With the economy on a path to recovery, food marketers are ramping up product
pipelines, investing more money into digital, and increasingly using marketing
to gain consumer insights. These were some of the topics discussed at the
Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference, a weeklong gathering of
top food companies and industry analysts in Florida. What follows is a recap of
Tuesday’s highlights from Kraft, Unilever, ConAgra Foods, and others.
New productsare food makers willing to take a risk?
Line extensions, or playing it safe, was the name of the game last year. But
food companies presenting at CAGNY expect an increase in new product
introductions, including innovation that goes beyond the basic extensions and
actually sticks, and grows [past] year one, as ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin
put it. The food maker is once again focusing on its motto”Fewer, bigger and
better”when it comes to new products.
Much of that innovation will come from ConAgra’s frozen foods business: The
Banquet dinners line and more health-oriented Healthy Choice Caf Steamers. In
an interview, Joan Chow, chief marketing officer for the Omaha, Neb.-based
company, said the company has not eased up on innovation at all. As an
example, she pointed to recent new product introductions like Healthy Choice
Mediterranean Steamers. There will be more new product news on both its shelf
stable and frozen business this summer. Some of these line extensions are under
existing brand names, but [nonetheless], it’s innovation that’s incremental to
the business, Chow said.
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