Our Blog
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February 11, 2019
Food Safety – A Door Opener with Retailers
If your goal is to sell product to a food retailer, you should dive into the SQF Fundamentals Program. Take the first step in your food safety journey with our NEW convenient & affordable online course. This interactive course is perfect for small-to-medium sized businesses looking to get their foot in the door with big retailers. Learn more: http://bit.ly/2FsDAng
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February 8, 2019
“It’s easy to think about the customer, but harder to think like the customer.”
“It’s easy to think about the customer, but harder to think like the customer:”
The quote comes from Jim Smits, who has held executive-level positions with Albertsons, H-E-B, Winn-Dixie and Supervalu and now works as vice president of U.S. retailer development for technology firm Retail Solutions Inc. And it reflects not a failing of empathy on the part of retailers, he said, but rather fundamental flaws in how they process data and measure success.
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February 7, 2019
New Subscriber Connection to Nielsen
We are excited to announce the next evolution of Nielsen and FMI’s longtime partnership which will drive additional value for you. Together, as partners we have combined resources to bring industry opportunities to you such as review industry exploring the growing market trends for shopping for food and beverage online. Now, we are teaming up to offer FMI Emerge subscribers a personalized approach to understanding marketplace insights based on purchase and consumer behaviors for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) or Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost.
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February 4, 2019
FMI Emerge Subscriber Benefit from IRI
As an FMI Emerge subscriber, you will have access to:
IRI insightful articles on the Emerge private site, periodic education from IRI experts
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IRI Starter Market Measurement and Basket reports* which includes:
One free Point of Sale (POS) report (UPC in rows, Measures in Columns)
Client to select Region, State or Market level report
Client to select IRI syndicated subcategory for UPC reporting (either all category UPCs Latest 52 weeks v. Year Ago, or Top 200 per category UPC)
Standard POS measures with 10 Digit UPC, Category Name, Sub-Category Name, Parent Company Name, Manufacturer Name, Major Brand Name and Brand Name
50% discount on first purchase of retailer data (RMA report) – limited to new clients only, release of data is subject to retailer pre-approval with certain retailers -
February 3, 2019
Building A Culture of Trust and Transparency in Food Retail
In a few weeks, I’ll be traveling to Seattle for one of my favorite research projects—the ethnographic interviews that are part of our annual U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report. These interviews take place in shopper’s homes and we inquire about their grocery shopping and meal preferences. During these interviews, I love to ask participants to fill in the blank to this sentence, “I trust my grocery store to ______.” For a while, I got responses like “sell safe food,” “be clean” and “have a good assortment of food.” But in recent years, I hear more answers along the lines of “give me product information,” “know where my food comes from,” and “be good to their employees.” This shift in consumer values, uncovered in the face-to face interviews is further verified by our expansive Trends survey findings. Our research shows consumer’s reporting the following as important attributes when choosing their primary store:
Accurate information displayed (65 percent);
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Courteous, friendly employees (51 percent);
Knowledgeable employees (49 percent);
Provides information beyond the package (23 percent); and
Open and honest about business practices (48 percent).
In many ways, shoppers are looking for food retailers to have a culture of trust and transparency across their organization, which presents retailers with the challenge of how do you make transparency a vibrant part of your company identity from the C-suite all the way to the associate on the store aisle? -
January 30, 2019
The Boardroom’s Perspective of The Future of Retail
For the fourth year, FMI and Oliver Wyman have teamed up to provide thought leadership on the most pressing issues facing the food retail industry. The annual edition of Boardroom takes readers directly into the C-Suite of food retail companies and investigates issues that are top-of-mind while offering insightful ideas to FMI members and those interested in the food industry, from senior executives to new hires, on how to stay at the forefront of demanding issues.
This new edition of Boardroom, our most robust and thought provoking yet, captures what food retailers must do to survive today’s challenges and plan for those of tomorrow. In 2018, FMI worked with members to develop and introduce its emerging issues initiative to support their long-term planning. We brought together a cohesive set of insights on the obstacles retailers will have to overcome in the next few years, making it easier for retailers and their trading partners to plan for their collective and successful future. Many of these emerging issues have been embedded into this year’s Boardroom. Here’s a look at what we’re covering in 2019:
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January 21, 2019
Finds from the Fancy Food Show San Francisco 2019
On the first day of the Fancy Food Show, I read the Show Daily lead story pointing me to highlights of global flavors, cuisines and functional ingredients that the article said I would find throughout the show. Within minutes, while staring on the second floor in the New-to-the-Shelf section, I found exactly what the article highlighted! I quickly found flavors from Africa, Latin America and South Asia.
My first find was a shelf-stable set of Indian Curries from Meal Mantra. The emerging brand started in Commonwealth Kitchen and kept moving with their product line. Their Tikka Masala was a delicious, smooth and creamy sauce which is a staple found in almost every Indian restaurant around the world. Authentic taste and a very easy meal to prepare when you are in a hurry. In the same startup section, I also found Don Chili0 by Kreative Gourmet who had an interesting chili crisp.
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January 20, 2019
The Importance of Transparency and How Does Transparency Differ Across Demographic/Generational Segments?
Consumers want a closer connection to food. Explore what shoppers expect from their grocery store in the way of transparency.
“Transparency is an imperative for growing consumer trust and loyalty.” These wise words are offered by FMI’s Doug Baker, vice president, industry relations in assessing The Transparency Imperative research study released in September by FMI, with support from Label Insight. This research looks at product labeling and transparency from the consumer perspective and why brand owners should care. Here are some key questions that this research addresses.
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January 18, 2019
Food Retail Outlook for 2019 from Retail Leader
From Retail Leader By Mike Troy – 01/11/2019 See the Story on Retail Leaders here.
Food retailing is the last sector of retail to experience digital disruption, but the industry is making up for lost time. Since Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods in Aug. 2017 there has been a flurry of activity with all sort of innovation, acquisitions and new initiatives. Here’s five ways food retailing will change in 2019.
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Top Trends in Fresh: Hyperlocalization, New Supply Chains and Prepared Food
There’s nothing stale about the fresh category in retail, which is arguably turning the food retail business on its head. It’s the ultimate disruptive category when it comes to competing for share of the food retail business.
Disruption
Food retailers will continue to find ways to distinguish their businesses in the marketplace by focusing on fresh. Even after years of growth, fresh foods segments are being tapped for bigger space allocations in the store over the next two years, given that shoppers continue to gravitate toward these categories, per the 2018 U.S. Food Retailing Industry Speaks operations survey. Our research suggests that retailers have found ways to further engage consumers and differentiate with fresh foods, better-for-you categories, and private brands, among key growth segments. They are advancing same-store sales and planning new investments in their businesses.The latest trends in localization, supply chain methods and prepared foods include how to win within each meal prep state and how the most successful retailers integrate them all the ways in which CPG manufacturers and retailers are using various tactics to accelerate sales in the perimeter.
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January 16, 2019
Grocery Retail Vocabulary for Emerging Brands
Communication is key to success, and every industry has its own language. Successful brands know that there are common and not-so-common terms, specific to the Grocery Retail Industry, and speaking a common language is essential to developing effective relationships and processes with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. We have organized some common Grocery Retail terms that your team will need to better acquaint yourself with the industry. Being well-versed in these will help your company successfully maneuver as you seek increased grocery retail distribution.
We have compiled terms and definitions for industry-lingo such as blind ordering, bracket pricing, broken case price (BCP), BOGO, failure fee, in-line product reclamation, center turnover buying, work-back calculation and more.
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January 15, 2019
Pressing Question – Are You Operational Ready for $100 Billion Food and Beverage Online?
The age of the digitally engaged food shopper has arrived, with each day seeing more shoppers moving from experimenting with online food shopping to fully embracing it. Total digital maturation in online grocery shopping is a mere five to seven years away according to research prepared by FMI and Nielsen.
We all know that. This research indicates consumers could be spending as much as $100 billion on online groceries by 2022. Within the next five to seven years, 70 percent of U.S. consumers will regularly purchase consumer packaged goods online.
Consumers today have tools that give them access to detailed information about the products they are looking for. Those digital tools also enable them to buy the products and services they want in ways that are disrupting the traditional food retail model.
Research from Nielsen and FMI over the last three years indicate that not all food retailers are as prepared as we could be to meet the needs of the digitally engaged food shopper and are at risk of missing the opportunity to serve this growing sector.
This past year, FMI’s initiatives to supply food retail with the information it needs to rise to the digital challenge has been enhanced with help from new partners like AT Kearney, Eversight, Precima and the NPD Group.
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New Report: FMI Evaluates the Power and Focus on Shopper Health and Well-Being at Retail
Food Marketing Institute Foundation today unveils a pre-release of its 2019 Power of Health and Well-being in Food Retail, an exploration into the consumer mindset of what wellness means to them and what they expect from their grocery stores. The analysis explores the broader definition of “well-being,” as food retailers are increasingly perceived as an ally in their shoppers’ pursuits of health.
Sue Borra, RD, FMI chief health and wellness officer and executive director of the FMI Foundation, suggested that the overall topic of health and wellness is gradually expanding into “health and well-being.” Borra said, “Wellness is still a highly relevant term for our industry, but well-being has a broader definition, including aspects such as emotional health, energy levels, and sleep behaviors.”
“At FMI, health and well-being is a core competency and practice that influences the very fiber of our programs – from mining consumer insights across all areas of the store and online to strategizing about shopper expectations from retail. The Power of Health and Well-being at Retail tells a dynamic story of how food retailers are meeting consumer desires for taste and enjoyment, discovery and mindful connection.”
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Podcast: Walmart’s Consumer Strategy
In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast, Sam Glick, Partner in the Health & Life Sciences practice at Oliver Wyman, chats with Marcus Osborne, Walmart’s Vice President of Health Transformation, about consumer purchasing behavior.
KEY TAKEAWAY
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Marcus Osborne @Walmart: “What a consumer just wants to know is, ‘Is this healthy or not?’”
Walmart’s Findings on Healthcare Waste
Marcus says a third of what’s spent on healthcare is wasted, maybe not needed, and perhaps even harmful. “We’re spending 18 percent of national GDP on healthcare, which means 6 percent of our entire national GDP you could go out and set on fire,” he adds. -
January 4, 2019
Life in the Fast Lane with Private Brands
Private brands have become full-fledged brands in their own right, as evidenced by 69 percent of consumers saying it’s very or somewhat important to have a good assortment of private brands in food and beverage. These own-brand products continue to make strides and hit an upward growth trajectory again.
As consumers continue to explore new products based more on attributes and less on the brand providing them, retailers are quickly positioning their own brands to differentiate as a competitive strategy. The FMI Private Brand Leadership Council stays on top of these trends with the second release of the Power of Private Brands research. To dive deeper into private brand topics and insights throughout the year, the council broke up the research into four separate releases:
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December 28, 2018
FMI’s Strategic X’s and O’s in 2018
By Leslie Sarasin, President and CEO, Food Marketing Institute
One of life’s most fundamental lessons in strategy probably came when we learned the traps and tricks of the childhood game tic-tac-toe. Who doesn’t remember a mournful defeat suffered because we were so eagerly aligning “X’s” in a winning posture that we forgot to protect ourselves from those pesky “O’s?” The lesson of giving balanced attention to both offense and defense likely had to be adapted and re-learned as our games grew in complexity – from tic-tac-toe to checkers to chess and beyond. And even now as we face the intrigues of succeeding in business, we find we still must contend with monitoring our desire to move forward with our need to defend what we’ve achieved. We still are learning how to juggle offense and defense, ensuring that the zeal of winning and the fear of losing does not blind us, resulting in an over-focus on one, to the detriment of the other.
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December 17, 2018
Emerge Smarter: e-Commerce – What are Upcoming Changes with selling on Amazon? Join us Jan. 8th
Join in an open call format where Betsy McGinn will provide an overview of recent and upcoming changes in eCommerce and specifically at Amazon in an open forum discussion. eCommerce represents one of the best opportunities for emerging brands to forge their path to market. Ask questions and share your brand’s e-commerce experiences.
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December 16, 2018
Developing a Strong Broker Network to Grow Your Sales
Building and Maximizing Your Broker Relations to Increase Your Sales
We recently sat down with three seasoned broker professionals to get their wisdom on building an and maximizing broker relationships. Here are some pearls of wisdom:
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December 13, 2018
The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Food Retail
Doug Baker, Vice President, Industry Relations – Private Brands, Technology for Food Marketing Institute interviewing David Moran, co-founder and chairman of Eversight A lot of futuristic movies and TV shows portray a society where robots or Artificial Intelligence (AI) take on a lot of the more mundane tasks in society. In Star Trek you can order a meal from a […]
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December 5, 2018
IRI and FMI Top Trends in Fresh – Through Consumers’ Eyes
Dive into this webinar and you will gain insight into how holistic health and convenience trends are evolving through the voice of the consumer and how these trends differ across generations. During this webinar, you’ll learn: How different generations are shopping, including where millennials are outspending other generations; The types of products consumers are looking […]
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