Product of the year debuts in India

Mumbai: Product Of The Year, the globally known consumers' recognition forum has announced its arrival in India.  Product of the Year is one of the world's largest independent surveys into product innovation. 

The initiative has been running globally for over 20 years, and is now in 28 countries.

Product of the year empowers consumers worldwide to choose the best FMCG and durable products based on consumers' experience of products that are innovative and beneficial to them. 

Product of the year helps consumers identify innovative products in an environment where there is information overload and the consumer has very little time to study products. According to the company, it assists consumers in removing the confusion from the consumer's mind and offers the most authentic and quickest way of choosing the best product.

Products launched in the past 18 months are entitled to enter the process. Product of the year is the first ever recognition in India where the consumer will judge products on its innovation and the benefits it provides to end-users.

The contesting products will go through a consumer research, which will be conducted by an independent research organisation across the country.

This involves a two-stage process:
1. Where an eminent jury consisting of industry leaders, senior journalists, consumer protection groups, iconic citizens and personalities of national standing will first vet the entries to validate them for innovation.
2. These entries are then exposed to a statistically valid national sample for their verdict.

The entry is free for all participants. The qualifying participants enrol into the consumer research for a fee, and the winner in each category will buy the rights to promote their brand for a year.

The winners earn the rights to use the Product of the year logo on the product and the advertising as well as any other communication.

Announcing its arrival in India, Mike Nolan, CEO, Product of The Year Management Ltd said, ''Consumers in over 28 countries already rely on Product of the year to find them their product of choice. It is indeed the quickest and authentic way of finding the best products from a plethora that appear every year in the market.'' 

Charulata Ravi Kumar, CEO, Product Of The Year, India said, ''With Product Of The Year being launched in India, we will have a global standard in consumer rating as one of the most credible, and unbiased systems that provides consumers a unique way of identifying the best and most relevant innovations in products in categories where it is otherwise difficult to do so.''

 ''Wherever Product of the Year exists it will always have the same goals; championing innovative manufacturers and helping shoppers find the best new products - as voted for by the people'' added Nolan.

Some of the most eminent brands that have been participating over the years across various product of the year markets are Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilever, Nestle, L'Oreal, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Panasonic, Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Danone, Heinz and Kingsmill Bread.

Product Of The Year is currently being launched in USA, South Africa, Canada and India.