October 2009
Intermediate to advanced
272 pages
5h 1m
English
You don’t have to go to Asia to find examples of rampant line extension.
More than 90 percent of all new products introduced in the U.S. grocery and drug trade are line extensions. Which is the major reason that stores are choked with brands. (There are 1,300 shampoos, 200 cereals, 250 soft drinks.)
Scanner data indicates that many of those line extensions (at least in supermarkets) sit on the shelf and gather dust. Research from Kroger supermarkets in Columbus, Ohio, found that of the average 23,000 items in a store, 6,700 sold in a day, 13,600 sold in a week, and 17,500 sold in a month, leaving 5,500 that sold nothing in an entire month.
This plethora ...