capitalizing on consumer trends understanding superfood trends and making them work for your brand
TRANSCRIPT
Capitalizing on Consumer Trends
Understanding Superfood Trends and Making Them Work for Your Brand
Peter Wennström
President of HealthFocus Europe
Founding Director of The Healthy Marketing Team
Co-Author of The Food & Health Marketing Handbook
Who are we?• HealthFocus International
– Based in Florida– HealthFocus US Trend Survey since 1990– HealthFocus International Trend Survey since 2000
• HealthFocus Europe– Based in Sweden– Implementation support to European clients– Latest HealthFocus UK Trend Report 2006. Next 2008.
• The Healthy Marketing Team– Based in London (Amsterdam and Singapore)– Mission: better targeted products, faster to market– Joint venture with Designbridge
A One Stop Shop from Consumer Data to Brand Success
real shopper preferences & attitudes
trends and insights
research-ready brands & execution
Strategic direction, brand acceleration,
concept development
Recommendations, brand platforms, creative briefs
Today: How to understand the superfood trend
• HealthFocus Consumer trends…– Health as a driver of choice– Processed vs natural
• Functional foods vs Superfoods as strategies– Science push vs Consumer pull– The brand challenge of superfoods
• Plus: Superfruits special analysis– Five key criteria for superfruit success from– “How to create and market superfruit” by Julian Mellentin and Karl Crawford. Soon to be published by New Nutrition Business
Superfoods?Sounds great!
Where can I get one?
Understand the Market?
Euromonitor: Part of “Inherently good foods” category– Soy milk, sour milk drinks, olive oil, wholegrain
bakery, high fibre/oat-based cereals etc– 25% of total H&W market
– Strongest growth in soy products, high fibre, wholegrain, olive oil and fruit snacks
– Western Europe
Inherently good foods: high growth sectors 2002-2006
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
So
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ase
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airy
alte
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sta
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no
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ue
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uit
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il
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it sn
ack
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ast
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ilsp
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So
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milk
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ks
% v
alu
e gr
owth
, fix
ed e
xcha
nge
rat
e
2002-2006 % growth
Fit with consumer trends:Health as a driver of choice
HealthFocus: Dietary To-Dos 2006/7
North America2006
Western Europe2006
Nordic Europe2007
Ireland 2007
Vegetables, 47%
Vegetables, 40%Vegetables,
34%Fruits, 46%
Fruit, 44% Fruits, 40% Fruits, 32%Vegetables,
39%
Whole grains, 41%
Bottled water, 33%
Whole grains, 31%
Fish/seafood or fish products,
34%
Bottled water, 40%
Fish/seafood, 26%
Fiber, 30%Reduced fat foods, 31%
Fish/seafood, 32%
Whole grains, 24%
Brown bread, 29%
Fiber, 30%
Increased use over the past two years – Top 5:
“I want to buy health”
Fresh and natural are
the strongest
drivers
“I want to buy health”
Fresh and natural are
the strongest
drivers
HealthFocus: Dietary Do-Nots 2006/7
North America2006
Western Europe2006
Nordic Europe2007
Ireland2007
Processed foods, 40%
Salty snacks, 32%
Sugar, 42%Salty snacks,
46%
Salty snacks, 39% Sugar, 31%
White bread, 42%
Sweet snacks, 45%
Sweet snacks, 37%
Processed foods, 30%
Foods containing
additives and preservatives,
38%
Salt/Sodium, 43%
Sugar, 37%Sweet snacks,
30%Sweet snacks,
37%Processed foods, 42%
Salt/sodium, 35%Salt/sodium,
27%Salty snacks
36%Sugar, 33%
Decreased use over the past two years – Top 5:
“I want to buy health”
Processed vs Natural?
Superfoods in a strategic perspective
Cholesterol
Science push puts Functional before Food. This strategy puts the product in a medical context. The ambition is to leverage proprietary assets in technology with scientifically proven benefits
Functional Foods Strategy
Consumer pull is the strategy that is leveraging consumers beliefs in functionality in foods and combined with other consumer benefits like convenience, taste and lifestyle.
Superfoods Strategy
When is a fruit a Superfruit?
What’s happening to fresh fruit?
Source: USDA ERS Per capita availability
Per Capita Fresh Fruit Availability (percentage change 2005 vs 1996)
-20.0
0.0
20.0
40.060.0
80.0
100.0
120.0O
ran
ge
sa
nd
Te
mp
les
Ap
ple
s
Ba
na
na
s
Blu
eb
err
ies
Cra
nb
err
ies
To
tal F
resh
Fru
it
Ch
an
ge
(%
)
Reference: Mellentin J & Crawford K, How to create and market superfruit, (In Press)
Superfruits are supported by science
Pomegranate/açaí grows in personal care products
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
nu
mb
er o
f new
pro
du
cts
Asia Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East & Africa North America
Personal care products containing pomegranate or açaí, by region, 2001-June 2007
Source: Mintel IRIS
Superfruit criteria 2: Convenience is key
“Fresh products are not in the formats that meet people’s lifestyle needs. As a result the value that the fresh fruit industry should be capturing is being stolen by consumer goods companies. What form do you think people under 35 will eat fruit and vegetables? More than half – maybe much more – will be in processed formats.”
“Berries are the exception to this rule – in some markets, fresh berries are showing 20% to 30% per annum growth in sales – the reason is that in addition to their strong health image berries are convenient. These small fruit need no peeling and are easy to eat from the hand.”
Fruit marketing guru Professor David Hughes, Imperial College, London
Blueberries’ massive
convenience advantage over
apples and their more
consumer-friendly packaging
(small 150g packs) coupled
with high antioxidant health
benefits widely communicated
by the media enables them to
achieve super-premium prices Source: Supermarket surveys in UK and US
Superfruit criteria 2: Convenience is key
Tesco pricing - £26 per kilo – a 1,500% premium to apples.
Tesco pricing - £1.59 per kilo
Reference: Mellentin J & Crawford K, How to create and market superfruit, (In Press)
Superfruits plus convenienceInnocent Drinks, has seen retail sales of its smoothies grow from zero to over £120m in retail sales in the period 1998-2007.
Reference: Mellentin J & Crawford K, How to create and market superfruit, (In Press)
Superfruits drives juice prices
TIME
SUPERFRUITS FRUITS
Superfruit : Marketing strategy
Fruit + convenience + strong brand differentiation + lifestyle benefits + health benefit = premium pricing
TIME
1. The ”new”, fast-growing superfruits are all in the lifestyle area. Even established niche fruits are building a health and nutrition platform in this area.
2. They are niche products that sell in low volumes but command premium prices.
3. Lifestyle consumers willingly embrace health messages about these new fruits.
SUPERFRUITS FRUITS
Superfood criteria #1: health benefits beyond “regular food”
• Discovering, validating and promoting specific health benefits that are intrinsic to a food is the biggest strategy in food and health today – examples include oats, olive oil, oily fish and many others.
• This marketing of intrinsic health is also the basis for the superfruits.
• Superfruits primary benefit platform has (so far) been based on high antioxidant content.
• Antioxidants have a strong, all-natural “wellness” image in consumers’ minds thanks to media coverage of their benefits in relation to green tea, dark chocolate, red wine and many other “natural foods”.
• Pomegranate juices have made a specific link to heart health – more fruits will make more links to specific benefits in order to find new points of difference in a crowded market.
Strategy Case Study: juice and heart health
Strategy Case Study: juice and heart health
Juices that communicate their natural and intrinsic heart healthfulness – based on their very high natural content of antioxidants – are accepted by consumers
Juices that communicate heart healthfulness based on an added science-based ingredient can be said to have largely failed.
Paramount Farms, America’s largest pomegranate grower, pioneered the development of the pomegranate market in the US.
Its sales of pomegranate juice exceed $95 million (£48 million) a year, but sales of whole pomegranates are just $20 million (£10 million).
Strategy Case Study: juice and heart health
Pom Wonderful sales >$95m per annum.Despite selling at a
400% price premium to rival brands.
Minute Maid HeartWise achieved sales of $35m before falling to $20m.
US: Pom Wonderful, marketed by a family-owned fruit-growing company, outsells Coca-Cola’s sterol-based cholesterol-lowering juice.Superfruit’s promise of a natural and intrinsic health benefit will always beat added science.
UK: Pomegreat, marketed by a small entrepreneurial company, has outsold Tropicana’s sterol-based cholesterol-lowering juice and Sirco juice (both based on patented added ingredients).
Pomegreat sales >£30m per annum.Now the UK’s biggest heart healthjuice brand?
Tropicana Benecol and Sirco both sold £1m at retail and have both been withdrawn.
Superfruits – the functional foods of the future?
The growing success of superfruits is the result of combining science with consumer pull.
• Science is important to demonstrate effective health benefits…
…but success is the result of focusing on convenience (especially beverages), lifestyle brand positioning and communicating natural and intrinsic healthfulness.
• Superfruits are not a fad, they are a sea-change and the juice category will see the emergence of many more high-value, low-volume superfruit niche brands as worldwide research into over 20 potential superfruits is commercialised.
Summary: Five Key Criteria for Superfruit success:
• Sensory characteristics
• A defined, specific health benefit
• Convenience
• Control of supply
• Marketing
Consequence for brand owners?
The long term difference is in the brand
Superfruit section was based on primary research from:
The longest-established journal on the global food and nutritionbusiness.
The world’s largest integrated fruit research company
Want to know more?
1. HFI 2008 International Trend Survey incl. UK and 18 other mareketsGoing into field in January.
www.healthfocuseurope.com
2. The Food & Health Marketing Handbookwww.thehandbook.info
3. New Nutrition Business4. “How to Create and Market Superfruits”
by Mellentin & Crawfordwww.new-nutrition.com