With all the buzz around Gen Z and Gen Alpha lately, it’s understandable if your team is eager to answer the question: “How do we reach them?”  In this week’s podcast, our lead researchers challenge you to consider a different question first: “WHY it is so critical for food and beverage companies to understand these consumers?”  From our POV, companies that can answer this question correctly will have a competitive advantage on:  Crafting products that resonate on multiple levels — from flavor to values Leveraging technology the right way Preparing to evolve with consumers &n ..read more

There are 340 million people in the U.S., and those people engage in a whopping 500 billion eating occasions each year. The tricky thing about eating occasions? They’re pretty much invisible… Unless you know how to illuminate them. We sat down with David Feit, our VP of Strategic Insights and resident occasion-based sampling expert, to make sense of this mysterious sampling method in our latest podcast episode. Listen in to learn:  What makes occasion-based samples so complex, and how to harness those complexities The science and art of defining an occasion to reveal the “why” behind i ..read more

Our latest sustainability study found that 78% of consumers are concerned about single-use plastics, and 84% want companies to take the lead in developing more sustainable packaging solutions.   Manufacturers— especially those that primarily use plastic packaging — have both an opportunity and responsibility to build consumer trust by making both their production and packaging more sustainable.   Learn how the established beverage brand, Talking Rain, is aligning its sustainability efforts with current consumer concerns in our latest episode of The Insatiable Appetite.  For mo ..read more

“Sustainability” has become an increasingly nuanced and complex topic over the years, leaving many food and beverage companies searching for answers. We’re addressing some of the hottest topics from our newly-released report, Sustainability 2023: Making Things Personal, in this week’s podcast:   Who consumers view as responsible for specific concerns, from climate change to food waste; pollution to labor practices  How to alleviate consumers’ frustrations around sustainable packaging and recycling  Specific animal welfare considerations and consumers’ meat/dairy consumption hab ..read more

How to authentically market sustainability efforts  When it comes to your ESG efforts, the old adage rings true: honesty is the best policy.  The good news is that you don’t have to have it all figured out — but you do have to show and tell.    Rather than getting caught up on all the challenges food and beverage companies are facing with sustainability right now, we’re highlighting some practical paths forward in this week’s podcast.    Learn how to harness consumers’ evolving relationship with sustainability and develop authentic communication strategies for ..read more

Ever wonder how to reconcile what consumers say and think with how they're actually behaving? The answer lies in understanding how they interact with culture.  Listen to our latest podcast to learn how semiotics can: Fuel culture-led strategies Unlock blue ocean innovation Help you create passionate and bold messaging that inspires consumers Dive even deeper into the application of semiotics in our latest white paper, Signs, Codes & Trends: How semiotics can align your brand with culture. Download the white paper If you like these insights, subscribe to our free weekly email newsle ..read more

What do a pandemic-forced restaurant shutdown, celebrities, Vikings meditating with cows, and the American dream all have in common? They’re all part of the Thor’s Skyr brand origin story.  In this fascinating discussion with the Icelandic skyr company’s founder, Unnar Danielsson, we touch on brand authenticity, reimagining locale, and a host of other topics:  Sustainable, high-quality ingredient sourcing  Earning consumer trust in a health-oriented category Sweeteners and unique sugar alternatives, like allulose Social media and influencers’ role in food culture If you like ..read more

You read that right: nearly one quarter of all US adult eating occasions involve restaurant sourcing, which points to plentiful opportunities for both foodservice providers and their competitors.  But restaurant occasion priorities are dynamic and complex. For example, health was historically at the bottom of consumers’ priorities when dining out. But recently freshness, health and sustainability have emerged as key attributes for restaurant sourcing, as demonstrated by the evolution of fast-casual restaurants like Sweetgreen or CAVA.  So how can foodservice providers (and their comp ..read more

The FDA recently approved the sale of the first lab-grown chicken product, and yet a new GFI report highlights the challenges of scaling alternative protein products. Every day seems to bring new headlines in the food tech space.    While there are a lot of big promises being made about how technologies like AI, cellular agriculture and more can address some of the biggest challenges facing our food system, the struggles companies continue to face underscore a persistent question: is the promise of these technologies enough to sustain consumer interest?   We’re taking a fre ..read more

34% of consumers said fighting food waste is one of the most important factors when choosing foods and beverages to buy, according to our Sustainability 2021 study, but thousands of pounds of food still goes to waste every day. So what do you do with nearly 17,000 pounds of “abnormal” oranges that no one wanted to buy?   In the latest episode of The Insatiable Appetite podcast, we recap our recent Trend Trek volunteering at Food Lifeline, a local organization that sources surplus food from farmers, manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants for re-distribution to nearly 1.4 milli ..read more