identity justify a higher price, energy drinks keep consumers engaged and retailers supportive.

For companies, the message is clear. Pricing strategy cannot be one-size-fits-all. A higher price may erode staying power in categories where health is seen as built in, like juice, and where private label penetration is high, limiting brand pricing power. By contrast, it can strengthen survival in categories where function and identity are central, like energy drinks, where private label presence remains minimal. Knowing where premiumisation helps and where it hurts is essential to reducing failure rates and ensuring innovation delivers lasting returns.

Sweden’s Nocco thrives with innovation and price confidence

Let’s look at Sweden and a recent launch from Vitamin Well AB’s Nocco energy drink. While in most markets Red Bull or Monster rank as the first or second largest brands, Sweden tells a different story. In its home market, Nocco held a 22.7% share of the energy drinks market in 2024, according to Euromonitor’s Soft Drinks system, up from 19.3% the year before. By comparison, Red Bull held 15% and Monster 11.8% in 2024 and both lost share from 2023.

Nocco has built this position by continuing to innovate and adapt to consumers’ changing needs. Consider its Berruba product launch in early 2024. Positioned at a higher price than peers, Berruba still expanded rapidly through Sweden’s online retailers and into neighbouring markets like Finland and Norway. Functional health claims, a seasonal flavour twist of Strawberry and Rhubarb, and positive consumer sentiment helped sustain demand. Another core part of the brand’s appeal is its inclusion of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), which strengthens its performance positioning and differentiates it from traditional energy drinks. For companies, Nocco illustrates how premiumisation can drive staying power when combined with function, identity and a clear innovation pipeline.

Euromonitor’s Innovation solution helps to quickly discover where new products first appear online and which are expanding rapidly across retailers, countries and categories. Contact us to see which new products have been gaining ground in your category and please see the new briefing on how monitoring product launches, market expansion, and longevity can transform innovation into a strategic advantage.