Insight: NielsenIQ BASES reveals Top Breakthrough Innovations in Southeast Asia for 2020

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — NielsenIQ BASES has released its highly anticipated Top Breakthrough Innovation Winners in Southeast Asia for 2020. The release unveils successful innovations by brands across Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand – showcasing winners’ timely and effective strategies and how they brought their plans to life.

Innovation remains relevant in Southeast Asia markets. Across the region, the introduction of new products has been one of the 3 key drivers of growth in 2019, with Thailand and Malaysia being in the lead where innovation contributed for more than 40% to category growth. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, innovation continues to drive FMCG growth in the region. According to NielsenIQ BASES, although fewer innovations have been launched in 2020 during the pandemic, they still provided a strong return in sales. In Indonesia, despite innovations accounting for only 4% of products in the market compared to 10% in 2019, they contributed to 0.2% of total FMCG sales versus 0.5% in 2019.

The categories with a higher number of innovations were found in personal care with deodorants, shampoo, moisturizers, and toothpaste. Also in Thailand, despite a decline in the number of new products across categories, innovations generated higher sales in 2020 compared to the previous year in key categories like personal care, household care, impulse, and non-alcoholic beverages.

NielsenIQ BASES was able to capture some key avenues to successful launches by observing the Top Breakthrough Innovation winners in the past few years. These Breakthrough Innovations have sparked from growing trends that capitalize on local ingredients connected to the cultural roots and from true product innovation, which in some cases has been lifted from neighboring markets and locally adapted.

“Our recent global research reveals that 81% of global consumers will continue to restructure their spending in 2021. But at the same time, 71% are willing to pay more for higher quality. This implies that despite the challenging environment, consumers are willing to justify a place in their basket for the products that bring value to them and resolve a point of tension in their lives,” explains Jameel Kassamali, NielsenIQ BASES Leader for Southeast Asia. “Looking at the future, current trends indicate that true product innovation may inspire future breakthrough innovations. New trending themes such as ‘naturally-sourced and ‘sustainability’ are likely to gain even greater importance for consumers.”

According to NielsenIQ BASES, naturally-sourced products are becoming more important for 72% of consumers compared to 3 years ago in the Southeast Asian region. 85% say they would like to see more of ‘naturally-sourced’ in food products or cooking essentials (ie. snacks, rice, oil, chocolates, etc.), 76% in beauty and personal care products (ie. moisturizers, make-up products, shampoo) and 75% in nutritional products (ie. food supplements, vitamins, milk formula, etc.). In addition, consumers are increasingly concerned about environmental issues. 77% claim that sustainability is becoming more important to them and their family compared to 3 years ago and 90% expect companies to take actions to protect the environment.

“More and more consumers are pursuing a healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle through the products they choose to purchase and use. Manufacturers need to address these rising consumer needs in order to find a new driver for growth,” adds Kassamali.

NielsenIQ BASES 2020 Southeast Asia Top Breakthrough Innovation Winners