Tag Archives: retail

What’s Wrong with “Healthy”?

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Pavone Food

If you’ve seen our current Food Trends Report, you know that we point out that consumers are striving to be healthier and are making healthier choices in their diets, but they’re not necessarily eating food classified as healthy in the truest sense.  Although our Food Trends Report addresses many examples of and several reasons for the trend, another piece of puzzle has been revealed in a recent report released by Catalina Marketing and the Food Marketing Institute, which addresses several grocery-specific barriers to healthy eating.

First, the good news:  consumers know that healthy food is readily available at their local grocery store.  72% of survey participants agreed that the store they go to “stocks a wide variety of healthful food and beverages.”

When asked about their purchasing habits, 77% of Catalina’s respondents reported shying away from healthy foods because they believe they cost more.  Obviously, this isn’t necessarily the case and consumers have an exaggerated sense of the price differentials that do exist.  Read more...

Posted in General | Tagged food, grocery, healthy, Research, retail, trends | 1 Comment

Danger in the Disconnect

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Pavone Food

A recent Supermarket News study found that the food industry is somewhat disconnected from consumer perceptions and is underestimating the scope of trends that are important to them.

The results showed that 52% of consumers indicated that having local food available at their primary store is “very important”—but only 38% of industry participants believe availability of local food is a priority for consumers.  On another subject, 96% of consumers consider themselves to be more health conscious now than they were a year ago.  The industry again, underestimated, guessing that 84% of consumers would view themselves as more health conscious than last year.  The study also found that 20% of consumers say they regularly modify recipes to make them healthier, but only 8.2% of food industry participants thought that was the case.

While each of the subject areas specifically identified by the study are interesting and deserves to be looked at more closely, the real value of the results go far beyond the scope of this research.  Hopefully, these findings are a reality check for retailers, manufacturers and marketers alike.  We need to make sure we truly understand consumers and be able to quickly identify shifts in priorities, values, behaviors and spending. Consumers get smarter and more savvy by the hour; marketers who don’t keep up with that will be left behind.  Underestimating consumer preference is sure to result in a delayed or inappropriate retail response as well as a missed opportunity.

Posted in General | Tagged food, grocery, healthy, local, priorities, retail, shopping, trends | 1 Comment

Faking It

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Pavone Food

“Fake baking” is on the rise.  More and more consumers are taking credit for something they didn’t make, passing it off as their own homemade specialty.  “Semi-homemade” requires slightly more effort.  Consumers have to add something to the mix themselves to claim that almost-homemade status.  Regardless of how one chooses to define the misrepresentation, it is one that smart manufacturers and marketers are not only enabling but encouraging.

It’s about helping time-starved consumers look like domestic gods and goddesses.  They simply don’t always have time to make the kind of meal they’d like to present to their families or the gourmet cookies they’d like to bring to the bake sale.   Not only have smart manufacturers made their products more convenient, they have actually given consumers permission to claim “homemade” status.  Read more...

  • Alon’s, an Atlanta-based baking company, sells roll of gourmet cookie dough, but they also sell baskets, plates and linens to help pull off the scam.
  • Honey Baked Ham, Holiday Ham and similar companies exist solely because people need a source for delicious food they can claim as their own.
  • Ready-to-Eat Cheesecake Filling from Philadelphia/Kraft is another example.  Anyone can have “homemade” cheesecake in one step; just spoon the filling into a pre-made graham cracker crust!
Posted in General | Tagged baking, fake, food trends, retail | 4 Comments

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Pavone Food

As grocery, supercenter and club stores have seen their average basket sizes slide over the last year, a distinctly different food retailer continues to see unparalleled success with a deliberately scaled-down strategy.  Trader Joe’s stores sell an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot—more than double the performance of Whole Foods stores.

They operate on a very different scale, however.  Trader Joe’s sells approximately 4,000 SKUs— a far cry from the 50,000 kept by typical grocery retailers.

The key to making every SKU work hard is assuring exceptional quality.  According to Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice,  offering high-quality products and fewer choices has a positive effect on sales.   Consumers are more likely to buy if they’re reassured they’re making a good choice, one they won’t regret later.  They accept fewer choices if they trust that those few items will be exceptionally good.

And consumers trust Trader Joe’s to offer the best products available.  The company invests heavily in procuring outstanding products and empowering their product developers (or top buyers) to set trends rather than follow them.  Read more...

Posted in General | Tagged retail, Trader Joe's, trends | 1 Comment

Food Trend Influencers – Part Three of Three

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Pavone Food

Whether you’re managing a top national brand or working to promote a commodity, the same influencers are affecting consumer perceptions of your product.  Maybe you’re seeking to influence food trends, or maybe you just want to capitalize on them at the right time.  Either way, understanding the influencers will help you make smart decisions about the strategy for and timing of your launch or new campaign.

In parts one and two of the food trend influencers discussion, we identified wildly creative, independent chefs as the top-level trendsetters and discussed why foodservice distributors need to please them.  We talked about how rapidly those chefs influence the food media and how their ideas become  movements with consumers.

It is at that point that chain restaurants tend to act on the trends.  They, too, have been attuned to food media and realize that the trend has really caught on.  They tend to wait longer to accept a trend simply because they are less nimble and making changes is a much bigger (and expensive) process.

Once on board, these chain restaurants reinforce the trend with consumers—often in all service categories and price points.  Consumers typically try to re-create restaurant experiences at home, driving them to seek out appropriate ingredients and supplies.  Read more...

Posted in General | Tagged chefs, consumer, culinary arts, food trends, retail | 3 Comments