Circana Growth Insights

#159 - Innovation and Inspiration: Takeaways from the IDDBA Show

How can you use the biggest takeaways from the 2024 International Dairy Deli Bakery Association (IDDBA) show in June to help your business succeed? Jonna Parker, team lead of Circana’s Fresh Foods Group, and Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, share highlights of new technologies, the challenges of balancing assortments by generational differences, the value of special occasions, and other lessons you should know for the rest of the year and beyond.

Highlights:

• In addition to major holidays, consumers celebrate an average of 18 occasions annually. These events not only include more people, but they also represent moments when shoppers are willing to splurge to bring joy to others. Retailers are responding with more solutions and inspiration, from party trays to specialty baked goods.
• Innovation isn’t always about new. Brands and retailers should inspire consumers to use products they’re already buying in new ways.
• Technology can potentially offset labor challenges, but including high-touch offerings like hot bars and salad bars should be decided on a store-by-store or regional basis. Not all areas will support the investment.

#158 - What’s the Deal with Dupes?

Dupes, or replicas, of premium products are having a moment. Fueled by high inflation and turbocharged by social media, dupes are being purchased and touted with pride by U.S. consumers attracted to high-quality, low-priced items. Circana analysts Maggie Swiatkowski, Kristen Classi-Zummo, and Beth Goldstein illustrate how dupes are playing out across categories from apparel, accessories, and beauty to consumer tech, home goods, and food. Is this the dawn of a new era for private brands?

Highlights:

• While dupes appeal to consumers of all ages, younger consumers are the most enthusiastic, given their strong engagement with social media.
• More than half of consumers have purchased a dupe and most would buy another.
• Even the products being duped benefit from the exposure and comparison of the replicas.

#157 - Lean Into Consumers’ Desire to Escape

Nostalgia, inspiration, and self-care are trends driving consumer escapism. Inspired by her report, The Great Escape: Exploring the Rise of the Joy Economy, Kristen McLean, senior executive director of Circana’s Entertainment Knowledge group, highlights opportunities for connecting to consumers’ desire for escapism. Also important, she reviews what not to do.

Highlights:

• Consumers are looking to escape negativity in the world. The joy economy provides manufacturers and retailers with the opportunity to serve consumers a positive experience.
• By putting the consumer at the center of decision-making, brands and retailers can benefit from participating in the joy economy. When done authentically, they can increase consumer loyalty.
• Younger consumers are looking for a deeper dialogue with brands. They are particularly more vocal about their expectations. Listening to these engaged consumers can fuel ideas for more meaningful connections.

#156 - Strategies to Maintain New Product Momentum

There are four key principles fueling successful innovation beyond launch: distribution growth, trial, marketing support, and product expansion. None of these should be considered stand-alone strategies. Lisa Maas, principal and lead for Circana’s Innovation practice, shares examples from New Product Pacesetters on how to achieve growth in the years after launch.

Highlights:

• Table stakes should include setting the right expectations for sales and distribution.
• Marketing and support investment might ease from a peak of 25% of sales in year one. But support, easily in the 6% range, should continue.
• Retailers will continue to monitor the ability of products to keep shoppers coming back. New forms, new occasions, and moving into adjacencies are easy ways for consumers to remain loyal to preferred brands.

#155 - Emotions and Inflation Impact Consumer Choices

Consumers continue to feel the pinch of inflation. While food remains a priority, consumers face tough choices when making any purchases, but emotions also impact their decisions. Jonna Parker, principal, fresh foods, and Darren Seifer, industry advisor, consumer goods and foodservice insights, discuss the consumer mindset and how competition for the food dollar plays out across food destinations, channels, and stores. 

Highlights: 

• Heat-and-eat and items and cooking sauces for easy meals are rising in demand. Consumers want to shave cooking time, but they don’t want to compromise on taste or experience. 
• Content creators have introduced consumers to the versatility of cottage cheese. Opportunities exist to reframe categories and inspire consumers. 
• Donut sales are up and not just because they’re a fun morning treat. Donuts have what CPG consumers are looking for: they’re portable, convenient, ready-to-eat, and satisfying across dayparts.
• Consumers seek convenience, but they are agnostic about where they purchase. Cooked, and often shredded, chicken is showing up as a winner across channels, including club, grocery, super centers, and specialty grocers. 

#154 - Beverage Alcohol Consumption Reveals a Generational Divide

Beverage alcohol consumption has changed dramatically in recent years. The pandemic impacted the way people consumed adult beverages, and younger consumers aged 21 and older are driving consumption of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage alcohol products. Scott Scanlon, executive vice president of Circana’s Beverage Alcohol practice, provides insight into these changes and the outlook for 2024 and beyond.

Highlights: 

• Typically, as adults aged 21 and older begin drinking, their first choices are beer or wine. More recently, young adults aged 21 and older are starting with RTD beverages, particularly spirits-based options.
• Despite the vast array of beverage choices, beverage alcohol consumption is softening across generations. However, premium beverages are still showing growth.
• Much of the allure of RTD beverage alcohol among younger consumers is with packaging, including on-the-go options like ball form, slim cans, and aseptic packaging.
• Whiskey, tequila, spirits-based RTDs, and imported beer from Mexico continue to fuel the beverage alcohol market.

#153 - CPG Growth Leaders: Learn From the Best

Our distribution, velocity, and penetration data, along with other metrics, shows us the top CPG Growth Leaders. But by listening to and observing the top companies, we can identify successful integrating strategies. Circana’s Sally Lyons Wyatt, global executive vice president and chief advisor, consumer goods and foodservice insights, and Cara Loeys, principal, corporate CPG thought leadership, describe how the annual CPG Growth Leaders report is developed and share insights for CPG companies large and small.

Highlights: 

• Companies have differing challenges based on their portfolios, which is why we study sales. While successful companies are laser focused on the consumer, they differ in how they leverage other strategies, including integrated engagement, continuous newness, the premium-value bifurcation, and embedding artificial intelligence.
• Newness with a twist is a better way to view innovation, given that changes can be small but prescriptive to meet consumer needs or even illuminate new usage and consumption occasions.
• Growth in a challenging market is hard to achieve, but truly integrating strategies provides the path to success.

#152 - How Private Brands Are Gaining Share

In 2023, CPG private labels grew dollar and unit sales thanks to the unique confluence of retailers investing in their own brands and consumers facing high inflation. Mary Ellen Lynch, principal of Circana’s center store solutions practice, discusses private brand shoppers and what they’re looking for. 

Highlights: 

• While consumers of all affluency levels buy private brands, households with children, as well as millennial and Gen X households with no children, are top purchasers of private brands. 
• Shoppers have price memory for their favorite brands and want to get as close to those former prices as possible. This puts pantry items in the domain of private brands, which are gaining share within salty snacks, long dominated by name brands. 
• Retailers continue to support their mainstream brands with marketing that reinforces their premium features: convenience, health, how products fit with the way consumers cook, elevated flavors, and quality experiences. 

#151 - CPG Retail Is Rethinking the Competition

Our expansion of multi-outlet data, MULO+, increases point-of-sale (POS) coverage 15%, providing 90% accuracy of CPG dollar sales sourced from census POS data. Jonna Parker, Team Lead, Circana’s Fresh Foods Group, and Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, share a glimpse of this new, expanded view of the competitive grocery landscape. Discover why it’s critical for retailers to understand the go-to-market approach taken by all channels to determine their point of differentiation.

Highlights:

• Consumers shop up to an average of 12 retailers, including club, value, mass merchandisers, and traditional retail. Chances are, all will have the fresh basics. Don’t assume traditional grocery is the first choice for fresh. 
• With big box retailers and club stores focused on everyday low prices, high-low pricing in traditional grocery retail doesn’t drive the trips it once did. 
• Most Americans celebrate 18 food-focused occasions each year. Retailers need to think beyond the big holidays to surprise, delight, and support shoppers. 
• Data from early 2024 shows that people are eating more meals at home, but they’re not necessarily cooking from scratch. Learn how retailers can best support hybrid meals. 

#150 - The Diversity Advantage

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in business has positive benefits for workers, for business results, and for people and communities engaging with these businesses. Cecilia Ogude, Circana’s senior vice president, Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, breaks down the benefits and talks about what’s missing without DEI. 

• Diversity doesn’t just focus on one element or group and doesn’t diminish the value of one group over another. It includes and supports everyone.  
• Equity – not equality – gives everyone access to opportunities.  
• Inclusion allows individuals the freedom to bring their lived experiences to their work, contributing to a rich corporate tapestry.  
• Without support for DEI, businesses stand to lose a connection among employees, leading to reduced collaboration and innovation.