vegetarian
Oh, to be so Young and Savvy
It’s been a while since I was part of the 20 – 25 year old market segment and I recall having a “devil may care” approach to food buying and consumption. Sure, I cared somewhat about calories, but actually finding caloric content info wasn’t easy. Forget about RDAs and percentage of fat vs. sugar vs. proteins. Fiber? Don’t think so.
I just had lunch with my cousin, a college freshman, who filled me in on her eating habits. She spurned the school meal plan, opting to cook for herself. She shops at Whole Foods almost exclusively, eats organic when she can, doesn’t mix carbs with anything else and has pretty much a hands-off attitude about sugar. Turns out, she fits the profile of the Young Women (20-25 year old) segment of our recent Food Shopping Survey 2009. We asked respondents to rank purchase considerations among 12 criteria; then probed into label-reading. Here are a few highlights:
- The overall #1 criteria is Taste, but for this group Price is a close second. Which, interestingly, often means buying simple, fresh ingredients rather than prepared, packaged foods.
- Young Women were not as concerned about preservatives or fiber as their “more mature” female counterparts.
- More than any other group, Young Women were more influenced by Packaging, yet paid less notice to Brand Name. This comes as an expression of their curiosity in exploring items, general “newness” of shopping independently, and the attendant lack of brand loyalty.
- Young Women (and Young Men) are more interested in organic and fair trade than any other segment.
- A lot of information is derived online as well as through friends, including those on Facebook and other social networks. Some of the favorite online sources cited are: Hungry Girl, fitday, Jillian Michaels, wholefoods, idealist and epicurious. And two favorite magazines are Fitness and Health.
Here are a few verbatim comments which reflect a collective point of view:
- “I’m eating less healthy now that I’m in college and away from my parents. But I’m determined to turn that around.”
- “I just got married and my husband is obsessed with saving money. Still, we buy good, whole foods. No more pre-packaged junk for us.”
- “I buy more ‘real’ food, meaning not processed. If I buy pre-packaged foods, I look for ‘real’ingredients, those I recognize as food.”
-“I’m more aware of the effects that highly processed foods have not only on people, but on the economy and sustainability of the earth.”
- “I just returned from two years living in France, where I learned to shop almost daily for fresh foods … a great habit.”
-“I’m not interested in brand names. I’m reading labels, cutting out things with added sugar.”
-“I’ve given up dairy.”
- “I became a vegetarian.”
-“I’m purchasing from local/smaller grocery stores. Also looking at what is in my food. For things like bread, it’s ridiculous that it would contain HFCS (as an example).”
- “SEO is a great thing. You can Google anything and the information will pop up. I do this the first time I buy just about anything – that is, go online to find what’s in it.”
To sum it up, these are the views of our emerging food buyer, in her first few years of meal planning independence. Maybe she’s in college right now, or newly married, but soon she’s likely to be buying for a family. We know a lot about how she selects food and engages with brands, but few ingredient companies are using this intelligence wisely. There’s a lot of “if we build it, they will come” mentality still rampant in b2b marketing. Ask yourself … do you understand this consumer? And how can you join the conversation?
Trendy Terminology or Unwavering Behavior
Welcome to the first installment of CBD’s blog on Food/Ingredients by Chris Chleboun. As CBD’s resident specialist in all things Food Ingredients, Agriculture and Manufacturing (with years of experience working with top global marketers and manufacturers in the Food/Ingredients space) I have a lot to say. Starting with this:
Are we seeing an increase in “trendy terminology”, and “nutritional nomenclature”…or are we witnessing genuine, unwavering behavior that’s here to stay?
