Rating and Ranking Products

by NFN Editor

In his 2004 book The Wisdom of Crowds James Surowiecki convincingly argues that under the right conditions, crowds are remarkably wise.

"Markets are made up of diverse people with different levels of information and intelligence, and yet when you put all those people together and they start buying and selling, they come up with generally intelligent decisions," he writes.

Manufacturers introduced 122,000 new SKUs last year according to The Nielsen Co. Hundreds of millions were invested in these launches. Many were natural and organic products. Most failed. In fact, 97 percent earned less than $1 million and only 200 generated more than $10 million in sales.

No single category buyer could hope to have predicted the spectacular success of the 10 SKUs in 2007 that earned $50 million in their first year but working together members of this network would have seen Campbell's Reduced Sodium Soup on track to earn $101 million in 2007 along with the steamed vegetable success of Bird's Eye. Glacéau Vitaminwater sold 77 million cases last year, a 103 percent increase compared to 2006.

The thousands of in-store buyers who belong to the Natural Food Network benefit greatly from this knowledge. Here's is how you can take part.

Register on the site and visit often to see the latest news and product rankings and subscribe to the Weekly News & New Products Alert. Then share your opinions and personal experiences with others. You can create private conversations among your closest associates, join in the public forums or even start your own blog.

Surowiecki says four conditions must be present for rankings to be reliable:

To be smart the crowd needs to be diverse, so that people are bringing different pieces of information to the table;
It needs to be decentralized, so that no one at the top is dictating the crowd's answer.
The people in the crowd need to be independent, so that they pay attention mostly to their own information, and not worry about what everyone around them thinks, and
It needs a way of summarizing people's opinions into one collective verdict.

We are currently working on a method of dynamically calculating the average scores and posting the results with each reviewed item (average, number of times rated). In the meantime, it will be helpful to gather comments on the criteria below.

Wisdom of Crowds Product Evaluation Form

Category managers, in-store buyers and managers responsible for ordering natural and organic products for resale are invited to rank any item in the Natural Food Network database. Products scoring 85 or better earn the network’s recommendation. Ten retailers must rate a product before a score appears in the online rankings.

TASTE - QUALITY
0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20
Unpalatable		Ordinary				Fine		Superb		Sublime
Scale 1- 20 (Evaluate taste, texture, color, quality of ingredients and mouth feel)

STATED HEALTH BENEFITS (Not all natural/organic foods are healthy)
0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20
Unhealthy		Typical				Beneficial		Scientifically demonstrated
Scale 1- 20 (Health benefits are documented on nutritional panel and well displayed on label and merchandising materials)

CERTIFICATIONS (Natural – Certified Organic – Beyond Organic)
0	3		6		9		12		15
Natural ingredients		All natural		Certified Organic		100% Organic		Beyond organic
Scale 1- 15 (Certified organic ingredients sustainably and ethically produced get the top score)

PACKAGING
0	2	4	6	8	10
Subtracts Value	Appropriate			Adds Significant Value
Scale 1- 10 (Clever format, colorful design, convenience and environmentally friendly packaging materials enhance value.)

SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE - VALUE
0	2	4	6	8	10
Unrealistically High	Appropriate			Excellent Value
Scale 1- 10 (Award top scores where wholesale pricing is flexible, reflecting awareness of retail constraints.)

MERCHANDISING
0	2		4	6	8	10
Trade Spend Too Small		Adequate		Good	Superior Overall Support
Scale 1- 10 (Inadequate local media and online support to reach consumers kills many promising products.)

IN-STORE PROMOTIONS
0	1	2	3	4	5
In-store promotions inadequate		Adequate		Superior In-store promotions
Scale 1- 5 (Shoppers increasingly respond at the last-minute to in-store promotions, shelf, aisle, end-cap, TV, coupon.)

DISTRIBUTION
0	1	2	3	4	5
Severely limited availability		Regional Availability		Readily Available Nationally
Scale 1- 5 (Ready availability is crucial whether an established product or new launch.)

FOOD MILES (How far must this finished product travel to reach your store.)
0	1	3	3	4	5
5000+ Miles	2,500-5,000 Miles	1,500-2,500 Miles	1,000-1,500 Miles	Regional	Within 100 miles
Scale 1- 5 (A criteria of growing importance both for marketing and logistics due to rising transportation costs.)

Thank you for joining us in developing a trusted network of professionals whose unprecedented level of cooperation will lead to greater success for all.

posted on 6/19/2008 0 0 Digg Delicious Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

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