Added
Benefits
“These types of functional products are
setting new parameters for functional foods and beverages, and putting more
control back into consumer’s hands by providing them with perhaps healthier
alternatives compared to other treatment methods. This has propelled a new
industry of food functionality and fortification, creating a blurring of
supplementation, medicine and food”
(French, S. 2011)
Another trend that has been serving as a catalyst
for growth in the gluten free sector is the concept of ‘added benefits’. On
visiting the Food and Drink Expo at Birmingham NEC in March 2014, I found a
large proportion of brands now advertising the health ‘boosts’ and the
‘super-food’ status of their products as a main selling point. In particular, the term ‘super-food’ has been
bandied about by the media increasingly over the past few years. Headlines such
as “Kale and Hearty! How to Eat Victoria
Beckham’s Favourite Superfood (The Daily Express, 2013) and “Get a Taste for Teff, the New Ethiopian
Superfood! (The Guardian, 2014) are among many facing consumers currently. Although
studies (including my own survey of consumers) show few people actually read the
nutritional labels on food products, most consumers have bought goods that have
been advertising various health benefits. Research into consumers buying habits
carried out by the University of New Jersey found that when making a decision
‘health benefits’ was the most common factor persuading consumers to buy,
followed by taste and accessibility (Darian, C. J, 2011). It would seem that as
more information becomes available to consumers and as this causes more
confusion, they are increasingly buying into marketing labels such as ‘low
fat’, ‘organic’ and ‘100% natural’ in a bid to make better decisions. This was
supported by my online survey when I asked consumers to share which of these
claims they had bought into in the past and which they still do; (% of consumers stated they bought….)(Own Survey,
2014). The trend continues to grow in the UK with an increasing number of
brands ‘jumping on the bandwagon’. Activia led a pouring yogurt revolution in
the breakfast categories boasting low fat and digestive health claims (Handley,
L, 2011) and sales of Quorn products have skyrocketed with a campaign focused
on added protein. It would seem that in a world where consumers are
increasingly facing a tyranny of choice; products with added benefits will
stand out on the shelves; they represent value for money and for most this
would be a logical decision.
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Convenience
Culture
“A bit like
going to the toilet, eating is something to be got over with in private and as
quickly as possible. Consequently, any serious interest in food or the
allocation of time to its sourcing and preparation is commonly perceived as a
time-wasting, finance draining and unnecessarily fussy preoccupation” (Blythman, J. 2006).
Our lives are getting busier and our patience
shorter, with more households with both parents in full time work (Raymond, M.
2013); there is little time to make a family dinner from scratch. As
supermarkets offer consumers more and more choice each day to suit quicker lifestyles,
such tasks should be easier and more enjoyable. However, this seems to be a
catch 22; the more choice consumers have; the harder it is to make a decision.
It is this for this reason that studies show an increasing number of consumers
buying the same products every single week, adopting a “tunnel vision approach to buying food” (The Health and Education
Authority qtd. in National Consumer Council, 1992). Consumers are replacing
what was once creative thinking and opportunism with habit largely decreasing
the amount of impulse purchases. This trend can be tracked in parallel with the
growth of online grocery shopping in the UK. Keynote reported “Internet grocery sales are accounting for an
increasing proportion of all Internet retail sales, contributing 16.1% of weekly sales on average in 2013” (Keynote,
2014). Unsurprising, considering online supermarket stores such as Tesco’s and
Asda can practically do your entire shop for you. All the products consumers
regularly buy are added to their basket automatically as they are provided with
advice and other product suggestions throughout their online experience. This
saves time and effort as consumers are spared of the mundane task.
Moreover, our convenience culture is refined by
the extensive amount of ready meals and ‘already prepared’ food packages that
are swarming supermarket shelves. Britons now spend an average of 34 minutes a
day ‘cooking’ compared to 1 hour in 1980 (Harding, E. 2014).
Consumers of today are looking for easy, simple solutions,
and not just from the mainstream retailers; the free-from market has also
responded to this. Newcomers NO.G Gluten Free base their entire business around
ready-made tarts and quiche’s appealing to those who do not have the time and
skill to prepare and cook their own dough and pastry. On meeting NO.G founder Sam
Benjamin at the Food and Drink Expo 2014, he stated “People want something easy these days; you don’t even have to cook our
products. They are simple, British, and delicious; and more importantly popular
with people without coeliac disease too” (Benjamin, S, 2014).
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A Foodie
Culture
“Food has become a defining obsession among a wide
swath of the young and urbane. It is not golf or opera. It’s more like indie
rock. Just like the music of, say, Drag City bands on a nineties campus, food
is now viewed as a legitimate option for a hobby, a topic of endless
discussion, a playground for one-upmanship, and a measuring stick of cool” (Idov, M. 2012)
In contrast to
research showing an increase in the consumption of convenience food, is the
rise in popularity of food bloggers, recipe sharing communities and cooking
magazines.
Consumers spent an
estimated £87 million on food and drink books in 2012 (Orr, G. 2012). The trend
is proving especially popular amongst generation X and Y who have adopted
cooking as a hobby and opportunity for creative thinking as opposed to a
necessity. The digital revolution has provided consumers with information and
advice they would never have been able to access before; exotic recipes from
across the world and professional step by step guidance. Orr, G continues to
highlight generational differences in attitudes towards cooking. She concludes younger
generations, due to leaving home and looking for jobs during a recession; have
less disposable income to spend on luxuries such as convenience food and eating
out (Orr, G. 2012). These are notions adopted much more by older generations
who have children and subsequently less time to cook, and money to spend on
such items. These savvy shoppers are instead, investing their time in experimenting
with cooking, challenging the meals they would pay for in restaurants and
making the whole experience a social event.
This is supported
by the success of food bloggers over the past few years, with loyal followers
and mass communities; today’s consumers welcome the advice of the novice not
the chef. Shown notably by British supermarket Sainsbury’s when they replaced
world famous chef Jamie Oliver with 28 year old, single mother and blogger,
Jack Monroe for their ‘Love Your Roast’ campaign (Smithers, R. 2013). A Sainsbury’s
Marketing Director explained the change;
“"In the current economic environment we're all less
interested in the ideas of celebrity chefs. We're looking more for help and
inspiration from people you can really relate to and practical, achievable
ideas for food your kids will actually eat." (Warby, S qtd. in Smithers, R. 2013).
Relatable and
trustworthy, food bloggers also offer consumers the experience they crave and
the lifestyle they aspire. As people focus more on their wellbeing rather than
losing weight; they look to engulf themselves in a foodie culture that
practises ‘organic, natural, and free-from mantras’ in all aspects, inspired by
the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and her online lifestyle community ‘Goop’.
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