Growth-minded food brands take note of Foodservice trends
Flexitarian influence?
Does the term “flexitarian diet” mean anything to you? I didn’t know either until a few minutes ago. Flexitarian diet is the trendy term for the consumption of plant-based products with a shift to reducing meat consumption. You’d have to be under a rock in 2019 to not know the Impossible Foods brand. And if you don’t think it’s growing look again: 34 percent of French households contain at least one flexitarian according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Growth-minded food brands keeping track of trends look for opportunities in food trends. From full product lines to providing ingredients that leverage emerging trends, a nimble food brand can position products and increase foodservice distribution and sales.
NewPoint team keeps an eye on trends. Here we look back at 2019 trends – which are still growing? Which should you be paying attention to going into 2020?
Global Flavor
Just like it sounds – exotic African, Asian, Middle Eastern flavors
Alternative Citrus Not your mom’s oranges, limes, and lemons. Look for kumquat, yuzu, pomelo, and citron.
Unique Seafood Options
Sustainable plus unique options like squid, roe, geoduck, and cuttlefish
Veggie-Focused Dishes and Protein Alternatives
(Or, as we learned above: Flexitarian)Veggie-centered main courses as well as other sources of protein, such as beans, lab-grown meat options, insect protein, and plant milk.
New Types of Greens Kale was so last year. Go-to fresh greens look like your lawn – dandelion greens, amaranth, and sorrel.
Mushrooms Packed with vitamins and a healthy, hearty alternative to meat, we know portobello, shiitake, and button and we’ll see new ‘sroom like enoki, wood ear, oyster, and porcini on popping up on menus in 2019
CBD It can’t get you high but is becoming the main ingredient in foods and treats epilepsy, reduce pain and stress, and help fight anxiety.
Health and Wellness Foods Just like is sounds now add an “Adaptogens category” These foods claim benefits, like stress and fatigue relief, as well as energy boosts.
Flexitarian diet We know what this is (look to the top of this article).
Sustainability interest has the potential to upend the foodservice (and retail) economic model. “The way food is produced, preserved, shipped, and consumed needs to be rethought entirely. This includes the issue of plastic packaging and recourse to local sourcing.”
Naturally, good There is a growing awareness of the relationship between diet and health. The industry is transforming and equipment and products to produce a more natural and healthy diet.
Locavore The local movement is not new. I wrote about it in my book, Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain published is Fall 2017, but it has grown steadily with folks looking for the freshness of products and transparency in production practices. Local consumption is also driven by economic motivations and regional pride in culinary culture.
To identify and isolate areas for improvement in shopper marketing program strategies and tactics to further your CPG brand growth against set KPIs:
Maximize the economic performance of your CPG brand shopper marketing investment
Increase velocity at retail and consumer brand affinity
This shopper marketing audit will detail and contrast your CPG brand shopper marketing and messaging versus that of industry standard competitive practices and will include, but not limited to:
Target market reach, integrated retail marketing support, promotional continuity & awareness, offers and incentives, and tactical execution timing
Go-to-market launch strategies, timing, and tactical execution
Deliverables
Marketing Communication Audit Report
The deliverable will be a white paper with NewPoint Marketing findings and recommendations related to marketing activities in one retail partnership or DMA/market as defined by the client.
Brant brings 20+ years of experience to NewPoint as chief brand communicator and marketing-plan contributor.
Brant’s specialty is bringing an outside, investigative perspective that can feel alternately “rigorous” or “exasperating” depending on your point of view. Yet, he never fails to uncover a business’s unique selling proposition—one which can serve as a brand foundation for marketing that is compelling, creative and “sticky.”
Throughout his career, Brant’s applied his skill set to a broad range of business applications along the food supply-and-service chain. His services have provided vital clarity for all types of operations, from the more conventional food and food equipment manufacturers to the adjacent enterprises that partner with them, such as the Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Stephanie Bossung
Food industry marketing expertise—from retail to food-service and food-service equipment— is a natural outcome of having deep knowledge in every facet of a business’ operation. With 10 years in branding and business development, preceded by 15 years in mass media and promotions, Stephanie is an FMI Emerge mentor, holds an executive-level expertise in sales, marketing, media, and production management.
This exceptionally diverse skill set adds value for NewPoint clients by providing a full complement of perspectives on food-industry brand management endeavors.
Wired for a hawkish attention to detail while also maintaining a high-resolution view of the big picture, Stephanie is uniquely able to provide astute branding direction and simultaneously apply the business principles necessary to squeeze more bang out of every marketing buck.
Patrick Nycz
A member of the Forbes Agency Council and quoted in the New York Times, USA Today and Adweek, Patrick Nycz is the author of Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain: Marketing Strategies to Grow Local and Regional Food Brands. He is an FMI Emerge mentor, an American Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal Award winner, and the Founding President of NewPoint Marketing, a full-service food industry marketing firm focused on food industry brands On a mission to grow.
Patrick’s vision for NewPoint emerged from his team’s success using this proven model for food industry clients and is fueled by NewPoint-funded food buyers and food manufacturers research around tracking consumer, industry, and ongoing food trends.
Kristy Blair
Since starting her 20-year career in commercial graphic design at one of the foremost catalog retailers in the world, Kristy’s visual branding skills have organically narrowed into the food-industry niche.
In that time, she’s directed graphic identities for snack food and restaurant startups, print materials for multiple agricultural seed companies, display graphics and merchandiser signage for major food-equipment manufacturers and everything in between.
Today, as one of the key brand architects for NewPoint clients, she continues to lead our visual research & development team, always working to find the innovative median between the best practices worth honoring and the accepted rules worth breaking.