With over 14,000 Australian consumers having had their say, the Product of the Year 2019 winners were announced on November 15, at the Quay Restaurant in Sydney.

These awards recognise innovation across several categories, such as beauty and skincare, snacks, home cooking, pantry, healthy options and gluten free.

In its tenth, and biggest year to date, the Product of the Year Awards has seen big guns Coles taking 11 awards, and ALDI scooping up nine awards. Newcomers Freedom Foods took two wins, as did Mars Foods, fellow newbies, taking three wins.

This year saw the healthy food and gluten free categories make a ground-breaking entrance into the awards, with a total of ten wins out of 50 going to healthy alternative products, in comparison to their everyday food and beverage counterparts.

What It Means for the Industry

The appearance of these categories is an exciting look into what we can expect for the future of an already consistently growing category of ‘convenience foods’, now with more vegetarian, allergen-free and gluten-free options becoming more popular.

The addition of the healthy food and gluten-free categories is also an indication of the growing consumer demand for manufacturers and distributors to create and stock such products, making these options more mainstream and affordable than we have seen in past years.

These products are now becoming more available also, as we start seeing the healthier alternatives appearing on shelves across a number of mainstream shopping outlets, namely supermarkets, and more consumers reaching for these products over the everyday staples sitting next to them.

The integration of these healthier product options has now seen them entered into and winning the awards, bringing to light the growing popularity of these categories and types of businesses and products.

As the demand for healthier, natural and organic alternatives rise, we now see brands giving greater importance to dietary requirements and tailoring their products to consumers health needs.

With the increasing focus on healthier product lines, brands are becoming braver and innovation in these categories is exciting for not only consumers, but for those involved in the industry, as competition grows pushing companies to become more unique in their product offerings, paying more attention to what the market is asking for.

What It Takes

To determine winners in the awards, the Nielsen research utilise their learnings about successful innovation, against their evaluation of consumer response to products, and line this up against the following six principles:

1. Relevance – Is the product fulfilling a news or addressing a problem?
2. Uniqueness – Does is stand out and bring something new to the category?
3. Excitement – Does it excite them? Would they spread the word?
4. Likeability – Does it deliver what you want?
5. Value Perception – Do you think it provides value for money?
6. Purchase Intent – How likely are you to buy this product (again)

The product’s final score is then determined by it’s overall performance across the six key principles, with the highest index score in each category being named the winner.

The healthy, natural and organic industry’s are growing at a rapid rate, with no signs of stopping, and this growth has now fed its way onto the shelves of supermarket conglomerates across Australia. In an exciting and thrilling change, consumers seem to be the big driver behind this movement in the industry, and businesses should be paying attention to consumers’ change to a healthier lifestyle, and how their products can serve consumers’ journey to this growing way of life.

Click here to see the full list of winners.