Campbell Soup’s New Retail Initiative
Presents Options for ‘Meal Preparers’
By Dale Buss
Despite the growing constraints of time and finances, most American women still want to prepare meals for their households – and feel good when they pull it off. Now, Campbell Soup is harnessing that essential insight in a new initiative aimed at making it easy for “meal preparers” to get what they need from the supermarket this afternoon so they can please themselves and their families at the dinner table.
“The perimeter of the store offers opportunities to outsource that job” of meal preparation, said Phil McGee, director of shopper insights and category management for the Camden, N.J.-based maker of soups, Pepperidge Farm snacks, Prego and Pace sauces, V8 juices and other brands. “But outsourcing doesn’t give them what they’re looking to get in that role. It’s not always about having the job done for them.”
Based on shopper and consumer insights clustered around this central idea, Campbell has been responding with an initiative designed to help retailers work with the array of Campbell products to present handy, attractive and informative options to meal preparers. Most ambitiously, these have included the introduction of a new, in-store mobile-merchandising platform for Campbell’s brands, as well as expansion of the Campbell’s Kitchen web site.
“The average meal preparer will be doing, ‘What’s for dinner?’ about 10,000 times in their lifetime, and most of them don’t have a repertoire that extends much beyond 10 or 20 meals, plus some variations on those themes,” McGee told CPGmatters.com. “And our research has shown that when they disappoint the people they prepare for, this can also put at risk other life roles – like their marriages.”
Just as always, meal preparation remains a primary way – still mainly for women – to express their command of the important role of primary food giver. They can derive a number of specific rewards from effectively executing this task, including if the meal tastes good to their loved ones and if they pull it off relatively inexpensively.
“Yet we know from our research that the preparedness of those who assume the role of meal preparer has been declining for years now. They’re less equipped than ever compared with the knowledge and skill of the meal preparers that have come before them,” McGee explained. “It’s something they basically have to learn on their own.”
Add to this symptom of modern life the recent extra and growing financial pressures on most American households, McGee said, and the situation produces a crying need – and opportunity – for brands that can help rescue meal preparers from their frustrations.
This is where Campbell has been stepping in for more than a year now, along with a number of cooperating retailers. “Retailers are good and efficient operators, and they understand the dynamics of their trading areas, but they’re not good at what ingredients to add to – or the nutritional properties of – a total meal,” McGee said. “That’s where we can help.”
So while Home Depot, for example, has morphed into the retailer who tells do-it-yourselfers, “You Can Do It; We Can Help,” in the grocery business, becoming meal-solution providers generally falls to brands such as Campbell.
Yet in addition to helps such as the Campbell Kitchens web site, the solutions must be executed in the stores. To that end, Campbell has been focusing on those occasions when shoppers are “Looking for something to prepare for that evening,” as McGee described it “– not a stock-up trip.”
Like many other CPG companies with a stable of varied brands, Campbell has been focusing on putting together its disparate products that can work easily and quickly for a meal, and with other easy-to-pluck ingredients. So it is working with retailers to present such groups of products along with header cards that suggest a menu and flash its cost for feeding a family of five, relevant recipes, and promotional offers from Campbell and maybe the retailer.
But unlike some of its multi-brand rivals, Campbell has come up with a way to make this presentation easier for retailers to pull off: what McGee called a “proprietary fixture” that is compact and mobile “So that it can easily be moved to secondary locations or to high-traffic areas of the store.” From Campbell – whose innovation in soup-can fixturing streamlined merchandising in that category a few years ago – such innovation isn’t a surprise.
Still, there are obstacles, which is why Campbell is still refining its meal-preparer initiative – and not sharing specifics of some of its most promising findings.
For example, McGee said, despite how handy the mobile fixture is, retailers still have problems finding space for it. That’s one reason even the biggest chains are still leaving decisions about how to deploy Campbell’s carts to the discretion of local store managers.
“To expect the retailer to carry the burden of being the meal-preparer solution is unrealistic,” McGee conceded. Yet, he said, Campbell is working with one major chain right now – one he declined to identify – to blow out the concept of an in-store “center” for meal preparers in all its possibilities. “It can be done if you have the right category architecture, signage, the right key messages for packaging, shelf positions and adjacencies, and product clusters and value-added services.”
Also limiting is that, so far, the technology doesn’t exist for Campbell or retailers to measure the extra sales that may be generated by meal-preparer displays over and above the regular sales flow of those same products out of their places in the store aisles.
McGee also is informed by the insight that not all individuals who value the meal-preparer function want to be helped as much as Campbell might want to help them. “To bring the total solution might not be best for all shoppers,” he said. “Some meal preparers don’t want entire groupings so much as information and inspiration, in order to bring their customization to it.”
With pasta, for example, their need might be, “What can I add to this,” McGee explained, or "What wine goes really well with this?”
In any event, Campbell is still learning how to execute against its insights about meal preparers, both in their roles as consumers and shoppers. “Generally,” McGee summed up, “People make decisions outside of the store and choices inside the store.”
Market Watch
Eating, Cooking Habits Change
As Consumers Ride out Recession
By Lynne Cooke
Two of three (68%) U.S. adults have changed their cooking and eating habits because of the current state of the economy, with about half (51%) eating dinner at home more often and more than a third (37%) budgeting food shopping trips more strictly.
Those are the results from Whole Foods Market’s annual Food Shopping Trends Tracker survey conducted by Harris Interactive.
At the same time, the survey found that the majority (76%) say they do not want to compromise on the quality of the food they buy, regardless of current food prices. While three in four (75%) also continue to purchase natural and/or organic foods in the same quantities as they always have, nearly two-thirds (65%) of consumers surveyed say they would like to find ways to be able to buy these foods within their budget.
“We recognize that shoppers should be able to cut costs, not corners when buying natural and organic foods,” says A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods Market. “This research is in sync with what we are seeing right now with our customers as they are taking advantage of our in-store value programs and specials, and they are turning to us for meal planning and ideas more than ever before, especially via our website.”
Of the adults who said their grocery shopping habits have been affected by current food prices, half (54%), are using more coupons, are more likely to comparison shop (50%) , and are more likely to buy private label/grocery store brands (45%) . Gallo said Whole Foods Market’s “The Whole Deal” program helps customers stretch their food dollar with special deals, product coupons and shopping tips, and that the recipe section is the most popular category on www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
Interestingly, four in five adults (80%) think the price of groceries, in general, has increased since this time last year, according to the survey. However, according to the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index release for July 2009, the food at home index has declined for the seventh time in the past eight months for a total decrease of 2.6% from its peak in November 2008.
The survey found that most adults (79%) cook at home. More than half (54%) say they do so to save money, while 44% of respondents say they simply enjoy eating their favorite foods in the comfort of their home and 41% say they cook at home to ensure they are eating healthfully.
Among parents who provide breakfast, packed school lunches and/or after-school snacks for their children, nearly half (45%) say they would like to find ways to provide these types of healthy foods within their budget, and some (20%) insist on providing these healthy food items, with little attention to price.
Whole Foods Market recently launched a new partnership with Chef Ann Cooper, the nation’s “renegade lunch lady” to help busy families build better lunchboxes and to help schools bring about real change in how children eat. Also, the retailer is embarking on a new Healthy Eating Initiative for customers and the company’s Team Members. The program, set to kick off in early 2010, aims to help everyone make informed diet and lifestyle choices that promote
good health.
Wealthy Will Pay for Safe Eats
Affluent Americans are very concerned about the safety of the food they buy and would pay more for food they believe to be safer or healthier, according to a new national survey by Context Marketing. The study found that most of these wealthier respondents (half of those surveyed had a yearly household income of $75,000 or higher) would pay more for food they believe to be safer or healthier.
The report says that 57% of respondents said they were “definitely” or “very concerned” about the safety of the U.S. food supply, with another 39% “slightly” or “somewhat” concerned.” Only 4% said they had no concerns about food safety. While respondents confirmed that low price is a major influence on most food purchases, six of ten (60%) said they would pay up to 10% more for food they think is healthier, safer or produced according to higher ethical standards, and 14% percent said they would pay a premium greater than 10%.
How Will Mom Shop for Holidays?
Most moms plan to spend the same amount this year compared to last year, though they are likely to spend more money if their children are older. The Marketing to Moms Coalition, a nonprofit industry group, surveyed 1,225 moms with children under 18 living at home and found that most moms plan to spend the same amount this year compared to last year, though moms are likely to spend more money if their children are older.
Most moms plan to shop at mass merchandisers/supercenters for the holidays (85%), although that is down 2% from 2008. Anticipated holiday shopping this year has increased significantly for department stores (up 10% to 47% in 2009) and electronics stores (up 13% to 41% in 2009). Of all retailers, shoe stores seem to be taking the hardest hit in 2009, down 8% versus last year.
OCTOBER 2009
Hershey Leverages ‘Need States’
To Optimize C-Store Sales
By John Karoleski
The Hershey Company is betting that incremental candy purchases in convenience stores can be triggered by placing its products in the right place at the right time.
The world-class company is basing its strategy on the results of research conducted last summer in six C-stores operated by three chains. It was part of a nationwide study of all product categories in which 350,000 shopping trips were video recorded and analyzed.
C-stores is one of the biggest initiatives for Hershey this year. Account teams are meeting with retailers to explain what they learned from the study and to set up tests of the tactics suggested by the results.
The chains in the study were 7-Eleven, Chevron and Road Ranger with stores in six markets: Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore and Chicago.
“When trips to C-stores are down, there is a need to attract people and make sure that every person who comes through the door buys as much as possible,” said Susan LaPointe, director of global innovation and shopper insights at Hershey. “And that’s where candy comes in because candy is often not a destination. We’re just not a reason to go to the store, but we’re a perfect add-on. So we always look at candy as the potential to put one more buck into the basket before somebody checks out,” she said in a presentation at a Shopper Insights conference hosted by the Institute for International Research (IIR).
Hershey sought to figure out the difference between somebody who buys or doesn’t buy
candy, and how to understand them. To learn the “who, when and why” of store trips, the company turned to Video Mining Corporation. The State College, Pa.-based firm offers proprietary in-store video technology to measure and provide visibility into the shopping process at every retail touch point. The technology was used for the study’s segmentation and need-states analysis.
“We started looking at some of the classic things like demographics and just saw no differences between buyers and non-buyers in those kind of metrics,” said LaPointe. “We weren’t quite willing to give up at that point, so we said, ‘Okay, let’s just take all the people who bought and all the people who didn’t buy and look at every measure and see where the differences are.’ When we did that, we found that day parts showed us some really different patterns of behavior.”
Hershey came to understand the “path to purchase” by day part because shopper behavior changes with the hours. For example, the “need state” at 7-8 am is a daily snack; noon-1 pm, it is a meal enhancer; 3-4 pm, it is for energy; 6-7 pm, it is a snack; and 9-10 pm, it is habit
or social.
Using Video Mining’s technology, here were the kinds of metrics that Hershey studies in an overall C-store environment:
- Store Traffic How many people are coming in?
- Category Traffic How many people were actually shopping the candy category in the aisle and in any one of the different places in the convenience store?
- Engagement What happens to the person passing by the category and to those interacting and shopping the category?
- Conversion How can you convert that person to actually picking up a product and buying it?
“At the end of the day, what are the kinds of things we can do when you start to understand traffic patterns and particularly when you begin to dig down a little deeper and understand there are differences by shopper groups and needs?” LaPointe asked.
In general, she stressed the importance of keeping the shopper at the center of the process in three ways: one, understand the decision process of the various shopper segments; two, track segment composition and behavior trends, and three, test the response of each segment to new strategies.
More specifically, she outlined the following;
- Location “You want to be on that ‘path to purchase.’ It has a sense of purpose for these people, so understand where they’re going. Be there when they’re on the way there or, better yet, on the way returning because we’re not a destination.”
- Assortment “At each location, assortment differs because people are looking for different things and the brands do serve different purposes in their lives.”
- Promotional Partners “If it is going to be a candy bar with a drink or a candy bar with that meal or something, let’s run a promotion for those things.”
- Message Content “Time-of-day messaging. We know that there are people coming into the convenience store in the morning for more than just coffee and doughnuts. You should be telling those people to stock up on their snacks to make them feel like this is the right thing to be doing.”
There are multiple locations for candy in the convenience store, according to Rajeev Sharma, CEO of VideoMining, who also spoke in the presentation along with his vice president of shopper insights, Priya Baboo. “You have candy at the checkout, you have an aisle where you have candy, and then you have several displays in the store. So what we also did was [study] how each of the locations played a role in generating a conversion for candy. What is the incrementality that candy is getting from each of the locations?
“So based on some of the things that we identified,” he sent on to explain,” there some locations that are good and some locations are not good. That’s what {Hershey} is testing this year – trying to move displays to a better location to get more exposure and engagement,” he told CPGmatters in an interview following the conference.
According to Sharma, part of the process is understanding the reason for visiting the store in the first place? What is the need state? Are you there for food or for snack or for beverage?
“It is getting that kind of understanding of how people navigate the store based upon their need state,” he said. “The big deal was analyzing the need states very carefully, and how did it translate to physical movement in the store. Physical movement translates to traffic patterns which can be the place for positioning the products more effectively.”
Sharma said demographic segments also play a role with traffic flow, as do times of day. “So by working them into all of the different groups and different times of the day, you can actually start getting to the right match-up for people and their movement to displays."
According to Baboo, understanding how a category responds in the store in terms of segmentation and need states was not available before. “That is what we provided. This was the first observational study of this magnitude in convenience stores."
Market Watch
More Optimistic Shoppers
Approach End-of-Year Holidays
By Lynne Cooke
American consumers plan to enter this year’s end-of-year holiday season more hopeful, resulting in greater spend than during last year’s holidays, according to new research from Information Resources, Inc (IRI). Even so, consumers are taking a more strategic approach
to shopping this year and are heading into stores with shopping lists in hand and a budget
in mind.
IRI surveyed about 1,000 households about their 2009 holiday shopping rituals and discovered other shifts in consumer behavior, such as the consumption of meals and beverages at home, purchasing private label, and bargain hunting, will also continue this holiday season.
Consumer attitudes and concerns surrounding gas prices, cost of utilities, job stability, the rise in food prices, and the recession are all seeing a decline in how these factors will affect this year's holiday shopping rituals. Consumers’ holiday shopping rituals will be less affected by economic factors than last year, especially regarding the price of food.
Principal survey findings include:
- Consumer concern about the price of food has dropped more than 20% this year (98% in 2008 versus 77% in 2009)
- Concern over the effect of gasoline prices on holiday shopping has dropped by 10%t compared to 2008
- Overall effect of the recession on shopping decisions decreased nearly 5%.
In keeping with their focus on spending time with friends and family, Americans will consume most of their meals and beverage consumption at home or at a friend’s house. Nearly two-thirds of consumers plan to eat their holiday meals at home, half plan to dine at their friends’ homes and holiday parties, and almost all plan to consume alcoholic beverages in their friends’ homes or holiday parties.
Such communal eating and drinking is actually a cost-cutting strategy and a major contributing factor to why consumers note that they plan to spend the same or less this year than in 2008 on holiday meals. More than nine of ten (94%) plan on spending no more than $500 on food and nearly the same (90%) plan on spending no more than $200 on holiday beer, wine, and spirits purchases.
To help prepare for the holiday gatherings, dollar-stretching techniques, such as list-making and private label, continue to be top of mind for shoppers. Only one of ten (11%) of consumers mention they will shop without a grocery list.
Private label is expected to again take a seat at the head of the holiday table as 90% percent of consumers make private label food an important part of the holiday meal, up from 87%
in 2008.
Grocery stores are expected to remain busy with shoppers piling in their private label selections in their grocery carts. Survey findings include: Budgeting (79%) and matched quality to name brands (60%) remain leading reasons for the switch to private label; 92% of consumers will be doing their holiday food shopping at the grocery store based on sales and discounts, product selection, and variety of items in stock.
Organic Skeptics Still Buy
Consumers of all-natural and organic foods know the reputed benefits of such products, and
if affects their shopping choices – sort of. More than 75% of consumers in a new survey
said would buy organic and all-natural products if they were priced the same as comparable leading brands.
Findings of the study conducted by Harrisburg, Pa.-based marketing agency Pavone should brighten the spirits of marketers – sort of. “Consumers are smart and getting smarter, especially in this economy,” said Pavone president Michael Pavone. “They’ve been inundated with products claiming to be all-natural or organic, so they’re naturally skeptical. It’s up to manufacturers to explain very clearly why their product meets certain criteria and why consumers should believe it.”
‘Healthy’ Teens Weigh in
Ninety-two percent of teens aged 13 to 17 say that health and a healthy lifestyle are important, according to a study from New York-based Scarborough Research. When asked to give themselves a “health report card,” three of four (76%) gave themselves a grade of B- or higher.
When these teens do turn to the Internet for information on health, they’re more likely to rely on a search engine than they are a social network. “Teens are considered to be at the forefront of social networking,” said Steve Seraita, executive director of Scarborough Research, “but, when it comes to seeking health information, we can see the power of search outweighs that of social networking. However, with half of all teens going to the Internet for health information, marketers must create a comprehensive and diversified online marketing plan -- otherwise they will miss reaching half of their target audience.”
Local Trumps Organic
Shoppers are more likely to buy locally grown fresh produce than organic of the prices are the same, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Four of ten (40%) of study respondents said they bought local produce “most times” they shopped, but only just 14% said the same for organic.
The key motivator to purchasing locally produced products was “freshness” compared with “good for health” for organic. Consumers considered both locally grown and organic “safe to eat” and suggested that growers stress this in their marketing.
Correction
In the story about Frito-Lay’s ethnographic programs earlier last month, it was originally reported that Smart Revenue conducted a recent research study for the PepsiCo unit. The study was actually conducted by Ethnographic Insights, Inc. CPGmatters regrets the error, which has since been corrected (see story below).
