Consumers Seek Simplicity, Innova Reports
by Mary Ellen Kuhn
When it comes to food and beverages, consumers want to keep it simple, according to Innova Market Insights (“Taste the Trend” Booth 3660).
Consumers are seeking products made with simple, wholesome ingredients with minimal processing, and manufacturers are responding with an array of new “clean label” offerings. Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, for example, now feature the claim “made with three simple ingredients in as little as 24 hours, and that’s it.” Pillsbury Simply…Cookies are advertised as being “made with just the simple, whole ingredients you and your family know and love.”
Innova Market Insights tracked 987 new products using either the word “simple,” “simplest,” or “simplicity” in 2009 vs 467 tracked in 2008. Use of the word “pure,” “purity,” or “purely” grew from 3,013 in 2008 to 5,705 in 2009. Consumers are also being greeted with an array of new products marketed using terms such as “like grandma made,” “homemade,” and “homestyle.”
Even if a product doesn’t have a particularly healthful profile, consumers seem to be responding to simple ingredient statements, observed Lu Ann Williams, Head of Research at Innova Market Insights. So important is the drive toward simplicity that Innova ranked it as the year’s No. 1 trend.
No. 2 on Innova’s trend list is sustainability. The company listed the top 10 market categories for products with “sustainable claims” in 2009. They are as follows, in descending order: chocolate; tea; juice and juice drinks; fish and seafood; breakfast cereals; cake—pastries and sweet goods; sweet biscuits/cookies; vegetables; carbonates; and cooking sauces.
Here’s a round-up of the year’s Top 10 trends, per Innova.
1. Sense of Simplicity
2. Sustainable Gathers Steam
3. Continuing to Cook at Home – Driven by the economic downturn, more consumers are cooking at home, but often seeking to prepare higher quality products.
4. Inherent Nutrition – Rather than relying on specific health claims, for which it may be difficult to get regulatory approval, marketers are touting products’ inherent health benefits and natural goodness.
5. Functional Superstars – Healthful ingredients that have survived European regulators’ early rulings are moving to the forefront in functional foods as others are forced for the moment to rely on softer claims.
6. Going Immune – Interest in immunity-enhancing products may have been boosted by last year’s H1N1 virus; ingredients to boost immunity are turning up in a variety of product forms.
7. New Delivery for Energy – Energy is a popular benefit, and products positioned to deliver it are proliferating in a broad range of categories including drinks, bars, tea, breakfast cereals, and more.
8. ‘Free From’ Rises – More and more companies, including major players, are rolling out gluten-free and other “free-from” offerings.
9. Extreme Flavors – Rising levels of interest in very hot and extreme flavors are being reported, with major brands (i.e., Pringles Xtreme) launching products.
10. Real Authenticity – It’s no longer enough to simply create a product with a regional positioning: the product should be based on ingredients from a specific region and ideally even produced there.
