What a great webinar I sat in on yesterday! The Food Institute presented “Eating In,” based on a new 2,000 household survey from The NPD Group that was packed with insights and stats about the challenges consumers face around mealtimes, and what food manufacturers and retailers can do about it. NPD is one of the first websites I turn to when looking for housewares and cooking trends, so I figured it would be an hour well-spent. And I was right.
The overall premise of the survey is that consumers are looking for meal solutions, not just product info that can’t be translated into practical applications.
Here are some of the points that struck a chord with me:
- The average cost per person of an in-home meal is $2.36 vs. $6.37 from a restaurant.
- Convenience is still the golden rule for home cooks (as if we haven’t heard this stressed enough over the years). Mealtime starts before the pantry door is opened and it isn’t finished until the dishes are done. That’s a key reason that menus have become simpler and the definition of an “eat-at-home” evening meal has expanded to include the full range of options: ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat, ready-to-cook, and scratch ingredients.
- The web continues to play a critical role in the way consumers plan their meals and in reaching the people who influence the decision-making. Consumers are trying to do more pre-planning when it comes to meals and they are looking for help – which makes online planning tools and recipe widgets more important than ever.
- As for reaching the decision-makers, we all know that moms are a huge target market. What we don’t hear as much about is that they are primarily basing their meal decisions on requests from their own family members. NPD says that family requests are the most valued source of meal-planning ideas, trumping cookbooks and store flyers. Which is why Facebook and Twitter should always be factored into the marketing equation since they are used by moms and kids alike.
- Mealtime planning gets especially complex for families at dinnertime, when everyone is on a different schedule and has varying food preferences to boot. How can moms bring all these variables together and still come up with a meal that’s healthy, flavorful and prepared quickly? Enter the web, and a call to develop more online planning tools for families that make it fun – even educational – for family members to contribute to meal planning.
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