Good Guides
Who Knew that Men were so Evolved?
I know that my husband’s food buying habits have changed dramatically over the years, but a focus group of one isn’t exactly statistically valid. What a shocker, reviewing the results … and comments … from our Food Shopping Survey 2009 which had over 200 adult responders. Men accounted for 32% of the base. The two other groups we segmented are Young Women (ages 20 – 25) and Mid-Age Women (26 – 49).
Of the variety of 12 items to rank in importance when buying food, of course Taste is #1 across the board. Cost is 2nd overall, but for men, it’s 4th. As true with the collective group, men have become label readers. Men of “a certain age” (older than 30) care about calories. In fact over 91% of men 30+ look at calorie and fat content. Only 60% of men under 30 bother with calories or fat. Really, men care about calories? Wow, watch a few Burger King commercials and you’ve got to wonder. Some of the other interesting insights:
- Young men buy more organics than older men.
- Men care more about protein and less about fiber.
- Men care much less about brand name than women do.
- Men gravitated more to organics than women.
- Men are online, reviewing blogs and websites (epicurious ranked high as did caloriecounter.com, wholefoods.com and company/brand sites) at about the same level women are … that is, quite often.
Comments clustered around some key subject areas:
- Reading labels: “I’ve become more aware of content and finally learned how to read a label.”
- Origin of food: “I’m much more concerned about origin of food due to recent contamination issues” and “I want to know where ingredients come from. If I can’t find out easily, I don’t buy the product”.
- Organics: “I’m more interested in organic products and am spending less money but eating better.”
- Buying local: “’We’ve switched as much as possible to local farmers markets. Purchase as little processed food as we can”.
- Food education: “With more information on effects of chemicals in food, I’m steering away from certain types of ingredients”.
- Sustainability: “I’m purchasing higher quality food and let factors like the company’s environmental considerations come into the picture”.
Means to track these markers are ever increasing. As the nation’s largest supermarkets develop and employ rating systems such as Guiding Stars, NuVal and Nutrition iQ, we’re heading in a more consumer-empowered direction. Check out Good Guide and see how foods are vetted on way more than taste and ingredients.
So what does that mean to food manufacturers and the ingredient companies that supply them? To me, it points toward better supply chain management, greater transparency and a lot more dialogue with consumers.
