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Does butter hold a special place in Brits’ hearts, or is it yet another casualty in the war against saturated fat?
The price of butter has gone up by a whopping 25% in the past 12 months — meaning that what is often a mainstay in British kitchens is becoming more of a luxury purchase. But is this leading to people trying out other options, or are they loyal to what butter represents?
Along with our friends at the Grocer, we wanted to know whether alternatives such as margarine or vegetable spreads can compete with a classic, and if so, what they need to do to win over the public. Over 700 of our bees — or users — in the UK told us what they thought.
Butter’s on a roll!
Despite the price rise, butter — in both spreadable and block form— reigns supreme, with Brits buying it more than any other available spread. Why? Quite simply, it tastes better.
Taste is by far the biggest consideration when buying butter or spread — with almost half of our bees (46%) ranking it of highest importance, with only 31% saying price. Brits know what they like and what tastes good — and it’s more important for them to enjoy what they’re eating than save some pennies.
No matter how delicious butter is though, it’s not the healthiest choice. And given the public’s growing concern over nutrition, is this enough to influence what products Brits buy — or does taste remain the deciding factor?
Healthy or not, you butter believe they’ll eat it!
Margarine was created as a cheaper, longer lasting substitution to butter, but as the rivalry between the products grew, replication of butter’s taste became the biggest obstacle.
And it still hasn’t overcome it — 3 in 5 of our bees prefer butter, with the rest split between having no preference and favouring margarine.
But although margarine may not be seen as tastier, it is perceived as being healthier, at least to almost half of our bees:
The surprising thing, though, is that a person’s take on the relative health benefits of butter against margarine are reliable indicators of what influences them to buy.
If a bee thinks butter is healthier than margarine, then the most important purchasing factor for them is taste. But if they think the opposite — than margarine is healthier — then they are much likelier to be swayed by price:
In other words, those who are more health conscious are clearly less influenced by how appetizing their spread is — it’s important, but not as much — and they are more likely to choose cheaper and lower fat options.
This trend is also massively dependent on age: the older you are, the more likely you are to think that margarine is less healthy than butter. Only 27% of over-46s think that margarine is healthier, compared to 59% of under-25s.
So — is our understanding of what’s ‘healthy’ determined by how old we are, or are our priorities simply different? After all, Gen Z ranks price and taste almost equally, whereas over-46s find taste almost twice as important.
Older consumers are more in favour of traditional butter than youngsters — they think margarine is less natural and, quite frankly, doesn’t taste as good.
“Butter is a natural product. Marg is manufactured. I’d rather have butter in smaller amounts. It also tastes a lot better!” Female, 39
I can’t believe it’s nut butter!
Decades ago, margarine was one of only a few available alternatives to the nation’s favourite, but the variety now on offer is truly staggering. For example, nut butter — viewed as source of extra nutrients — is increasingly available.
As in often the case for ‘natural’ products, nut butter’s appealrates particularly well among our Gen Z bees — 72% say it’s at least slightly healthier than traditional butter, compared to 54% of over-35s.
As a result, Brits who currently buy nut butter rank ingredients as of far higher importance than the rest of our bees. It’s clearly a product perfectly designed for modern consumers — high in protein, suitable for vegans, and its ingredients are all-natural.
While not bought as much as other well known spreads, over half of those who do purchase it are eating more of it than last year, while almost one-third are cutting back on the amount of actual butter they consume.
So it’s clearly only early days for nut butter — it’s poised and ready to take market share from established brands.
Should brands stick to their guns?
So what’s really churning in this sector?
Well, traditional butter is still liked by everyone, but older consumers are the most likely to stay loyal to it — whereas younger audiences are more easily swayed by price, along with the appeal of healthy ingredients.
Nut butter provides a healthy, natural alternative to butter with added flavours that other spreads just can’t offer. While only one-fifth of our bees currently buy it, making it at home is a popular option — with multiple resources online available on how to find the ‘best processor’ to make nut butter.
So, brands wanting to tap into this market could think about not only providing a range of nut butters, but also recipes and recipe kits for people to make it themselves — maybe even their own range of processors!
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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 April 2019. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 4percentage points 19 times out of 20.
