04.11.2007

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02.10.2005 Packaged vs. Fresh...and Center Store Silence

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New Paradigms in Eating: From Healthy to Quality

A Tinderbox Spark

Many of us at Tinderbox first got our feet wet with research in the consumer packaged foods arena. While working there, we've all been concerned with a wide scope of questions and concerns stemming from the fundamental observation that consumers increasingly desire healthier eating habits and healthier food products.

This observation has so united the interests of consumers, retailers and the packaged foods industry that we could refer to it as something of a paradigm shift. Most major CPG companies now have major health initiatives driving marketing and product development.

Following suit with the paradigm, our own research has looked at the effects of line extensions capitalizing on ingredient trends (i.e., low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie), the growing interest in organic products, the trend toward "all things fresh" (shopping the retail perimeter for higher-quality "fresh" and prepared food offerings), the subsequent decline of center store, the growing interest in artisanal and local food products and on and on.

Taking all of that research as a whole, one of the critical things we are now coming to understand is that the paradigm has once again shifted. The changes have been gradual, in some cases incremental, but the signs from our most recent data could not be clearer.

What was once a paradigm of healthy eating habits and healthier food products is now a paradigm of high-quality eating experiences, of which healthier eating is but one of many important sub-themes. Other relevant sub-themes include organic and local, as well as various ingredient trends.

To be certain, consumers have not abandoned their interest in healthier eating habits or healthier food products. But what is important to understand is that before those attributes can even resonate with consumers, the experience must first qualify as quality food experience, and the rules for qualification are not necessarily what you might expect. Likewise, if the experience is truly sufficient to resonate as authentic quality, that resonance will often prove far more powerful - and contribute much more to your brand halo - than lower order attributes such as healthy, organic or local. In simple terms, the pursuit of authentic quality food experiences has subsumed what were once major trends (healthy eating, organic and local) and transformed them into more minor experiential attributes.

Metaphorically speaking, we prefer to describe this new paradigm as an arena of quality food experiences, where "arena" is invoked much like a common sporting arena. Importantly, our research reveals three very specific entrance pathways to the arena: Artisanal foods, Fresh and something we call "Unpackaged Foods." Once inside the arena's confines you will be free to play with many of the themes familiar to food marketers such as organic, local, healthy eating, specific ingredient trends and so forth. But before you even consider playing on these fields - marketing to these themes, you must first gain access through one of the identified pathways.

As is the case with most major sporting events, tickets for admission can prove both easy and frustrating to acquire - and in many cases entrance is based on who you know (metaphor here to "who you partner with" i.e., retailers).