“Diversification of Target”: Pulling in Gen Y August 11, 2008
Posted by mintelflavorinsights in Uncategorized.Tags: branding, Gen Y
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Of the sessions I attended during the event, I found the presentation on “Generation Y” by Lisa Strick and Kara Nielsen of the Center for Culinary Development among the most interesting. Also called “Millennials”, the young people that make up the next generation could be an enormous opportunity for marketers. As Mintel has published in reports such as “Spending Power of the Teen Consumer,” the younger generation spends more today on dining out at restaurants and coffee shops. In their presentation, CCD supported their points with findings from both quantitative – of 1000 participants between the ages of 16-28 – and qualitative studies of representative US samples.
Lisa and Kara tried to help the audience understand some of intangibles involved in Gen Y – how they think, what they find appealing, and how restaurant operators can use these insights to attract this challenging demographic. Young people present a puzzle: they value uniqueness yet want to be part of the “in” crowd; they value personalization yet want ubiquitous brands like Apple and Nike; and they are frequently isolated yet constantly communicate (via text messaging, Twitter, IM’ing, Facebook, etc).
Recession Proof Strategy & Branding August 7, 2008
Posted by mintelflavorinsights in Uncategorized.Tags: branding, comfort food, economic environment
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“Kathy & Cathy” (Hayden and Holley, respectively) appropriately titled their Tuesday morning presentation “Quick Flavor Development Trends Update”. While they covered a good deal of ground in just thirty minutes, a few points on the recession economic downturn jumped out at me. In particular, I believe they succinctly pointed to a few strategies operators and others can employ to keep their business healthy during tough times, including:
- The use of comfort foods connected, either via flavor or preparation (possibly even in the name of the dish), with a sense of nostalgia and memories of better times.
- “Heightening the humble” nature of food by stressing simple ingredients.
- Encouraging diners to splurge, and defining your brand by positioning your restaurant as a destination, where customers will go to spoil themselves (thus potentially offsetting reduced visits with bigger tickets).
- Employing the “bite & sip” theory by offering a small-plates portion of the menu (which research shows increases the average order value as customers order several small plates rather than sharing a single dish).
I found all of the ideas above interesting, in particular the point about comfort and humility. The former seems to be a popular topic this week, while the latter implies some anxiety about consumer backlash. Which seems reasonable, as many Americans may worry first about how much gas it will take to drive to dinner much less how much to spend on an entree.
