Re-making the food and beverage business landscape

The single most important and disruptive change in food culture, now winding its way through virtually every part of the industry, is the overwhelming desire for fresh foods.

Call it the quest for all-things real. Fresh is defined as unprocessed, simple ingredients and often refrigerated. Fresh also conveys to consumers higher perceived quality, better taste and healthier. And so the packaged food world finds itself facing a state of transition as fresh versions overtake and replace their processed cousins.

A.T. Kearney/Hartman Group study “Is Big Food in Trouble?” tracks growth of fresh trend as the dominant shift in consumer preference.

Why are meal kit solutions taking off so rapidly? Because they fit with fresh – offering real food ingredients already portioned and curated for menu creation. The meal kit is a form of convenience and taste adventure that connects to the consumer’s desire for experimentation. Thus, meal kits sit squarely on cultural relevance driving the fresher, higher-quality ingredients business.

Fresh fuels grocerants and more interesting prepared foods

The emerging fast casual restaurant sector is symptomatic of the fresh revolution and move beyond fast, cheap and common foods that have dominated the QSR category for decades. Fast casual’s emphasis on open production, customizable, made-to-order foods using fresh ingredients is relevant and in sync with consumers’ interests for higher-quality, healthier food experiences.

Grocerant strategies: all of this should instigate change at food retail to elevate Deli menus, think creatively about prepared foods sold for take-out, and improve in-store dining experiences.

Fresh food implications for retailers –

1. Investment in culinary-trained commissary staff and fine dining experienced chefs in leadership positions (Chief Culinary Officer).

2. Open kitchens and preparation spaces to show ingredients and allow for customizing menu items.

3. Reworking Deli menus to add more creative, global influences to prepared food options, beyond the comfort staples like meatloaf and rotisserie chicken.

4. Creating improved in-store signage and merchandising that will alert shoppers to fresh, in-season, locally sourced products.

5. Building content and storytelling around locally-sourced ingredients, farmer profiles, as well as tangible investments in local agriculture.

6. Cooking classes to inspire improvements in culinary skills and adoption of chef techniques for the home kitchen.

7. Better designs and environment for dine-in spaces inside food retail.

E-commerce traction and influence on fresh

There are those who simply love and enjoy food shopping – call it a sort of culinary catharsis – and want to visually experience the fresh options arrayed in front of them. Shopping at the store is, for some people, a type of food religion observed with regularity. For others, convenience must address the demands of busy lifestyle where online ordering is a valued (even required) option.

Mobile-based ordering platforms – in web and app form – are not peripheral but rather integral to the food retail eco-system. We believe e-commerce will be a factor in fresh product sales. Increasingly, consumers are getting used to the process as orders continue to meet and exceed their quality and freshness expectations.

Where the e-commerce play becomes a real exciting opportunity is when local sourcing can be woven together with digital ordering and delivery – such that time between farm and dinner table is shortened considerably.

As digital sophistication increases, another game changer would be the ability to solve and resolve last-minute ingredient or recipe needs (where rapid ordering and delivery is required).

Fresh and healthier

There is no other consideration more relevant, important and powerful than the groundswell towards healthier lifestyle. While healthy food was at one time attached to diet products, the meaning has changed considerably.

Foods made from simple and less-processed ingredients continue to gain traction, while better-for-you snacks are encroaching on more indulgent rivals.

Insight: we are moving from a production-fueled system to a demand-driven system, founded on the consumer’s interest in real foods and a parallel desire to know more about ingredients, sourcing, transparency, and sustainability.

For strategic planning purposes, food retail and food brands should look hard at the following consumer cues for guidance to what matters on the demand side:

• Fresh, real
• Health
• Higher quality
• Discovery and experimentation
• Kitchen creativity
• Indulgent reward

How brands and retailers respond now will have great bearing on their relevance and success later on.

Emergent’s strategic planning capabilities are designed around this agenda: marry insight to optimizing growth strategies and translating this work to more effective communication.

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Thoughts on Food Retail Reinvention

Here in Chicago it’s that time of year again when Farmers’ Markets start popping up all over the city. When growing season kicks in, people gravitate to locally-grown and made foods in search of what they believe is better quality, freshness, flavor and a chance at chatting with the producer.

According to the “Firmly Rooted” local food movement study by A.T. Kearney, local product assortment at food retail is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s now a competitive advantage. Why? Because shoppers increasingly value it, will pay more for it, and it’s a driver not only of purchase but also store visits.

Kearney reports that local was a $12 billion business in 2014, with an annual growth forecast of 9 percent a year through 2018. If anything the local movement is accelerating as fresher becomes a significant factor in consumer preference.

The Kearney study revealed:

96 percent of respondents define local as produced within a 100-mile radius. While various classes of food retail may expand this to anywhere from 400 miles to statewide. Of note, consumers believe the circle is tighter.

93 percent associate local with fresher, a primary purchase driver.

78 percent are willing to pay a price premium for local of anywhere from 10 percent more to upwards of 21 percent (local eggs) in certain categories.

63 percent say they believe retailers are starting to offer wider assortments of locally-produced products, including prepared and packaged foods.

71 percent say by offering local products, retailers are doing more to support small businesses and help the local economy.

Barriers to Business Growth

What’s standing in the way of buying more locally-produced items? Shoppers say they don’t know where those products are in the store due to inconsistent signage and lack of cohesive display. Merchandising and marketing need to catch up.

63 percent say they will visit a retailer if notified about in-season, in-stock products. Doing so will require an investment in social and digital marketing to get the word out.

More importantly, this helps shed light on a cultural shift now influencing retail best practices. In the past, a food store existed primarily to drive transactions. Traditional metric analyses of sales and profit per square foot and average transaction/basket size would certainly attest to that. While these remain important assessments of performance, is it the only measure that should be applied?

As food retail evolves we can expect to see disintermediation of shippable commodities that will increasingly go online, while food and culinary experience becomes a bigger business and priority.

Reimagined food retail must work harder at creating an immersive food experience, bringing the farm and flavor adventure to the store. Yes, even some fresh products may migrate to e-commerce and delivery. However, we believe there is a significant segment of the market that prefers the tactile, visual, emotional and sensory-satisfying familiarity of hands-on food experiences.

Measurement and profit models will evolve with this change as stores further invest in perimeter businesses, commissaries and locally-sourced products.

Food is an emotional category. This sensory appeal can be harnessed to great effect by retailers who understand the era of selling boxes, cans and bags at velocity is narrowing in favor of real, fresh and prepared food options.

Those still trying to compete on price will increasingly face a “race-to-the-bottom” challenge with the arrival of low-price specialist Lidl, and the battle between Amazon and Walmart to leverage scale for difficult-to-match efficiencies.

You have to think differently about the retail business you’re in. If retail experience counts, then rethinking the actual presentation of these products in tactile, informative and experiential ways would follow. Where:

Food retailer = local culinary adventures

Electronics = hands-on demo depot

Fashion = the style guide

Toy = the playroom

Experience is the new battleground, and content is the marketing play to tell the powerful and valued stories of local sources, supply chain transparency, ingredient integrity, culinary inspiration and FRESH.

Go Local!!

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