Cereal killer
Are the UK’s tastes in breakfast changing?
Breakfast: is it the most important meal of the day?
The idea was originally coined by Henry Kellogg himself in the 19th century to push his new cereal products as a breakfast food. The association he promoted was so strong that cereals are still seen as the de facto breakfast of choice across the West even today.
But what do we really think of cereals — and could their morning meal dominance be coming to an end? Nearly 1,000 users — our bees — in the UK shared what they thought about breakfast with us, and their opinions informed a recent special report by industry mainstay The Grocer.
Milking it?
First, the good news for producers: cereals are still overwhelmingly popular.
Nearly 9 out of 10 people (87%) say they do eat cereal, and for those that do, almost all (90%) have it for breakfast.
That said, cereal isn’t just for the morning: there’s a sizeable minority (1 in 3) of young people (U-25s) who are also happy to have it as an evening or night-time snack, while 85% of all those surveyed said that the foodstuff can be eaten at any time.
However, not all is perfect in cereal-land — in fact, 1 in 3 told us they are eating less cereal than last year. Why?
Coco Stop
It boils down to three factors: boredom, health and time.
When we asked why our bees are eating less cereal, ‘prefer other options’ was the top choice, while 1 in 5 said cereal wasn’t exciting enough:
Sugar content and health concerns are a factor too. Although only 16% said too much sugar is the primary reason why they are cutting back on cereal, 7 in 10 said they would still prefer it if the foodstuff contained less:
Cheerio?
Finally, time is clearly a factor in the lives of our busy bees, and that impacts what they feel able to have at breakfast. 1 in 3 of those surveyed agreed with the statement “I like eating cereal, but there isn’t enough time in the morning to have it” — and it’s this group that’s most likely to choose other breakfast options, like on-the-go bars that can be eaten during a commute or at work.
There’s also a red flag for producers amongst our data; while the habit of eating cereal in the morning is entrenched amongst older age groups, it’s much less so for our younger bees.
Of the under-25s we surveyed, over half (52%) say they don’t have enough time in the morning to have cereal. 1 in 3 of this group regularly eat on the go options, and 1 in 5 skip breakfast altogether.
Variety multi-pack
So how do companies make breakfast healthier, quicker and — well — less boring?
When we asked our bees what breakfast they’d try if money were no object, we found a split between convenience, health and excitement:
However, bring finance back into play, and the picture changes again. For example, only 1 in 4 agreed with the statement “I am willing to pay more for an on-the-go breakfast option”
So what’s really happening here? Our Streetbees take is that this is a sector with a lot of inertia; people have eaten cereal for breakfast their whole life, and many will continue to do so. But a combination of time pressure, newfound health consciousness and a desire to try new things is pushing more and more people to look to different options that both fit into their lifestyles more conveniently, and keep them interested.
A brand that successfully hits that sweet spot without sacrificing taste and price could tap into a market willing to test out new options. After all, 1 in 2 of our bees claimed they had tried a new cereal in the last year: so consumers are clearly willing to experiment to find a solution they like.
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A quick word on our methodology: The figures in the article are taken from Streetbees community members in the UK, carried out in Dec 2018 and January 2019. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 3 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
