Archive for category: Food Retail

Merchandising Strategies Can Boost Better For You Snack Sales

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Researchers at Utah State University conducted a three-month study testing different merchandising strategies at convenience stores to determine if you could improve better-for-you snack sales. Their study found that placing fresh fruit and other healthy snack options near the checkout area plus promoting their beneficial attributes increased sales on many of these items. Another study developed by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) found that better-for-you snack sales increased by 34% when merchandised next to traditional snacks.

What Merchandising Strategies have the Most Success?

Point of purchase displays near checkouts hosting a variety of healthy options from clean label granola bars to whole fruits and vegetables saw the most success in the Utah State study. Food manufacturers have spent much time in R&D to reformulate snacks and create packaging that speaks to the health benefits, but they are losing momentum in retail. Placement and callout need to be improved to showcase why these snacks are so much better for you than traditional ones.

“Both the healthy checkout and better-for-you planogram tests showed that low-cost tactics can be implemented at convenience stores to grow sales of healthier foods. What works in some stores may not work across all stores, but the success of these tests clearly shows that convenience stores can be a destination of choice for better-for-you items.”

Carolyn Schnare, Director of Strategic Initiatives at NACS

Retailers have to buy into the health-focused movement to see the real benefits. It can be a win-win for retailers and food brands as the clean label movement continues to pick up steam.

The Better For You Planogram Study

The better for you planogram study tracked by NACS looked at four low-calorie snacks in a few convenience stores. They found that integrating these products in with fan favorites on the endcaps of aisles significantly boosted the sales. Veggie chips sales were up 119% during the study! Better for you sales and GrandFusion is a crucial ingredient helping snack foods making powerful health claims on their packaging. Our powdered blend of fruits and vegetables stabilizes and concentrates the natural vitamins and minerals so that you can quickly add super nutrition without impacting flavor or texture of your end product. Let NutriFusion help you take your healthy snack to the next level!

M&A Strategies are Evolving in Small Brand Acquisitions

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Big CPG companies have been focusing on growth through acquisitions the past few years. They see small brands as an opportunity to tap into a growing customer segment that they currently have little access to. However, the transition from a small brand into the big company structure can lose the “craft,” and “authentic” feel that makes those brands so successful. 2018 is the year when mergers and acquisitions teams will evolve and apply tactics that ensure the small brand keeps its quality and authentic feel.

How are Mergers & Acquisitions Tactics Evolving?

 

M&A teams are finally noticing that some of the small brand’s most loyal consumers see these deals as the brand “selling out to the man.” These loyal customers matter, because are typically the people that helped the company grow so fast. It is important for big CPG companies to keep brands “local” and maintain the product’s integrity after an acquisition. M&A Teams are focused on the following to keep small brands authentic feel:

  • Keep the founder and initial innovator to maintain the appearance of a healthy marriage. This is important to building continued trust with loyal customers.
  • Basing the purchase price on post-sale performance as well as making small investments in multiple small brands.
  • Allow small brands to continue to operate independently by not buying them outright. Look at Mars’ recent investment in KIND.
  • As soon as the sale is complete, both companies should be working together to tell the future plans for the brand. Look at how General Mills and Annie’s accomplished this over the years.

These Relationships are About Maintaining the Look and Feel

Risks in M&A exist for both the buyers and sellers. The small brands fear that the large company will ignore their mission and vision in pursuit of profits, and big companies fear they will never recoup a return on their investment. The M&A teams are telling both parties to focus on maintaining the look and feel of the brand. Keep the price the same, keep the packaging the same, keep the ingredients the same, at least for a little while. The bottom line here is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

CFI Finds Only 33% of Consumers Trust The Food System

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The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) released a new study, A Dangerous Food Disconnect: When Consumers Hold You Responsible  But Don’t Trust You, that looks at some damaging statistics on the food system. First and foremost, the study revealed that 33% of consumers do not trust the food system, which is down from 47% in 2017. This is alarming and further supports the movement by food companies to be more transparent and create products with simple ingredients.

Food Companies Placed Last on List of Most Trusted Information in the Food System

The new CFI study is important because it showcases the disconnect between what consumers think and what food companies across the industry are actively doing to ease their concerns. On the list of most trusted sources for food safety information, food companies ranked dead last with food regulators taking 8th on the list, and farmers ranking 3rd on the list. Surprisingly, family and physicians ranked as the most trusted sources of food safety information.

 

Roxi Beck, Director of the CFI, believes food companies have to further their mission of product transparency. She suggests inviting consumers to the farms and manufacturing facilities to build more trust. She also suggests large CPG companies be wary of touting their large size and global scale as it often viewed as a warning sign to consumers today. The small brands are taking advantage of this and winning big time.

Investing in Transparency Efforts and Technology

Multiple food companies and suppliers in the food system are looking at new blockchain technology to lead the transparency effort. Companies like Cargill have tested blockchain to allow consumers to trace their Thanksgiving Turkey back to the farm it was raised on. This is a step in the right direction.

Other companies are looking for ways to better tell their brand stories to lead transparency efforts. Marketing teams across food brands are selling this hard up the ladder because they know how important trust is to purchase decisions and long-term brand loyalty. The bottom line will grow as food companies and their brand focus on building more trust with consumers.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

Tactile and Multisensory Foods Could Be Top Trend For Brands in 2018

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Tactile and multisensory experiences are all about feeling and hearing the connection. Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru, believes we have evolved, and 2018 is a particular year for brands to take advantage of the tactile approach. A multisensory food will appeal to more than consumer’s taste buds. Brands will look to add features and experiences that appeal to the hearing and visual senses.

Tactile Brands Will Be More Memorable

The clean label trend is here to stay, but Phil believes consumers are at peak food information overload. It’s time that foods move to a more intellectual connection with visual and auditory cues. Foods that enable sounds like chopping, stirring, chewing and crunching will give consumers a food euphoria every time.

Brands Already Implementing the Tactile Approach

The crunch of a crisp snack echoes in our brain, and we subconsciously resonate with it in the future. Also, think about the crisp taste of a beer, but enhancing that with virtual reality as Guinness recently did.

Sensory marketing is nothing new, but Phil makes an excellent point that this trend will gain steam after the focus on ingredients, clean labels, and more over the past few years. Sampling is one of the critical ways to implement a multisensory marketing approach at retail and food events. Costco has been using this technique for years to drive sales in specific products and categories.

Tactile and multisensory approaches will be food and beverage brands secret weapon in 2018. Watch and listen for more!

Inspired by www.supermarketguru.com

1/3 of Protein Bars Have as Much Fat as a Krispy Kreme Donut

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Has the New Year, New You health and wellness trend hit you this year? How many protein shakes, protein bars and workouts are you taking in? Well, if you love the taste of your favorite protein bar, you might want to look at the label a little closer. Protectivity, a U.K. based health, sports, and travel specialists revealed in new research that more than 33% of all protein bars have more saturated fat than a Krispy Kreme donut.

How Protectivity Analyzed 56 Protein Bars

Protectivity created a fitness food index to help people look at the protein, carbohydrate, sugar, and fat content to look at a variety of products including protein bards. The index shows that protein bars often contain large amounts of sugar and fat. They found that 10 of the 56 bars analyzed contained more sugar than a Krispy Kreme donut.

Nutritional shakes and bars have been one of the most active markets over the past five years. From 2010 to 2015, the category grew at 10% year over year. In 2016, the market reached over $9 billion in sales around the world. It’s safe to say that these formulas of high fat and sugar content will not last long as protein bars have typically been seen as part of the clean eating trend.

Large CPG Companies Acquiring the Nimbler Bar Brands

It’s evident that the smaller brands are catching the eye of the giant CPG companies. These brands have already created formulas that meet consumer needs with low sugar, low fat, and great taste. Big CPG sees no reason to reinvent the wheel and instead believes the acquisition is the best way to gain market share. Last November, Mars took a minority stake in KIND bar. Kellogg acquired RXBAR to grow its clean label protein bar offerings for over $600 million in 2017. The nutritional bar market is hot, and we expect more acquisitions in this area in 2018.

Consumers Must Recognize Protein Bars as a Meal Replacement, Not a Snack

Brands must educate consumers on protein bars and nutritional products. Many of these products are not formulated to be eaten as a casual snack but as a meal replacement or a post-workout fuel. Brands should be concerned about the high levels of fat and sugar because if consumers don’t see results, they will switch to another favorite food solution. 2018 and 2019 should be the years that these brand focus on adding healthier ingredients and formulating these bars to be more reliable nutritional products for consumers.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

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Blockchain Technology Makes Splash in Seafood Industry

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Blockchain is the hottest technology in the world right now with cryptocurrencies leading the way with outrageous returns. However,  blockchain is much more than cryptocurrencies. It is a new technology for a distributed ledger of transactions called blocks that are linked and secured through cryptography. The seafood industry appears to be the first to take a leap in utilizing the technology in the food industry.

How is Blockchain being used with Seafood?

Many times when consumers buy seafood, they wonder if this is really wild? Viant and the World Wild Fund have developed a blockchain certification system to offer consumers a way to track a fish’s history from the ocean to the table. Fish are tagged with a QR code when caught, so that information is then logged into Viant’s system. From the fishing net to the market, information on the fish’s journey is added. As mentioned above, blockchain technology is tamper-proof, but Viant’s seafood blockchain will allow participants to choose what they want to upload and how they want the product tracked.

 

Traceability and Transparency Leading Factors for Blockchain in Food Industry

Retailers are working with food brands to develop blockchain ledgers for a variety of products. Currently, Wal-Mart is the only retailer testing traceability systems with their first tests happening in late 2017. Consumers are driving food brands and retailers to provide more transparency and traceability into where their food comes from in the world. This new technology seems to be able to give help to brands and retailers as they reformulate products and open up their supply chain to consumers. However, they will guard this supply chain information from their competitors, so don’t expect too much insight.

This is just the beginning of the blockchain wave, but it appears it may be catching on with the food industry in 2018.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

New Food Pharmacies Filling Prescriptions for Fruits and Veggies

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According to a recent article in Mother Jones Magazine, there are a handful of food pharmacies popping up across the country. The food pharmacies are focused on recommended different fruits and vegetables to help those suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes. MJ reported that one in three adults in the United States has high blood pressure and 7% of the population has diabetes, which is up from 4.4% in 2000 according to the CDC.

How are food pharmacies trying to help?

In San Francisco, Silver Avenue Family Health Center is combining the resources of a farmer’s market and food pantry. They are using nutritional advice to help reduce high blood pressure and diabetes in those typically suffering from “food insecurity.” Food insecurity is defined as lack of affordable, regular access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

The food as medicine movement has been on the rise over the past 25 years as prescriptions, and other medical approaches have not resulted in lowering high blood pressure or diabetes for the masses. Nutritionists believe that food could be the answer and have long pointed out the medicinal benefits of different fruits and vegetables. For example, cherries bolster the immune system and strawberries for improving cardiac health.

Food Companies Looking for Ways to Add More Fruits & Veggies to Their Products

 

As the food as medicine movement continues to grow, food companies are looking for an innovative way to add fruits and vegetables to their products. Beyond Meat has taken an interesting approach to creating all plant-based meats from vegetables as well as adding back the beneficial nutrients from those veggies through the GrandFusion vegetable blend.

Consumers are actively looking for convenient, better-for-you products with the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. Smoothies, premium juices, single serve veggie meals, and more are catching the attention of millennials and baby boomers as they look for new options.

 

According to the CDC, We Still Have a Long Way to Go

While consumer demand for fresh produce may be increasing, the CDC reports alarming stats that adults in the U.S. are still not eating enough fruits and vegetables. Only 10% of all adults in the United States are eating enough fruits and vegetables every year. It will be interesting to see how we conquer this uphill battle of getting more people to eat more fruits and vegetables for their health.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

Bizarre Food Trends to Watch in 2018

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The food and beverage space has been rapidly changing over the past five years and 2018 looks to be no different. In this post, we will look at some of the Daily Mail’s bizarre food trends to watch in 2018.

Meat Like Veggie Burgers

Veggie burgers have come a long way in the past few years. Anyone with experience eating veggie burgers knows that they have often been dry and bland. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have developed juicy veggie burgers that mimic the texture and taste of real meat burgers. Impossible Foods’ burger even bleeds! Watch out for these burgers near all your genuine beef products in 2018.

It’s 2018, and we are Drinking Mushroom Lattes

Mushrooms have been getting a lot of hype in 2017, and that looks to continue in 2018. New mushroom enhanced coffee is focused on giving you the caffeine kick without the jitters. Four Sigmatic is selling arabica coffee blended with fungi including Lion’s Mane and Chaga. Be on the lookout for coffee bars and mushroom lattes next year!

Bizarre Veggie Bread

Companies are looking for ways to make products healthier especially bread manufacturers. Over the past five years, bread manufacturers in the U.K. have seen sales decline by 12%. They have developed a high protein, low carb veggie bread to lure customers back. These loaves of bread are being made out of beetroot, courgette, and red pepper.

Sweet and Sour Super Fruit

Superfoods and more specifically superfruits have been buzzing for years now. Jackfruit is the latest superfood to pick up steam and demand. In 2018, you can eat it raw, so it tastes sweet like a mango or cook it for a sour taste. The jackfruit is full of calcium and iron.

High Protein Ice Cream

Yes, ice cream is trying to be better for you! Brands are hopping on the protein train and packing it into every spoonful. Be on the lookout for new products from Breyers to compete with protein-infused ice cream originator, Enlightened.

Inspired by www.dailymail.co.uk