The Right Bite
15 Apr 2020 | Innova Market Insights
A healthy brain is one that has the ability to remember, concentrate and maintain a clear and active mind. Increasingly, it’s not just the senior population who are concerned with optimizing such functions, but also younger consumers who are managing careers, families and social lives while striving to maintain healthy lifestyle. In this webinar, Lu Ann Williams, Director of Insights & Innovation highlights the key trends in energy-boosting food/drinks, convenient solutions and comforting foods that are becoming a part of consumers' busy lifestyles.
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Hi, everyone.
Louanne Williams here.
I'm gonna spend about the next 20 minutes talking to you about one of our top 10 trends, the right bite.
This is our trend oval that I think a lot of you are probably very familiar with.
You see the right bite there.
This really is going to focus on the role of food and how we manage our lives.
I don't think we could be talking about this at a better time.
We're all In the middle of dealing with the COVID-19 lockdowns, and this trend really does focus on the role that food plays for all of us who are managing our jobs, our families, our social lives, teenagers that are not really happy about being locked down, but really, you can, you can embrace a busy lifestyle, you can, balance it, or you can reject it.
Basically, three different ways, and those are the things I'm gonna talk about today.
I know I've showed this slide a few times during the top 10 trends presentations, that I've given, but this is just a, a great way to introduce it that, for example, we know a lot of consumers tell us I experience stress more than once a day.
All the consumer data that you see today comes from Our own consumer surveys.
Today, this is one from a lifestyle survey that we did in 10 countries.
And in addition to the consumer insights, here's a nice product example.
This is the company I talked about several times.
I know they actually brought live bees to the Annuga last year, which was so interesting.
But again, this is a beverage.
Again, very much balance between doing something right for bees, but also managing health.
It contains a lot of products that offer the benefits, green tea, chamomile, all kinds of ingredients that help to, reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and so on.
So, this perfect type of, of product that helps us to deal , with a stressful lifestyle.
So, we ask consumers, in addition to taste and health, what other reasons do you, buy food and beverage products?
Convenience is a big driver, to make me happy, to keep me going, to give me energy, to indulge, reward myself, and also to fill me up.
And here's a really nice example from the US from a, a snack food company, and they offer the right ingredients at the right time of day.
So, energy in the morning, a little afternoon boost, and then something to promote relaxation and sleep in the evening, but nice example of different times of day, different types of, Issues to deal with.
And again, I mentioned at the beginning that you can really embrace your lifestyle, you can balance, and you can also just reject it.
I think a lot of us are, today I was looking at, alcohol sales, and that's definitely a great example of rejecting what's happening right now.
But there's also age variations in this, if you dive into the different cohorts, Gen Zers, I love having many things to do.
I plan my time efficiently.
I look for, beverages such as the high protein to help me, embrace this lifestyle and to deal with it.
A lot of people also just want to balance.
They're looking for easy to prepare food, also home-cooked food.
And then there's, we'll say, this is my cohort, Gen Z.
Sometimes I just feel stuck and I just go, OK, who cares?
And I actually did do that yesterday.
I ate a lot of ice cream.
Sometimes you just want something that, that indulges, yourself to deal with a particularly stressful situation.
So, let's first look at embracing.
A lot of consumers love to have many things to do like the Gen Z's we just showed you there.
They're dedicated to having this very busy lifestyle.
They need to plan, but they also want to benefit from it, so you need food and beverages that support that lifestyle.
So here we ask consumers, what types of foods support your busy lifestyle.
So, snacks are a big part of that, energizing food and drinks and on the go.
And we looked at launches over the period of 2015 to 2019, and we saw an increase in high protein products.
They grew 17% , over that time.
This is a trend that's just had legs for 10 years.
And it's probably reaching its peak, but again, it's more from, you know, some types of proteins now to vegetable proteins, so, there's definitely still opportunities in this, and we also have seen strong growth in products that offer energy and alertness.
This one contains matcha.
And a snack bite.
Also finding that balance between health and indulgence.
We asked consumers, what do you, you know, what other factors do you pay importance to, and we saw that, nearly 20% said, I, pay attention to indulgence factors, but 30% said health.
So, why not make a product that taps into both of those?
This is a great example.
I love these products.
So, here, it's called a cottage cheese bar.
I've also seen it called a quark bar.
But a really indulgent dessert, but you can see here that it's high in protein, less sugar, fewer calories, less fat, than some other products.
So, it really does provide that perfect balance between indulgence, and health.
And also looking for this, in this whole idea of personalized nutrition, this is gonna be a bigger and bigger factor as so many people are following lifestyle diets.
We can see here, we asked what type of diet have you, or lifestyle diet have you followed in the past 5 years.
13% of consumers from these 10 countries said they were, vegetarian, 7% were vegan.
And we looked at what other types of factors influence purchasing decision.
27% of consumers said low sugar, 18% said high fiber, and 19% said high protein.
So, again, here's some nice examples of how you can tap into those more personalized decisions.
And needs Looking at macronutrient makeover, that's also one of our, our top 10 trends this year.
And we also see products that are promoting things like balanced nutrition, the macro snacks there, a macronutrient balanced, crisp, also plant-based.
Convenience, we saw is a driver, especially for younger consumers.
One bottle equals one meal here, perfect combination of convenience food and balanced nutrition.
And the PhD Smart cake is a macro-friendly indulgence.
So, it has 15 g of protein, low sugar, and it's making an overall health and indulgence, Claim.
OK.
Now, we'll move on to looking at balancing.
So, this is looking at really that, that big group in the middle.
And this is a group.
I love the benefits of a modern life, but I do need to wind down sometimes.
So, what types of foods fit that type of profile?
And you can see her home-cooked food, easy to prepare food, and also ready meals.
So, this also helps you to feel like you're taking control of, of your life and, and And, and being able to, to live a life of balance.
So, some nice examples here.
These are Vietnamese rice paper roll, rolls.
It's a little kit.
It has three simple, steps.
I think this is interesting.
I've also, we've been doing some consumer research on the COVID.
And looking at, there are people now that are, they can't eat out anymore.
So looking at how do you create foods that you might have eaten in restaurants and do it at home, kind of lifestyle hacks.
This is, I think, super interesting.
My kids would be interested in that.
They'd definitely be interested in the, the cupcakes on the right-hand side.
So, again, this is, super easy way to indulge.
With a really simple one-minute microwavable cake.
One third of consumers tell us I've also increased my consumption of ready meals because my lifestyle needs have changed.
And again, this one really, the example here taps into, again, this whole personalized lifestyle diet.
This is a frozen.
Single-serve bowl that's delicious and nutritious for low-carb lifestyles, ready in under 5 minutes.
So, again, you start to see these themes, so there's lots of ways to kind of play on, on many of these different trends.
We have convenience, we have the personalized diets, and we have this overall balanced Indulgence versus nutrition themes all coming together.
Meal kits have definitely been in the news for the past A few years, the retailers have jumped in.
I definitely use the ones from Albert Hein there because I cook myself, but I don't have to do any planning.
Everything is vegetable-based.
None of these have meat in them.
Some of them call for meat you can add or, a lot of times we use meat alternatives in ours.
There's also a version from Hello Fresh, but we've seen a 28% growth in Meal kit solutions, over the past 5 years.
So retail also playing a big role in this.
It's a great way to have a home-cooked meal experience that's very easy.
And I just mentioned, we cook these a lot at our house.
We, a lot of times make them plant-based, but you can see here, we looked at ready meals that had a vegan claim.
And just to remember, the vegan claim really does tick all those boxes for people looking, you know, for vegetarians and also people looking for more plant-based, but you can see the numbers there.
I won't read them all out, but across all categories, we've seen, just a massive increase, in vegan claims to appeal to all the people that want to live a, a more plant-rich diet.
OK.
So now looking for a lifestyle change.
So, for people who feel stuck, I think many of us do, so this will probably be a good section for us and definitely an opportunity for these days.
Emotional comfort is really important.
So, I like to distract myself from my busy lifestyle and try to wind down.
I would also say I like to distract myself from boredom.
I know in my family, I've been trying to, I have 3 teenagers.
I'm trying to make life much more interesting for them, so I've been cooking things that I wouldn't normally cook.
I've also been splurging.
A lot more at the grocery store.
We're trying all kinds of new things, especially beverages that we wouldn't normally buy.
So, what types of food support your busy lifestyle profile, Comfort food, relaxing food and drinks, sleep-improving food and drinks?
And just a couple of examples there, a beverage from the UK that has lots of Mood enhancing and anxiety reducing ingredients, lavender, chamomile, theanine, ashwagandha, and CBD.
And then on the complete other end of the spectrum is the, the Magnum Mini Rubies, the ultimate luxury ice cream.
I have to say I saw those in the grocery store, but haven't bought them yet.
That'll be something for us to try this week.
Also, mental health is not as taboo as it used to be.
You can see here we asked, consumers who agreed, I experienced stress once a day or more.
You can see 52% of Indian consumers agree, 39% in the US, 32% in the UK.
And then you can look at on the right-hand side, the different, generational cohorts trying to prevent and then how many you're treating.
Those numbers are absolutely huge.
So, stress is a big deal, and it's OK that we, that we talk about it now more than we used to.
And looking at how do you tap into that with products?
We ask consumers what effects does stress have on you.
Bad mood, appeared quite high, and we are seeing a lot of mood food, New Tropics are very on trend now.
We've seen a 7% growth in launches with the mood claim over the past 5 years.
Feeling tired or fatigued, 14% growth.
And launches with an energy claim and a 6% increase in products to deal with sleeping problems.
Sleep is gonna be a, just, we know it's getting a lot of attention, but over the next few years, it's just gonna be a massive, Issue and a, and a bigger opportunity.
Emotional needs also fit really with this holistic view of health.
So, we asked here, what aspects are important to you in consuming foods and beverages.
The top three answers were that it's good for my body, that it gives me energy, and that it also gives me a feeling of comfort.
So, this really is, we've also had it as a trend in the past couple of years that health is more holistic, that it's not just about your body, it's also about your overall mood.
I think that will definitely support the, the growth of CBD.
I know that we're in a, Unusual period now where a lot of consumers have gone back to, you know, we know that they're looking for products with long shelf life, for example, or, It might be a difficult time to introduce new ingredients at this particular moment, but this is temporary, but it's still, these are still nice examples.
So, we know CBD is being targeted for people that say they experience anxiety, for example.
And then again, on the other spectrum, here's a plant-based yogurt product.
And you can see here, it's positioned as the ultimate treat for snack time, and it supports healthy brain function and health maintenance.
So, lots of health claims on that.
So, again, two ends of the spectrum illustrated here.
OK, move on to our key takeaways.
So, the right bite is just about finding those foods and looking for opportunities where you can really position something to target the needs of consumers that are embracing their lifestyle, that they are balancing or that are rejecting.
So, there's a nice summary there.
Again, I don't think I need to read it, but you can look for people embracing.
It can be, you know, protein claims, energy claims, convenience products to help people.
Cope with that busy lifestyle.
Balancing.
Supporting consumers that they still want to participate more.
They want to, to cook.
They want to eat at home.
This is a great opportunity for meal kits, ready meals, and a plant-based also fitting into that, lifestyle.
Opportunity there, and then people rejecting really indulgent products, and looking for something that's, that's quite different, That helps them to, to cope with all the stress.
So, I hope you have Some new inspiration, of some different ideas, after this, and, We really appreciate you attending.
Thank you.
