Research data can help to correct declining sales or enhance sales of particular fresh produce items at retail by understanding why consumers do what they do.
That was the key message put across to delegates by Kantar WorldPanel U.K. at the Global Trade Symposium during last week’s New York Produce Show and Conference 2014.
With the shopper landscape changing, Kantar’s Amir Jalaly and Chris Cowan explained that data is “paramount” to being able to react to the shift in consumers’ purchasing and eating habits.
Indeed, Cowan pointed out that consumers in both the U.K. and the U.S. are spending a smaller percentage of their earnings on food today.
“In the U.K., the percentage of household expenditure spent on food has seen a steady decline from around 21 percent in the 1970s to 9 percent today, while housing and utility costs have risen,” he said. “In the U.S., expenditure on food has also fallen, albeit less aggressively, from 15 percent in the 1970s to 11 percent today.”
The eating out market is also taking spend away from the retail market, according to Kantar. Currently, 17 percent of eating in the U.K. is carried out outside of the home, compared with 32 percent in the U.S. Online shopping is growing at a fast pace too.
Using the example of the U.K. market, Cowan pointed out that although consumers are not buying produce less frequently, they are buying on average 11kg less in volume every year over the past five years. “That represents a 4 percent decline in volume terms,” he noted.
As a result, Kantar found that 28 percent of the U.K. produce market is in two or more years of decline, with volume down particularly for potatoes, apples, pears and brassicas, while berries and salads, among other categories, have seen volume rise.
For potatoes, sales were in long-term decline; falling by 9 percent in 2013/14 alone and accelerating. However, respondents to a Kantar survey said they believed they were buying the same volume of potatoes, meaning it was an unconscious decision to buy less.
“In fact, they were buying other carbohydrates like bread, pasta and rice, which are very brand-heavy categories and offer deep promotions,” Cowan explained.
“There was also a lack of convenience in potatoes that was acting as a barrier to people making potato-based dishes,” he added. “Consumers didn’t know which variety of potato to buy either — if it was for mashing or roasting etc.”
By using this information, Cowan revealed that the Potato Council in the U.K. acted on the findings and went out to trade and consumer media. Volume has since returned to growth.
Indeed, Jalaly said some of Kantar’s clients are using certain findings to their advantage, such as the need for more convenient products for UK consumers who now often eat alone, use less planning in cooking and do more multi-tasking at the same time.
“They are moving away from selling lower value ingredients like whole-head produce like broccoli or whole potatoes to offering high value dish makers such as ready-trimmed broccoli and mashed potato options,” he explained.
Pink Lady has also used data to enhance sales of the premium apple variety in the U.K., even though it sits within a category that is experiencing long-term decline, according to Kantar.
“You can’t easily expand the volume of meals but can tap into popular consumption trends,” Jalaly pointed out.
“For example, healthy snacking is really growing in the U.K. — one in five eating occasions is now a snack.”
According to Kantar, 31 percent of people in the U.K. snack on Pink Lady apples. With that information Pink Lady has marketed apples as a snack item.
Furthermore, to increase consumption Pink Lady used the knowledge that consumers eat most often from their fridges (rather than their cupboards or freezers) to develop a cardboard tray for its apples that fits perfectly in the fridge.
“Since then, Pink Lady has seen some truly incremental gains by changing where you put your apples,” Jalaly explained.
Prepared leafy salad brand Florette has also successfully used data compiled with the support of Kantar and shared with the industry to drive growth across the entire U.K. salad category.
Through research, the firm found there were several groups of salad buyers: avoiders, accepters, selectors, adorers and addicts, explained Florette’s category controller Tony Walsh.
Florette also discovered that bag bounce, moisture content and leaf vitality were the
key influencers for shoppers at the point of purchase.
“We really got to understand who buys what and where, and whether they really enjoyed salad or not,” Walsh commented.
Florette is now using its shopper profiles to measure category performance, understand why initiatives work or not, enhance new product development and test advertising to consumers.
Ultimately, Walsh claimed this bespoke customized approach to shopper segmentation has changed how Florette operates as a business and how it engages with retailers.
“It has changed the questions they ask us, given them more trust in what we’re saying; it changed what they think of us as a company and it has strengthened our relationships,” Walsh concluded.
Source: PerishableNews.com
