2014 New Product Pacesetters: Top 10 Food & Beverage Brands

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), released its 2014 New Product Pacesetters report that identified the most successful consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands based on exceptional first-year dollar sales for 200 products that captured cumulative sales of more than $7 billion.

According to the report, the top 100 food and beverage New Product Pacesetters averaged $35 million in year-one dollar sales. Products catered to consumers’ need to meet nutritional goals, while satisfying their desire to indulge. The strongest food and beverage launches of the year underscore consumers’ passions for bold and authentic flavors, homemade or hand-crafted quality and, solutions that are quick, easy and portable.

Greek yogurt launches continue to reap sizable year-one sales, with four yogurt brands— Chobani® Simply 100™, Activia® Greek, Chobani® Flip™ and Yoplait® Greek Blended—holding spots in the Top 10. (Last year, three yogurt brands were ranked in the Top 10.) Other top food and beverage performers also demonstrated an ongoing appetite for restaurant brands crossing over to the CPG aisles, empowering the untrained to serve restaurant-quality cuisine in the comfort of their homes without the restaurant price tag. In 2014, five restaurant crossovers achieved New Product Pacesetter status, including Starbucks Discoveries and Starbucks Iced Coffee, Olive Garden Signature Salad Dressing, Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee creamer.

The 2014 New Product Pacesetters: Top 10 Food and Beverage Brands are:

“The innovators behind this year’s New Product Pacesetters are truly remarkable for the ways they effectively embraced the ‘4 Ps’ of marketing to capture significant sales dollars in a very conservative marketplace," said Larry Levin, executive vice president, Mid-Market, IRI. “The most successful CPG launches of 2014 brought in big dollar sales, but revenue is just one piece of the pie. These marketers also did a phenomenal job in building brand equity and excitement in the marketplace, catalyzing growth that stations them ahead of the competition."