Top Ten Trends 2018
22 Nov 2017 | Innova Market Insights
Innova Market Insights releases its top ten trends for 2018, using its ongoing analyses of global developments in food and drinks launch activity to highlight the trends most likely to impact the food and drinks industry over the coming year and beyond. In addition to the ten trends identified for 2018, key themes from previous years, including clean label, free from, protein content, sugar reduction, gut health and plant-based options will also continue to feature strongly.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Louanne Williams.
I am the director of innovation here at Enova Market Insights.
I want to thank you for attending our webinar today.
I'm gonna spend the next 20 minutes or so, taking you through our top 10 trends for 2018.
So every year, we get our analysts together from around the world and we look at the kind of things that we've been working on and we have a big discussion about what's coming next.
For those of you who don't know us, we have a huge resource to use for this.
We're a market research company and we are really focused on the food, beverage, ingredients, industry.
We have the world's largest database for the food industry.
And we can use this to, to combine with other data sources like consumer data to try to figure out what's gonna happen next.
I lead the analysis team, and this year, I have to say we spent a lot of time really, really thinking about what's gonna happen.
I've been involved in the food industry for 25 years, and I think there, there's never been a more challenging time.
I think I don't have to tell any of you that.
But it's also really interesting, and I think for every trend, there could be a counter trend, and I think also, there's just so many opportunities.
So you can see there's our top 10 trends listed there.
I won't read them now, but I'm just gonna take you through all 10 of them, over the next 20 minutes.
So the first one is mindful choices.
So, it, it's really hard to come up with the number one trend, but last year, it was Clean Supreme, and it was all about, you know, how clean label had really evolved and, and we started seeing this extra layer of transparency, and then last year, the farm became really important.
So, really what has, has happened now is it, it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.
So this really is, I don't know if we want to call it clean, clean label 10.
I don't know.
We've been talking about it for 10 years now.
But consumers really do have a more holistic, idea of, of what they eat.
It's, you know, it's also, it's peace of mind, but it's also your body.
So people are thinking about, you know, sustainability, environmental issues, and I have to say, I, I think back to a time, and some of you probably heard me tell this story so many times, but At the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting, they , have a science portion of the, of the meeting and I chaired sustainability for two years in a row.
And this is, I guess it was 5 or 6 years ago, but you saw the change from one year to the next in terms of what people, thought sustainability meant.
And now what we see, even though it was a purchase driver for a very few consumers, now there are more and more consumers that do think about animal welfare or they think about is this packaging sustainable, you know, all these kinds of things.
So, it is, it is very holistic, the whole picture.
So it's, it's peace of mind, but also the health of your body.
One consumer insight there we're using to illustrate this is that about 40% of US and UK consumers.
Have increased their consumption of what they think are healthy foods, and we can have a big discussion of what, what does that mean, but perception is reality.
So if consumers think that even if they're wrong and they're eating something that's, you know, they think it's healthy but it's not whatever, it doesn't matter.
This is their perception, and you have to make products that appeal to them.
So some of you might have seen our, our infographic.
I think this is a great way to sum it up, that we really do see a difference between, you know, what is just good for your body and also good for your mind.
And now we're seeing all these products are kind of incorporating, elements of, of both of them, and it's about finding this balance between the two.
So in terms of the body, we see innovation really being driven by a more holistic, better for you trend.
If we look at better for you products, which means products with a health claim, a clean label claim, a free from claim.
That used to represent 42%.
Those claims were in 42% of all product launches in 2012, and so far this year, it's up to 49%.
So we're almost at half of all food products have some type of better for you claim or aspect to it.
We know that there's an increasing interest in a cleaner lifestyle, more transparency, and more and more consumers adopt what they think, is a healthier diet.
Free from is a great example.
We can have an endless debate if gluten-free diets are healthy or not, but consumers think they are, and so there are a lot of consumers, adopting, you know, lifestyles that that fit that.
Here's a nice example of the Oprah, food that, that she's done with Kraft Heinz, but you can see nutritious delicious, deliciousness, that's hard to say, made with real ingredients and, and very convenient, perfect example.
But then if we look around the world, you can see a lot of, consumers care about made with real ingredients.
So there's a few countries there, but you can see almost 25% of Chinese consumers, followed by US consumers, but this whole idea of made with real ingredients is really, really important, for consumers and it's a way, as we know that, you know, it's a, it can be a point of differentiation, with your competitor.
And then let's look at the mindful aspect of this.
So this is a fantastic, graph there, and this is the number of food and beverage launches featuring an ethical claim that can be animal, human, or environmental.
That's a perfect hockey hockey stick.
Huge growth, in the number of product launches that have a claim.
And just looking at a couple of examples here, Kalifia Farms, that's so cute, the drink remarkably with the, the little farmer, and they're making a dairy-free, claim there, you know, without the sacrifice.
So that certainly appeals to a certain group of consumers.
And then the good pops on the other side.
Again, you can see a really, really two paragraphs all about what good means to them.
So again, this used to not be, I used to call it a Wall Street issue.
It's not a Wall Street issue anymore.
It is, it is going, much more mainstream.
OK, trend number 2, lighter enjoyment.
Diets are out.
I think we all know that, but, weight management is not out, but nobody wants to say they're on a diet anymore.
It's more of a lifestyle.
I'm following a paleo, you know, diet, which is really a lifestyle, for example, but looking at this can mean a lot of different things.
So low alcohol is an interesting one.
So here's a chart that shows you, the content, alcohol content of, alcoholic beverages, and we can see quite a significant growth.
In products that have a low alcohol content, so that's certainly lighter, and then if we look at, you know, other things, beers have really become soft drinks, and we know that consumers tell us that novelty products or like novel products and increased variety is driving their purchase decisions.
We also see very, Very good growth and US retail sales of flavored alcoholic beverages, and again, that goes along with this whole novelty idea, and we see a 34% increase in flavored beer launches globally over 2012 to 2016.
And we also see, you know, beers making claims about, it's a session, and that's very fashionable now.
And again, the packaging, everything really speaks to all of this, but we've seen the 61% in , growth in products that are claiming to, you know, a session beer.
So, again, I hope this gives you some kind of idea that all of this, it's, it's a huge change to 5 or 10 years ago, but super interesting under this whole idea of lighter enjoyment.
Other ways that we can illustrate this is look at thin.
We've seen so many cookies and crackers and bread, you know, things that are thin.
So, the chart here shows you the number of bakery launches that have a thin claim.
And again, this is using an index starting in 2012, and you can see we've almost seen, a doubling of products that are, that have a thin, claim or thin name.
And also in plant waters, this whole idea of a hint of a flavor, you know, not a strong flavor, but water is obviously very healthy and something that's even sparkling or with a tiny bit of of of a flavor does seem healthier than, you know, maybe a drink that is even a juice.
Something fully flavored, but this seems refreshing, interesting, and just that little hint of flavor, and there's a couple of nice examples there.
One is, you know, slightly sweet, and the other one is described as airy and lightly sparkling.
So two nice examples there to support this whole idea of thinner and lightly.
OK, trend number 3, positively processed.
So, we've been talking about processing techniques for quite a few years.
Last year, we talked a lot about fermentation, but we see a lot more techniques and, and, and processing technologies now being claimed as part of the USP of a product.
So, We're seeing more like raw and old-fashioned processes.
Sprouted ingredients is a nice example.
And if you look at the chart there, we looked at sprouted, cold brewed, and cold pressed.
So cold brewed, Has to do, you know, with coffee, of course, but we're seeing an increase in all these types of products.
So again, this whole idea of these new techniques, really do kind of promote better health, you know, better nutrition through cold, like through cold pressed juices, cold process.
It can also, preserve the flavor, for example.
So consumers do see a lot of benefits, in products that claim to have, been made through a special process.
And then here's a few maybe extreme examples, but super interesting examples.
So, I'll leave you a little time to read this.
This is, also recorded and will be available on a website if you, you can go back and pause this if you want to, but you can see, the beverage on the left is filtered through silver, birch charcoal, and steam distilled botanicals, so that's a lot of information there.
The one in the middle is traditionally grown fermented dried and stone grown cocoa and spices from Saint Lucia, also very specific, and then also aged.
And then the last one.
That this is a product that incorporates a unique Vietnamese caramelization step.
So again, super, super, specific, but also making it really interesting for consumers.
OK, trend number 4, going full circle.
Today I was driving to work and there was.
I don't even know if it was a garbage truck or it was a delivery truck.
I'm not really sure because I was looking at the picture on the back of it that says, we have, cradle to cradle, office paper.
So I thought everywhere I look just about, it seems that there's some kind of, promotion about some kind of full circle if it's food waste or whatever, but this was the paper.
Oh, I know I was in an elevator.
Italy recently and even the cleaning detergents that they were using to clean the elevator, there was a sticker in the elevator that was green that says ecologically cleaned, you know, this whole idea of everything has, has to be linked and it has to have some type of claim or, you know, some type of, of, promotion around this.
So the two examples here that we're looking at are, ethical packaging, but also awareness around, you know, food waste.
And packaging waste.
So again, there's, you know, so many videos on social media and news stories, and then if you look at how the industry has responded, there's an index, again, looking from 2010 and like boom, just look what happened.
And this also reflects, I told you when I was the chair of the sustainability Committee, from one year to the next, And that probably was around 2010, 2011, but my goodness did the industry respond that everybody now has to communicate something about the way that they're using resources.
But there's also some interesting ways to do this, to do something very different, and I'm gonna talk about that now.
So, again, we wanted to, I like to call prove it with a number.
You probably have heard me say that before for those of you who have seen me speak.
But looking at food and beverage launches that has either a biogradable compostable claim or a carbon footprint, footprint claim, carbon footprint is too hard to understand.
I, I don't think it's a good choice because if you ask consumers what does it mean, I don't, I have no idea what it means.
It's 10 a lot?
Is 5 a lot, you know, what does that number mean?
But everybody can understand biodegradable or compostable, and that's probably why it's used the most.
Also cost too much money to calculate a carbon footprint.
But on the right-hand side, a few other examples, upcycling can be that you also, you know, reuse it in something else.
We also have seen, you know, the big success with Talenti ice cream containers or the new General Mills, the Yoplait, one, the Wii yogurt, you know, that consumers are using the packaging and making Pinterest page pages from it.
The one on the right, the crumb comber, that's an example of using ugly fruits and vegetables, and, in this case, it's soup.
Also biopackaging, and even on the right, you know, this is the bottle that has the treatment on the inside so that you don't waste any.
It all slides out of the bottle.
So again, there's so many different ways to, to promote some type of difference around your product rather than just the, you know, the little sticker that you have to put on there.
And then looking at dairy alternatives, this is a category that has, that has boomed, of course, over the past, 5 or 10 years, and we asked consumers, compared with cow's milk or yogurt, is plant-based milk more sustainable?
And you can see that consumers think it is.
And again, this is what I mentioned, I can imagine that we could have a debate about this.
I saw a really interesting speaker in, from UC Davis in Chicago in September, and he had some really interesting statistics on, on how much CO2 emissions come from, from cows.
It was very different to what you normally hear.
I, I hope he speaks in a lot in a lot more places because I thought it was really interesting data, but it doesn't matter because consumers think that, that plant-based milk is more sustainable.
And then on the right-hand side, here's a, a couple of examples of, cleaner, you know, cleaner Plant, claims and ideas.
So again, you know, sustainability is really at the core of dairy alternative, messaging.
Trend number 5, beyond the coffee house.
So I don't think I have to tell anyone that tea and coffee is hot, hot, hot.
There's, coffee has definitely been in the news a lot lately.
Maybe we have too many coffee houses now, but , that's beside the point, that I want to make today.
But look, this is, the chart on the left is coffee and tea launches, over the past 3 years, and you can see every year we track more and more and more of them.
Tea is, growing the fastest and also has the biggest share, of all of them.
And again, just a, a couple of other points there that about 50% of consumers from the US, UK, and Australia would like to have more fusion of flavors, so they like this whole idea of lemon and green tea and s'mores and, Anyway, lots more.
I mentioned the importance of novelty and novel flavors in the beer category, but it's also true, In the beverage category, and then if we look at global growth in coffee and tea, if you look at the, the sales, we're seeing a faster growth in value than volume, which tells us that added value, you know, is really being built into these products and that premiumization, is really important, and that's, you know, creating these, I think, are three great examples of that as.
So again, there's endless innovation opportunities.
And then looking at the impact that has is once you see stuff jump out of a category or jump across categories, that tells you kind of how mainstream it's going.
So we pulled some data on the left-hand side, looking outside of the hot drinks category, but looking at, foods and beverages that have coffee or tea flavors, I think the data speaks for itself, especially when it comes to tea.
And then when you see a big brand like Coca-Cola jump onto it, then you know that this is a big trend.
So this is Coke plus coffee, no sugar.
And then, again, just a few more examples, how coffeehouse frenzy has really just taken over the grocery store, so you can look at these yourself, but there's, it seems to be a coffee or a tea version of almost anything.
Even things that, you know, green tea, matcha tea, just, you know, has absolutely become very mainstream and in lots of different kinds of products.
But again, This really does tell you that these flavors are truly accepted by mainstream consumers.
So, I wanna thank everybody for watching the summary version of our webinar.
If you are interested in what we do and would like to have the full version, please contact us.
You can see the email there on the screen, and thank you very much for attending.
