Vijay Vishwanath

Leader, Global Consumer Products practice

It’s sometimes easy to forget that the US, Western Europe, Japan and Australia once were developing markets full of the same kinds of challenges consumer goods companies are facing today in places like China. In the 1930s, Procter & Gamble (P&G) audaciously dispatched armies of women throughout the rural US to learn firsthand about consumers’ needs. They went door to door, earning the trust of women, observing their daily habits and leaving behind samples of the company’s branded products. Among the objectives: convincing a generation of people to make the leap from homemade lye soap to store-bought soap in the form of P&G’s iconic Ivory brand. The fact that the company succeeded so brilliantly is testimony to its vision and dedication.

More than seven decades later, throughout the developing world, consumer goods companies are being just as thoughtful, systematic and aggressive in their attempts to understand consumers’ needs as they introduce new product categories and subcategories to serve those needs. At least that’s what the winning companies are doing. In our article “Taking a new consumer goods category from zero to 100 in no time flat,” we report on the growing trend of creating product categories from scratch in developing markets and what it takes to succeed.

In “Who (really) are China’s shoppers?” we introduce the results of our groundbreaking survey, conducted with Kantar Worldpanel, on the real-time shopping behavior of China’s shoppers. This is a first-ever, broad scale look at what Chinese shoppers buy and how they buy it. More than 40,000 shoppers used scanning devices to track their purchases in 26 product categories. Among the most important implications for consumer goods makers: It’s absolutely imperative to know the unique shopper behavior in the specific product categories in which you compete. Our analysis shows just how dramatically different the rules for winning in carbonated soft drinks are from the rules for biscuits.

So whether you’re launching a new category like isotonic drinks or selling in an ancient category like beer, winning begins with a deep understanding of the consumer. Even as the growth opportunities shift to new markets, even as new competitors enter, even as the retailing landscape evolves, that simple starting point is still the same.