Consumers who have had their tastes expanded by celebrity chef’s who continually push the boundaries, the Food Network and growing availability of more ethnic foods. Thanks to this, they are demanding more intensity and variety in everything from potato chips to chewing gum to beverages and more. Food marketers need to stay up with this important trend. You can learn more in an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal titled “A Taste for Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier” .
Posts Tagged ‘food’
Give Me More Flavor
Monday, May 31st, 2010Cost Consciousness Here to Stay
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010Consumers have now settled into a new level of practicality when it comes to food shopping. While they still may prefer branded products, they are no longer willing to just walk the aisles without regard to prices. They are now looking for deals and special offers. Even Whole Foods has started to discount in an effort to reclaim lost customers and change their image away from being known as “Whole Paycheck”. This creates a challenge for brands who have to be cautious with how and how often they discount to prevent erosion of their brand image. The front cover of USA Today had an in depth article about this phenomenon.
Reading the Labels
Sunday, April 18th, 2010We all know that more and more consumers are reading the nutritional labels of packaged food contents for calories, sugar, salt and fat. Now more and more of them are also reading the ingredients. And the media is telling them what to look for as in this article from Healthy Living. What are you doing to eliminate ingredients that consumers perceive as unhealthy? The time to act is now.
Another Opportunity to Benefit From Updating Packaging
Friday, April 9th, 2010
The Center of Science in the Public Interest is taking on food manufacturer’s for deceptive packaging. This time, it’s for the size of packages that have little relation to the amount of content inside and not for the usual target of questionable claims. The story was in the Baltimore Sun but look for it to show up on broadcast media as this group has been quite successful in getting media attention for their point of view in the past. The target is air, the extra air that is in packages they deem as unnecessary and dishonest in that it deceives the consumer about the amount of product inside.
I’m surprised that companies like WalMart have not made a bigger issue of this as part of their environmental initiatives to reduce waste in packaging, in shipping and in shelf space. This is an opportunity for a brand to differentiate themselves by right sizing their packages ahead of the competition.
America Leads in Pre-packaged Foods
Monday, April 5th, 2010There is an interesting graph in the NY Times that shows how the US leads all other nations in pre-packaged foods. This graph shows me three things. First there is a tremendous opportunity for US based food producers to become global and export the convenience of pre-packaged foods to the rest of the world. As the economic picture for citizens of many foreign countries continues to improve, just like the demand for cars is rising, so can the demand for pre-packaged food. The second observation is that we should plan on seeing more foreign food producers entering the US market due to its size. And the third observation is I think we will see continuing pressure from many areas, including the government, to improve the nutritional value of pre-packaged foods as the article also points out how many of these foods are loaded with salt, fat and sugar. Read more here
Consumers Looking for Creative Recipes from Brands
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Consumers food tastes have changed and they are looking for more up to date recipes from manufacturer’s. Many manufacturer’s list old standby recipes on their labels and even more on their websites. Today’s consumers are bored with yesterday’s recipes and are now looking to the Food Network, magazines and websites like epicurious.com. Companies like Campbell Soup, Nestle, Kraft and General Mills are leading the way with this trend. Read the article from the WSJ to learn more.
Regional Brands Dying
Saturday, January 30th, 2010An almost obituary like article from the Wall Street Journal shows how regional candy brands are disappearing. This is the same fate of brands in many grocery categories as they are squeezed off the shelf by growing national and private label brands. Many of these regional brands are family owned and they have given up the fight as they ride the cash cow down to the sad end. A hopeful sign is in the beer category where many small independent brands are making life miserable for the larger national brands. They do this with youthful enthusiasm, a willingness to take risks and a sincere belief that they just simply make a better product.
Don’t Use A Down Economy As A Crutch
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010It’s no secret that we’re clawing our way out of a brutal recession. But what does it mean for your business? How are your customers impacted and more importantly, how are they responding? The media is saturated with tales of hardship. It’s easy for us to become desensitized to the details of our current financial woes.
We’re all people. We all still eat. Those fortunate enough to be among the employed still commute to work. We take care of our children’s needs, clothing them, feeding them, and tending to their health. To say that spending has declined across the board and write it off as a loss is one of the biggest mistakes many customer-facing organizations are making right now. (more…)
Something to Think About
Monday, January 11th, 2010From the article “Why is American Food So Cheap?” in the Atlantic this morning.
There are a lot of reasons why obesity has taken off over the last 30 years, but one very obvious reason is that food — especially fat food — is so cheap.