The majority of new products are line extensions. Line extensions are products bearing the marketer's brand that are added to the marketer's existing line of products in a category. Most of the 15,000-plus food products introduced in a year were actually new flavors. Repositioned products are less risky than line extensions because the marketer already has some experience with the product. Least risky and least innovative are improved versions of existing products.
Improved versions help maintain strong bonds with current customers.
Such products don't attract many new customers, so they don't have as high a profit potential as breakthroughs. Another way to classify new products is according to their effect on consumer behavior. A product incorporating continuous innovation builds on existing consumer behaviors and consumption patterns. A product with dynamically continuous innovation requires only a few changes in consumer behavior. A product with discontinuous innovation is so different that it requires consumers to form new behaviors and patterns.