07.28.2005

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For more Hartman Group articles on FRESH, click here...

03.24.2005 "Convenient...and Fresh?: Evolving Food Culture in America"

02.10.2005 "Packaged vs. Fresh...and Center Store Migration"

Pulse Report: Food Safety from a Consumer Perspective Our latest Pulse Report examines the issue of food safety from a consumer perspective, gauging public concern over time from 2004 to 2005. Click for details or to order online

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The Paradox Of Fresh

Fresh seems to be everywhere: Restaurants are fresh (see Fresh Choice, Baja Fresh, and Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill), and even the produce suppliers are fresh (Birds Eye Fresh, Dole Fresh, and Del Monte Fresh). Fortunately for all these fresh marketers, consumers are also talking a lot about fresh too: In our recent study, Wellness Lifestyle Insights: Evolution of Consumer Trends in Health and Wellness, the most significant new addition to consumers' language about health and wellness from 2000 to 2005 is the idea of "fresh" food. According to consumers, fresh foods are perceived as symbols and activities that are key to one's health and wellness. Combined with their perceptions of what are the top wellness products (fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, grains and seafood), it is easy to see that there are significant opportunities in marketing fresh products.

But fresh also seems quite a paradox: While foods like fruits, vegetables and seafood are viewed by wellness consumers as the most important wellness foods, at the same time these are some of the products that consumers worry about the most with regard to food safety, just after meats and poultry (see Pulse Report: Food Safety from a Consumer Perspective, 2005). Fresh is also a paradox because while many retailers in diverse channels and formats are entering the "fresh market," there are several shades of fresh in terms of how processed and packaged an item is.

Based on Hartman Group research, the figure below illustrates consumer perceptions about a variety of factors that influence "freshness," ranging from channels that sell fresh products to how fresh products are processed and packaged. Consumers perceive products with minimal to no packaging to generally be "the freshest." If significant packaging is a must, the next best option is clear or see-through packaging. Products in refrigerated sections always score high marks in terms of freshness perceptions, the operative logic being that refrigerated areas are reserved for the most perishable of products: Interestingly enough consumer perceive even shelf-stable products, such as bottled juice or cartons of soymilk, to be fresher when refrigerated.

It is important to understand, though, that fresh is not so much an objective distinction (as in the difference between fresh fruit and canned fruit) as it is a multi-faceted framing device that allows consumers to differentiate between the real and the imitation, the raw and the processed, the tasty and the bland, the ripe and the stale, the good and the bad, the fancy and plain, and so forth.

Our next figure details "shades of freshness" and helps to illustrate that there are significant opportunities in retailing authentic fresh food the closer an item is to its unprocessed form.

A diverse range of food marketers are offering fresh foods prepared from whole ingredients: Examples range from self-serve grind and brew coffee offered in BP gas station convenience stores to salads and sliced apples offered at McDonald's restaurants. If we apply shades of freshness to BP's decision to offer self-serve grind and brew coffee, we see that this is a fresh product delivered close to its original form, and when combined with the logical connections between driving and coffee, we can assume that a certain number of motorists are having a cup or two. Conversely, when we think of McDonald's selling prepackaged fruit and walnut salads (following their successful garden varieties), we see that this "preserved" fresh product is stretching the limits of credible freshness, but nevertheless serves as a spearhead to continue to advance the notion in the minds of consumers that even fast food can become "somewhat fresh."

The paradoxes of fresh, which include that the freshest foods are also potentially the least safe and that not every retailer can sell cheese cut from a wheel, will very likely continue to define the successes and failures of retailers and restaurant operators who enter the fresh foray: It seems that for each jump in shades of freshness, an equal jump in food safety risk can be anticipated. Similarly, the authenticity of the setting in which the fresh food is sold requires more and more careful planning in order to fully carry off whatever shade of freshness is being attempted.

A final paradox of fresh lies in the term itself which as it spreads in use, will very likely develop a watered-down quality resembling the trajectory of the term "natural" which has gradually lost meaning to consumers, especially as one approaches the core of the world of wellness. In many cases, "natural" has been replaced by more specific terms such as "organic" or "whole grain," and is viewed skeptically by core and mid-level wellness consumers. Not to eulogize a trend before it's time, but the term "fresh" may meet a similar fate at some point, especially as we see its use spreading out into gas stations, fast food, convenience and discount stores.

Take Home

Selling fresh appears to be for everyone, but there are gradations within the concept as seen from the perspective of the consumer. Ironically, for consumers what signals the freshest of items will be the hardest (and most perishable) for some food marketers to provide. Added to food safety issues, the staff, location in the store and ambiance that build a fresh food experience mean that many challenges lay ahead as fresh spreads into diverse formats.

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