The Origin and Impact of CPG New-Product Buzz: Emerging Trends and Implications

ABSTRACT

Marketers are interested in the phenomenon of “consumer-generated media”, or “buzz,” given its potential to affect the commercial prospects for their products. Within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector, advertisers experiment with a variety of tactics to generate buzz in their marketing communications strategies, including stimulating it. An in-depth analysis of this rapidly evolving domain—considering blog buzz, marketing spending, pre-market purchase intentions, and in-market sales—revealed five key themes: (1) a minority of new CPG brands generate the majority of buzz, (2) new CPG product buzz usually precedes sales, (3) strong new CPG product buzz usually occurs in combination with a strong traditional media presence, (4) category ubiquity and brand distinctiveness are predictive of buzz, and (5) high buzz levels drive sales and can be anticipated to help improve forecasting models.