Seeds&Chips: our insights from the global food innovation summit

From a business strategy standpoint, there are a pair of things worth noting. First of all, we are living in the era of a more empowered consumer. Whether we want to source a restaurant nearby, order a meal or buy products online we have plenty of tools and devices available to satisfy our needs. The empowered consumer is a smart, connected consumer: a conscious shopper who wants to be in the know of the items they purchase and about possible alternatives. With regard to what they are putting into their plate, people are eager of accurate and reliable information. Providing this kind of knowledge, in the form of appropriate store labelling/signage, online content design and data visualization, will probably become a top priority for companies at any point of the food supply chain.

Dutch supermarket chain Ahold Delheize is making use of a particular standard in their product labelling: the “Guiding Stars”, a programme conceived and promoted by Delheize America, aiming at rating products according to their nutritional value and communicating information to shoppers by means of a simple visual language. Namely, the most nutritious products are awarded one, two or three stars, representing good, better and best nutritional value.

The second thing to point out is convenience. Companies can’t ignore the fact that Millennials represent now the most important consumer cluster, in terms of size and influencing power. This demographic has quite clear ideas about nutrition and cares a lot about food quality and nutritional intakes. However, this same cluster is more price-sensitive compared to previous generations, which is a result of a conjunction of economic and social factors impacting on this group. As a consequence, many of them will be expecting organic food quality, at a fair price.

The crisis suffered in 2015 by major organic grocer WholeFoods may tell something about the risks implied by not transparent pricing strategies. That year, an authority investigation accused the chain of overcharging customers by overstating the weight contents of prepackaged foods. With the brand rapidly losing credibility over its pricing strategies, the company tried to fix the matter by launching ‘365 by Whole Foods Market’, to offer the same quality food at a lower price.

To appeal to new generations of consumers, brands need to start to communicate differently: simply, clearly and engagingly.

“Food brands and food operators need to keep into account that their products and offerings are for sure going to be posted, shared, talked about by a wider audience. They have to offer social-media proof content”.

Particularly for the youngest generations of consumers, Millennials and Zs, the visual impact of brand content is crucial. For this target, products need to be designed and offered as unique experiences, which happen offline but continue to live online after consumption. They need to be thought in terms of social media “sharability”.

Pictures from Pescaria Facebook public page. This small Italian company manages to convert more customers through social media conversation than through any other channel, according to Facebook Country Manager Sylvain Querne.

Technology looks set to shape consumers’ relationship with food and profoundly innovate the retail and the Ho.Re.Ca industries.
The adoption of sophisticated digital tools in store permits personalized and alternatives shopping experiences, at different levels: it’s precision retailing we are talking about- selling at the right moment, to the right customer, leveraging on the knowledge which data can provide on that customer.

Hong Kong based Bite, for instance, provides restaurants with self-ordering intelligent kiosks, whcih are able to keep track of each customer and their interactions and choices. By means of the information they collect, they know everything about customers’ preferences and allow to plan offerings accordingly.

Selling at the right moment, to the right customer, leveraging on the knowledge which data can provide on that customer: the new frontier of retail is that of personification and the concept of precision retailing has to do with that.

Precision retailing is something also grocers are keen on investing on. Powerful software like Sap-Hana are able to gather a lot of information at the point of sale and to process data real time, allowing digital marketing applications to run instant promotions to target individual customers at the point of sale. Imagine you are picking up a bottle of milk from a fridge at your local supermarket. As you walk by a digital sensor placed near the fridge, the bottle triggers the sensor, your mobile chimes and you find an instant promotion of your favourite brand of breakfast cereals, that you may want to consume with your milk. This scenario seems to be a likely one, as grocers try their best to survive in an era of fickle customers.

Originally published at medium.com on February 24, 2018.