Daymon Worldwide and the Hartman Group revealed this week the results of a comprehensive research study into food culture shifts, suggesting that we have become an “eating culture” that requires retailers and manufacturers to reconsider traditional approaches to how they market food.
And among the changes in food culture identified by the report:
- “Food, and where consumers buy it, is evermore central to personal identity. We truly are where we shop and what we eat.”
- “Consumers actively seek variety and new avenues of discovery, and to try different kinds of cuisines, greens, grains and salts.”
- “Brand loyalty is no longer a given. It’s not that consumers are disloyal; they just want to try new things.”
- “Consumers shop by occasion with eating in mind. What they want depends on the many factors that make up the occasion: who, what, where, how and why.”
- “They prefer retailers who ‘get them,’ not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
- “When all else is equal, price matters, and consumers like to have clear, differentiated choices.”