Tasty Bytes!

My taste buds apart, thanks to my profession as a culinary marketer, ‘Foods’ has been a recent area of interest. To put things into perspective, ‘Foods’ is among the largest industries worldwide and one of the fastest growing categories in India thanks to the favorable demographics & emergence of organized retail formats.

Trends evolve as patterns emerging in the macro-fabric of a society – reflective on the one-hand of its intuitive background whilst serving as a harbinger of the future on the other.

Certainly representative of the changing scenario, the Indian food trends culminate into a patch-worked dynamic mosaic originating from varied blocks bubbling, swelling and finally bursting into smaller homogeneous blocks; each with a colour of its own. Here’s my reading of the current scenario…

Capitalising on Home Entertainment

*‘Food cocooning’- Resurgence of family dinners and parties. Consumers re-create pleasurable and even sensual culinary experiences in their own dining rooms.

*‘Staycation’- Vacations in which people stay at home and take advantage of cheaper entertainment options like watching DVDs or sports matches.

Digital Dining

Rise of food-based phone applications viz. social networking, food by mail, online reservations

Eat Global, Buy Local
International single-cuisine restaurants are mostly out. Over a decade, the only restaurant format that really seems to have survived is multi-cuisine.

The irony is that the Indian lack of interest in finished foods is inverted when the food is in a can or bottle, and comes with a foreign label. International food in the form of the ingredients & packaged foods are flooding shops.

Eat Indian, Western Format

*Indian market at a critical mass for investment justification in new customized product solutions.

*Rise of ‘Made for India’ label.

Traditional Inside,Exotic Outside

New product launches in the snack segment – Exotic style flavours as preferred differentiators in line with consumer preference.

Comfort Foods
The food we think of when we hear the word homemade, and the food that reminds us of simpler times- Soup / Pasta sauces- Pizza- Fruit pies & cup cakes- Chocolate chip cookies.

Health & Nutrition Trend
Health - a priority issue for consumers: Calorie-reduced & fat-free as important consumer benefits.

Natural Drive
Flagging the absence of artificial colours, preservatives and flavours goes some way to dispelling consumers' concerns regarding ingredients like MSG (linked to increased rates of cancer).

Multipurpose makes inroads

*Consumers must make do with less, so products that serve several needs growing in popularity.

*More beverages labeled as snacks and snacks positioned as meals.

Exploring the ‘On the Go’ space
*Time spent out of home increasing.

*Rise in product formats to satisfy hunger ”on-the go”.

Sense Appeal & Local Motions

*After fresh, crunch is the new menu marketing claim on fine-dining menus.

*A new & diverse list of descriptors—local, artisan, seasonal, house-made, handmade, natural & organic—are increasingly being used to signal freshness, high quality, authenticity, and better flavor.

Custom Foods
Companies will need to interact with their customers so closely that they actually "co-create" value with them on an individual basis.— C K Prahalad in his book 'The New Age of Innovation', 2008.

Meet you at the supermarket

Restaurant chains are getting their brands onto those tables with supermarket products. Look for even more chains to move into the world of retail food as they seek new channels of distribution.

As the trends further emerge & re-merge... catch a bite of those 'Tasty Bytes'!

References drawn:

1. Mintel Group publications

2. India Knowledge@Wharton

3. nutritionunpugged.com

4. Tetrapak publications

5. Media publications