IR I Pacesetter list rewards form, function
BY BARBARA WHITE-SAX
Consumers have been asking a lot from their food products. They want freshness and healthful options. They are starting to look for foods that offer them specific health benefits. They also want products that offer quick meal solutions. Now, faced with a dismal economy, consumers want all of those attributes at lower price points.
Drug Store News looked at the introductions identified by Information Resources, Inc. as New Product Pacesetters for 2007 for some hints on what consumers will be looking for in the coming year.
Americans are strapped for time, as well as cash, so meal solutions still is a growth area. The news is the way manufacturers are leveraging new technologies to bring innovative products to the market.
Several of those new products The segment could become made IRI’s New Product more important as thrift-Pacesetters list. minded consumers look to
Birds Eye Steamfresh uses frozen or shelf-stable options new microwave steam cook- as a way to stretch their dol-ing technology to provide a lar. “People aren’t giving up quick and easy way to cook on health and wellness, but frozen vegetables while pre- frozen fruits and vegetables serving taste, texture and could grab share away from nutrition. IRI res earchers fresh,” McCusker predict the prod- said. “Fresh pro-uct’s success has duce is getting paved the way more expensive, for a major new and in this focus on new economy, con-cooking meth- sumers can’t ods that deliver afford to let
Dannon’s DanActive light yogurt
added conven- fresh fruit go ience, as well as other tech- bad. The stock-up trips on nologies that preserve food staples are where we might freshness and flavor. see a change in consumer
“I think we’re going to see behavior.” It could be a new more of this kind of product,” opportunity for drug stores. Sheila McCusker, IRI’s Times McCusker expected even and Trends editor, said. “We’re more innovative introduc-seeing a movement toward tions from the meal solution getting back to basics, more category. “Healthy Choice cooking at home, whether it’s Café Steamers single-serve from scratch or using easy frozen dinners have been meal components.” included in IRI’s 2007-2008
Omega Farms has added omega- 3 fatty Omega Farms said that its new choco-acids to its line of low-fat chocolate milk. The late milk is fortified with calcium, vitamin company stated omega-3s are helpful for D, protein and other vitamins and miner-brain development in children, and omega- als in milk, as well as omega-3s. The 3-rich chocolate milk can provide athletes omega- 3 acids added to the milk are the with needed carbohydrates and proteins for same found in fish oil; however, the com-sportsrecovery. pany purports there is no disagreeable
Nutritionist Cindy DiFerdinand of Omega taste or fishy odor in its milk.
Farms said, “We are thrilled to add a new A report titled “The Efficacy of Chocolate
product to the Omega Farms popular line of Milk as a Recovery Aid,” published by the
omega- 3 fortified products. Chocolate milk University of Indiana, tested chocolate milk
is a classic for kids and a modern sports versus sports drinks and found chocolate
recovery product for athletes.” milk has a 4-to- 1 ratio of carbohydrates to
A study published in the protein ratio. The report ranked milk as a
International Journal of Sport better beverage for performance, exertion
Nutrition and Exercise Meta- heart rate and lactate levels.
bolism showed that heavy en- Additional universities also are putting
durance exercise may reduce the health claims to the test. For example,
the supply of stored glucose, Boise State University and California State
or glycogen, which is a fuel University, Fresno have introduced choco-
and energy source for exer- late milk into athletic department condi-
cise. To replace it, the tioningprograms.
American College of Sports Omega Farms chocolate milk is available
Omega Farms
omega- 3 chocolate Medicine suggested drinking at Sprouts Farmer’s Markets and Raley’s
milk chocolate milk. grocery stores in Texas and New Mexico.
New Product Pacesetters Rising Stars list,” she said. “Hormel Compleats, shelf-stable microwavable dinners also made the list, and
we haven’t seen shelf-sta-
ble microwavable dinners
on that list in a long time.”
IRI’s Pacesetter study also
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Every square foot of selling space is likely to be affected by the gloomy economy. Drug Store News spoke with Liz Crawford, vice president and consumer strategist for retail at market research firm Iconoculture about what effect consumer belt-tightening might have on the consumables category.
Here’s what she said about how consumers’concerns could influence their shopping habits in the food aisles and how retailers can meet those challenges and identify new opportunities in the current economic environment.
Drug Store News: How do you think the economic downturn and rising food prices will affect the way consumers shop for food?
Liz Crawford: We’ve been seeing that consumers are eating out less, so that’s great news for grocery. Grocery trips and rings have been eroding at a slow pace for a long time, while out-of-home categories, like quick-serve restaurants and fast-casual, have been increasing—particularly when consumers are looking for a last-minute option. I think we will see the erosion stop, and that there’s a potential reversal that could bring a lot more traffic back into traditional channels and away from last-minute take-out or fast-food options.
DrSN: Where can drug stores find opportunity in this marketplace?
Crawford: We’re seeing a big trend, at all economic levels, toward being smart with your money. In flush times, convenience was trumping price, but in today’s economic environment, price is trumping convenience. That’s a shift. People will go further out of their way to save money because it’s a higher priority.
Due to go-go years, self-sufficiency as a value was on the back burner. But it’s starting to emerge again and it’s driving consumer behavior. Consumers are telling us that when they are doing errands, they are making an effort to combine trips in order to save gas. That tells me that convenience still counts, but not so much because consumers feel their time is more valuable than their money. Now they are more interested in getting the biggest bang for the buck.
When it comes to drug stores as an impulse channel, the old impulse motivations were about getting a treat or doing a quick fill-in shop, so consumers weren’t so focused on price. It was about indulgence, reward and, to some extent, convenience.
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