Sunday, December 25, 2016

Want Millennials Foodservice Customers Try Pricing, Authenticity, Digital



Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson stated “digital availability, pricing transparency, and in-store fresh prepared food ethnically authentic combined attract both Gen Z and Millennial consumers.  Garnering Gen Z and Millennial customers is not as difficult as many make it out to be.  Remember consumers are dynamic not static and your brand must try new grocerant focused tactics to succeed.
Here is one example Costco recently revealed an increase focus on organics and tests with coupon websites like LivingSocial as appealing particularly to Millennial and Gen Z consumer. During Quarterly results they “Now, it was just a couple of years ago when the average U.S. Costco adult member was four-plus years older than the population as a whole. Now, it's a little under two.
Acosta Senior VP Colin Stewart stated that “The typical grocery store, especially center store, is the same as it’s been since the 1960s.” Today Generation Y seeks experiences, and seeks everything digital.
Stewart continued “(grocery stores…need to figure out the right way to integrate digital into all of that to make sure it’s relevant for that younger shopper group.” He went on to say Millennials’ need for an experience at the grocery store is that they prefer to shop with other people. Over three-quarters of Gen Y  shop with someone else, compared to 60% of the overall population.
“In general, Millennials are a little bit more experiential, and I think shopping with others is part of that shopping experience,” said Stewart.  Gen Yers are most often shopping with their children (41%), but also shop with a spouse or partner (38%) or other adults (29%), such as parents, friends, roommates or other relatives.
Marianne Quinlan-Sacksteder, Acosta’s director of insights, noted Hispanic Millennials use grocery shopping as “a social experience” where they can go out into the community and interact with friends and neighbors. Hispanic Millennials are even more likely to shop with others, with 88% visiting the grocery store with someone else.
Acosta’s latest research The Why Behind the Buy also found Millennials want digital to be a big part of the grocery shopping experience. “When you look at the numbers, obviously Millennials outrank any other generation on just about anything to do with digital and shopping, whether that’s looking up prices, looking up product ingredients, [or] looking up reviews on products,” said Stewart. “But I think it’s really almost just an expectation of Millennials that there’s going to be some sort of way that they can use that device in their hand,” for food buying and preparation.
Digital matters in markets where grocery e-commerce is available, 64% of Gen Yers said they shop online at least once a month, compared to 43% of all shoppers. Millennials are also far more likely to have tried a meal kit delivery service. Six in 10 Gen Yers have ordered from a service like Blue Apron, HelloFresh or Plate, compared to 10% of Boomers.
According to Stewart, meal kits speak to multiple Millennial desires. Forty-five percent of Gen Y shoppers want to take cooking classes to learn how to prepare new meals and dishes. Meal kit recipes also tend to include ingredients perceived as healthy. Acosta’s research found 39.1% of items in Millennials’ shopping baskets are organic, vs. 25.5% for all shoppers.
Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participationdifferentiation, and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.usor visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

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