Today’s business environment requires faster and better innovation to sustain growth and your competitive edge. But executing at speed to bring creative ideas to life is no simple feat. Nearly 30% of the 123,000+ products that launched online between January 2023 and June 2025 have since disappeared from the digital shelf based on our innovation data.
You and your team must have a sound and proven process to bring new products to market successfully, which will ultimately help your brand remain relevant and stay ahead.
Over the past two decades, we’ve partnered with startups, SMEs and some of the largest legacy brands to design bespoke innovation solutions and support strategic development. We’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t—and have helped teams overcome innovation challenges that you’ve likely encountered.
Here are the five biggest mistakes companies make when developing innovation strategies or new products.
1. Innovating without the right intelligence
Strategy can quickly turn into speculation if you’re not tracking the full product lifecycle. Yet, many teams still operate with limited or outdated intel, missing the signals that should shape their roadmaps. These blind spots can derail even the most promising product development ideas. You need the right data analytics to answer core questions and guide your decisions.
- Which product claims and attributes are gaining momentum, and which are falling flat?
- Which new brands are rising or disappearing from the online marketplace (and why)?
- Which e-commerce platforms are the right partners for a go-to-market strategy?
- Where are the best opportunities to launch new products?
- What are competitors launching, and how are they positioning their products?
That’s why brands turn to tools like Passport Innovation. When these insights come into focus, innovation becomes less about guesswork and more about precision.
2. Not investing enough up front
Businesses often have rigid processes and timelines. Strict procedures and deadlines can cause teams to skip or limit the time spent on the critical first stage of new product development—exploring and understanding the real issues consumers need solved.
Flexibility will help you flourish. You need to put in the time and effort during this first step to really identify true consumer and customer needs for tomorrow. After all, how can you successfully innovate without knowing the pain points your product will tackle?
3. Lacking breadth and depth
Don’t get stuck in your sector. Searching for opportunities only in your current industry or market means you’re failing to factor in the fast-paced evolution of the wider FMCG landscape. When an attribute appears across multiple categories, that often marks a shift from niche to mainstream. In 2024, for instance, prebiotic and probiotic claims expanded beyond their traditional categories, recording double-digit growth in launches across pet food, hair care and deodorants—showing how consumer interest in the microbiome is driving attributes into adjacent spaces.
Take a broader approach and assess the impact of longer-term, cross-industry trends. You can use these developments to inspire innovation. Plus, this wider view will help you spot patterns and draw parallels that can lead to disruption.
At the same time, where companies can fall short is in a vital next step—taking a broad concept like a megatrend and evaluating the full breadth of tangible actions. Convenience is one major megatrend, and our quantification model shows per capita consumer spend on these products or services posting a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2023 to 2028.
Determine how these apply to your business and how you can respond. Your team will achieve a deeper level of ideation and develop resilient solutions in line with lasting behavioural changes.
4. Focusing on solutions but not solving the issue
Innovators often rush in with ideas to solve an identified need before truly conceptualising the extent of possible solutions.
Yes, speed is important. But the right product will reap more rewards than the wrong one that was developed too hastily. There are several variables—format, packaging, delivery method, formulation, design; the list goes on—that will dictate successful adoption.
One example: the surge of new on-the-go formats in vitamins, dietary supplements and sports nutrition. Between 2022 and 2024, formats like gels, sticks and sprays grew rapidly, highlighting consumer demand for convenient, portable and fast-acting solutions.
Take time to understand the real problem. Delve deeper to uncover the root cause of the issue, map out multiple ways to solve it and select the option that will deliver the most value to your customers.
5. Getting stuck at the finish line
Companies get fixated on perfecting a product launch over getting timing right. And this results in missing first-mover advantages or opportunities. You may have the best product that initially flops due to a poorly planned go-to-market strategy.
Let’s look at hydration-focused product launches: soft drinks tend to peak in May to June and August to September; beauty and personal care products in March to April; and consumer health in September to October. By aligning launches with seasonal patterns, brands can better match consumer behaviour, boost marketing impact and build strategic retail partnerships.
We’ve supported companies like yours through the innovation journey and can help you reach the same success. Get in touch with our experts to guide your efforts, from opportunity identification through market entry to tracking new product success after launch.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated.
