The bigger you are, the more you launch

But the less you rely on each individual launch

Really large brands much more active than smaller ones

Brands that command at least a 20% share in the product category where they compete launch about four times as many SKUs than brands with less than 5% share. However, over the past four years we saw smaller brands close that gap and the ratio has dropped to about 3:1.

Really large brands rely more on new than smaller peers

The higher launch numbers translate into a higher sales contribution of new SKUs: while large brands get about one seventh of their sales from SKUs that are less than a year old, smaller brands rely on launches for about one tenth of their sales. Put differently, the contribution of “new” is about 50% higher for large brands.

Share from each individual launch much lower for larger brands

This finding is both a mathematical necessity (the gap between large and small brands is much bigger for the number of launches than the share they command), but also a function of the equity of large brands. Because of their massive sales and the strength of the existing assortment, each launch can only contribute so much in relative (share) terms. While smaller brands are less active they might also focus a little more on each individual launch and its within-brand competition is weaker by definition.