Time
and time again restaurants, convenience stores, service delis, and all fresh
food retailers need to remember that consumers continue to have a growing top-of-mind
awareness of all things sustainable.
Within the grocerant niche the ‘halo’ of better-for-you is a driving
factor in the path to purchase according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®.
Here
is the thing, despite ongoing food price inflation and related economic
pressures, consumers are considering the environmental impacts of their food
choices. The team at Foodservice Solutions® believe you should read or reread
this report and you may just consider call Kearney for more, here is some of what
a 2023 report from Kearney found:
"Climavorism" — defined
as actively making food choices based on climate impacts with the intent to
benefit the planet — is a growing concept and lifestyle. According to
Kearney's "2023 Earth Day Survey"
of 1,000 U.S. consumers saw awareness of the environmental impacts of their
food choices significantly increase since the market research firm’s 2020
survey.
"Being
a climavore isn't as much about what you eat as it is about why you make your
food choices. Climavores can be vegans, vegetarians or omnivores," noted
Corey Chafin, partner in Kearney's consumer practice and the study's principal
author.
In
the 2023 survey, approximately 42 percent of respondents said they
"always/nearly always" consider the environment when making a buying
decision. This is a historic high and an 18 percentage point increase over
2022, a clear signal that Kearney's conclusion last year that climavorism was
growing from the "consumer fringe" to the heart of the mass market is
becoming a reality, the firm said.
"We
see a clear opportunity for food producers across the value chain to capitalize
on the growing momentum of climavorism and be a first mover in the
market," observed Chafin.
While
the survey's respondents are looking to change their buying patterns to
positively impact the environment, they clearly lay the burden for that change
at the foot of food manufacturers. When asked who should be responsible for
driving faster adoption of environmentally friendly food selections, 42 percent
of respondents said "producers."
When
then asked to specifically identify what segment of the food value chain ought
to be responsible for these changes, 54 percent of consumers indicated they
thought it was largely a problem that should be addressed by food
manufacturers. These findings present opportunities for food manufacturers to
"do well by doing good," according to Kearney.
"Consumers
expect food companies to take action," said Moritz Breuninger, principal
in Kearney's consumer practice and the study's co-author. "This allows
food companies that are already pursuing strategies to meet Scope 3 targets to
hit two birds with one stone."
Kearney's
"2023 Earth Day Survey" also contains four plausible scenarios
exploring how climavorism might scale faster through consumer demand, federal
regulation and legislation, food industry leadership, or by climate changes
that will have a drastic impact on what crops are available beginning less than
a decade from now. The full report is available here.
Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations?
Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow?
Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform
for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation
and individualization? Email us
at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by
clicking the following links: Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter
