Profiting From Consumers' Desires For Healthy Indulgences

This publication has been discontinued on July 19, 2011.

Introduction

Abstract

Overview

Introduction

Healthy-indulgence is a vast opportunity that is under-developed by the food and drinks industry. Consumers have been compensating for their increasingly busy lifestyles and manufacturers general inability to straddle the health versus indulgence conundrum for years by eating in a "debits and credits" fashion. However there are rich pickings for those players that can resolve this dilemma.

Scope

• A unique analysis of how consumers' eating and drinking patterns are evolving and shifting between healthy and indulgent occasions
• Data profiling the current and ideal scenario value of healthy and indulgent eating and drinking across Europe and the US
• A detailed analysis of how comfort consumption varies by age, gender and culture and how perceptions of dieting and freshness are changing
• NPD analysis highlighting how to exploit gaps in the market and how to leverage the product attributes that consumers deem the most important

Highlights

Freshness is an increasingly desired characteristic among consumers and one that can help solve the health versus taste dilemma. Datamonitor's consumer survey of Europeans and Americans shows that the majority (62%) of consumers associate freshness as having both health and tastiness associations at the same time, whereas only 19.5% disagree.

Between 2005 and 2010 retail healthy drink sales will grow from US$119.4bn to US$145.4bn across Europe and the US, whereas sales of indulgent drinks will rise slowly. By 2010 healthy drink sales will outnumber indulgent drink sales. Meanwhile, healthy-indulgent drinks sales will increase at a steady rate at a CAGR of 2.9% in Europe and the US.

A combination of rising affluence, a proliferation of product choice and attention-seeking marketing messages, and an increasingly individualistic society that shifts peoples' focus on themselves has resulted in rising expectations of what people consume thus increasing people's willingness to pay for healthy-indulgence solutions.

Reasons to Purchase

• Access unique data identifying the proportion and value of healthy, indulgent and healthy-indulgent food and non-alcoholic drinks occasions.
• Improve your marketing by understanding how consumers' healthy and comfort eating and drinking are changing in response to new trends.
• Develop strategies for more successful brand positioning and new product development to resolve the taste versus health dilemma

Table of Contents

• CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
  • The hot topic
    • The desire for health and indulgence represents a trend clash
  • The future decoded
    • There are two basic patterns of healthy and indulgent consumption behavior
    • Debits and credits eating is growing as healthy-indulgent eating patterns decline
    • Consumers' beverage consumption is shifting away from debits and credits
    • 'Me-focused' consumers have increasing expectations about what they eat and drink
    • Comfort eating and drinking varies considerably among consumers
    • Freshness is an increasingly desired characteristic among consumers and one that can help solve the health versus taste dilemma.
    • Consumer attitudes are increasingly favoring a 'healthy eating' rather than a 'diet' approach in products
    • Healthy indulgence is a vast opportunity that is under-developed by the food and drinks industry.
  • Action points
• CHAPTER 2 THE FUTURE DECODED
  • Introduction
    • The desire for health and indulgence represents a trend clash
    • Scope of the consumer occasions data in this report
  • TREND: Debits and credits eating is growing as healthy-indulgent eating patterns decline
    • There are two basic patterns of healthy and indulgent consumption behavior
      • Healthy-indulgent consumption
      • 'Debits and credits' consumption
    • Consumers health intentions do not match behavior
    • Fragmenting mealtimes are driving excessive levels of debits and credits eating patterns
      • At-home meals are the key healthy-indulgent occasions
      • But at home meals are not the only HI occasions
      • Mealtime fragmentation reduces opportunities for healthy-indulgent occasions
    • Healthy-indulgent occasions are more valuable than healthy or indulgent occasions
  • TREND: Consumers' beverage consumption is shifting away from debits and credits
    • The demand for refreshment reduces the need for beverages to be indulgent
    • Health will continue to dominate consumers hot and soft drinks needs
      • Healthier soft and hot drink sales will grow the fastest in the future
  • INSIGHT: 'Me-focused' consumers have increasing expectations about what they eat and drink
    • Consumers are less willing to compromise in a climate of rising affluence and individualism
      • Rising affluence enables consumers to pay for better products
      • Product choice is rising in tandem with 'me-centric' marketing
      • Rising individualism is evident in food and drink choice
    • Consumers increasingly want both health and indulgence
    • Consumers are making specific efforts to find healthy-indulgent food and drinks
  • INSIGHT: The potential opportunity to satisfy consumers' expectations for healthy-indulgence is vast
    • Consumers have strong needs for more healthy-indulgent food
      • In an ideal scenario, healthy-indulgent occasions would account for 81% of all eating occasions
    • Consumers have a less strong, but nonetheless significant, need for healthy indulgences in drinks
      • In an ideal scenario, healthy-indulgent occasions would account for 20% of all non-alcoholic drinks occasions
      • The value of healthy-indulgent drinks in an ideal scenario
  • INSIGHT: Comfort eating and drinking varies considerably among consumers
    • Healthy foods can be indulgent to consumers
    • Both men and women comfort eat but preferences vary
      • Men prefer meal-related comfort foods, women prefer more snack-like comfort foods
      • Women feel guiltier about comfort eating
    • Culture affects attitudes to indulgence
      • Women do not always prefer sweeter indulgences
      • Cultural attitudes towards guilt and pleasure of consumption vary considerably
  • INSIGHT: Age segmentation of flavor preferences reveals significant differences
    • 25 - 34 year olds are the most adventurous in their tastes
    • Seniors desire stronger and more exotic tastes, but not necessarily extreme tastes
    • Youths are ready for bolder flavors
  • INSIGHT: Healthiness is often associated with both higher quality AND inferior taste
    • Healthiness is often linked with good quality worth paying a premium for
    • Healthiness is often perceived to undermine indulgence credentials
  • INSIGHT: Freshness is increasingly valued by consumers as it offers both health and indulgence
    • Freshness is often associated with quality, healthiness and better taste
    • Consumers increasingly desire freshness
      • Farmers' markets are a response to the lack of freshness options
      • Fresh-food supermarkets cater to those fed up with regular supermarkets
  • INSIGHT: Consumer attitudes are increasingly favoring a 'healthy eating' rather than a 'diet' approach in products
    • Dieting approaches are being rejected
    • There is an increasing focus on what 'good' you are consuming rather than just what 'bad' you are avoiding
    • Consumer behavior towards seeking healthy-indulgences still favors avoidance
  • INSIGHT: Consumers seek to portion control as a way to mitigate their health and indulgence needs
  • Conclusions
• CHAPTER 3 ACTION POINTS
  • Develop trust as a central value of your healthy-indulgent brand
  • Respond to consumers desires for healthy-indulgences through a variety of solution types
  • Incorporate 'good content' into your indulgent products
    • Case study: Mars CocoaVia
    • Add functional benefits to highly indulgent product categories
      • Pick your functional benefits to targat the broadest range of occasions for the greatest growth potential
  • Develop fresher products
    • Focus on freshness as a key brand value and communicate it accordingly
    • Launch a dedicated freshness range
  • Enhance healthiness by substituting indulgent flavorings for healthier ones
    • Tailor flavors of healthy indulgence by age and gender
  • Maximize the use of sensory and comfort triggers to gain impulse purchases of healthy-indulgent products
    • Exploit other characteristics of indulgence and sensory experience than taste
    • Use emotive language and depiction to evoke indulgence
    • Offer strong re-assurances over the product's taste credentials
    • In strongly indulgent product categories promote healthy-indulgent versions on the basis of indulgence first, then health
  • Develop premium versions to increase the perception of indulgence of healthy offerings
    • Case study: Innocent smoothies
  • Align products with cuisines perceived as being healthy and indulgent
  • Develop a snack or beverage range based on already high-nutrient foods and drinks
  • Utilize healthier cooking methods in indulgent products
  • Offer portion control in high quality indulgent goods
    • Providing portion control should be one among many changes
  • Offer better convenience of healthy-indulgent offerings
• CHAPTER 4 APPENDIX
  • Supplementary data
  • Definitions
  • Research methodology
  • How to contact experts in your industry
  • List of Tables
    • Table 1: Responses to the question: "How often do you believe that your meals / snacking is both healthy/nutritious and tasty/indulgent" (% respondents in Europe & US), 2005
    • Table 2: Total food occasions by type (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 3: Value of healthy-indulgent (HI) food occasions (US$ billions) Europe & US, 2005-2010
    • Table 4: Value of non-healthy-indulgent (either healthy or indulgent) food occasions (US$ billions) Europe & US, 2005-2010
    • Table 5: Total non-alcoholic drink occasions by type (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 6: Value of retail non-alcoholic drinks by type (US$ billions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 7: GDP at PPP per head (US$), 2003-2008
    • Table 8: Consumer responses to the question: "Over the past 12 months, would you agree or disagree that you have become more demanding of your snacking / soft and hot drink choices, such that you make efforts to choose products that are both healthy and tasty at the same time?" Europe & US, 2005
    • Table 9: Potential opportunity: Total food occasions by type in an ideal scenario (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 10: Potential opportunity: Value of healthy-indulgent (HI) food occasions in an ideal scenario (US$ billions) Europe & US, 2005-2010
    • Table 11: Potential opportunity: Total non-alcoholic drink occasions by type in an ideal scenario (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 12: Potential opportunity: Value of retail non-alcoholic drinks by type in an ideal scenario (US$ billions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 13: Gender profile of consumers who "strongly like" savory foods with this flavor (% respondents), France, Germany, UK & US
    • Table 14: Gender profile of consumers who frequently eat the following cuisine types (% respondents), France, Germany, UK & US
    • Table 15: Gender differences in approach to comfort eating habits
    • Table 16: Age profile of consumers who "strongly like" savory foods with this flavor (% respondents), France, Germany, UK & US
    • Table 17: Consumer response to the question: "Do you believe that Freshly made food or drink is (mostly) both healthy and tasty (% respondents), Europe & US
    • Table 18: Consumer responses to the question: "When seeking to eat snacks that are healthier, yet indulgent, in which ways have you sought to do this?" (% respondents) Europe & US, 2005
    • Table 19: Consumer responses to the question: "When you aim to choose soft and hot drinks that are both healthier and tastier, how often do you do the following?" (% respondents) Europe & US, 2005
    • Table 20: Male consumer responses to the question: "Ignoring cost issues - please rate the following actions that companies could take in order to offer you food and drinks that are both healthy and indulgent by how appealing they are to you" (% male respondents) Europe & US
    • Table 21: Female consumer responses to the question: "Ignoring cost issues - please rate the following actions that companies could take in order to offer you food and drinks that are both healthy and indulgent by how appealing they are to you" (% female respondents) Europe & US
    • Table 22: Historical usage of, and forecast growth in, demand for savory food flavors globally
    • Table 23: Classification of soft and hot drinks as healthy, indulgent or healthy-indulgent for retail sales data
    • Table 24: Potential opportunity: Total food occasions by type in an ideal scenario (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 25: Potential opportunity: Value of healthy-indulgent (HI) food occasions in an ideal scenario (US$ billions) Europe & US, 2005-2010
    • Table 26: Potential opportunity: Value of non-healthy-indulgent (either healthy or indulgent) food occasions in an ideal scenario (US$ billions) Europe & US, 2005-2010
    • Table 27: Potential opportunity: Total non-alcoholic drink occasions by type in an ideal scenario (millions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 28: Potential opportunity: Value of retail non-alcoholic drink in an ideal scenario by type (US$ billions), Europe & US 2005-10
    • Table 29: Definition of terms
  • List of Figures
    • Figure 1: Consumers often shift between periods of healthy and indulgent consumption - either in a controlled manner or, more often, in a reactive, compromised way of consuming.
    • Figure 2: Almost all US & Europeans recognize the importance of improving physical health but fewer act on this belief
    • Figure 3: The majority of US and European consumers value the importance of improving their diet but fewer act on this belief
    • Figure 4: Healthy-indulgent occasions account for less than half of all eating occasions and will fall further across Europe and the US
    • Figure 5: Healthy occasions dominate the European and US non-alcoholic drinking landscape
    • Figure 6: Consumers want products designed for their specific needs
    • Figure 7: Enjoying small indulgences to escape the pressures of everyday life remains as important as ever
    • Figure 8: The difference between consumers current way of aligning healthy and indulgent eating and their ideal approach is significant
    • Figure 9: The untapped revenue opportunity of consumers' healthy-indulgent eating is vast
    • Figure 10: Consumers would prefer to switch a small amount of their non-alcoholic drinking to be healthy indulgent, but not all.
    • Figure 11: Comfort eating and drinking is a behavior that is dominant among both men and women
    • Figure 12: Children's products are a good target for incorporating more healthy content into indulgent food and drinks
    • Figure 13: Yogurts' healthy credentials make it an ideal ingredient to use in a variety of products to make them healthier.
    • Figure 14: CocoaVia is promoted primarily on the basis of what it does contain and not on missing calories, in addition, promotion of the quality of ingredients also aids its indulgent status.
    • Figure 15: Functionality makes Jelly Belly healthy-indulgent, but it targets a limited number of occasions restricting its growth potential
    • Figure 16: Use ingredients that evoke premium perceptions
    • Figure 17: Innocent smoothies' clever marketing ensures it is perceived as high quality

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