Foodservice Trends 2021 Part 2: How the ‘You’niverse has changed
Thanks all for the positive response to the previous article, on the first segment of our foodservice 2021 trends wheel, where we looked at the emerging and embedded trends in the marketplace. For the full report, download for free here: www.coverpoint.co.uk.
This week we will be putting the foodservice customer under the microscope to discover what is now making them tick, what is exciting them and what they will take with them out of ‘lockdown’.
In the same way that the ‘marketplace trends omelette’ had three ingredients (experience, function and design), the ‘consumer trends pizza’ also has three toppings. These are Wellness, Shifting Values and Connections. So, for an insight into what your customer wants, read on…….
Wellness in terms of foodservice, yeah – it’s all about smoothies and frozen yoghurt right? Correct, so let’s move on to the next subject. Actually, hold on, things have changed… Wellness is about far more than simply healthy options, although it does include this. It also covers everything physical, psychological and mental. Not only that but ‘Planetary Wellness’ is also large contributor to ’Personal Wellness’ for many. A significant part of Wellness which has come to the fore during these pandemic times is, Mental Health Wellness and we are encouraged to discuss our feelings and worries more openly now than at any time in the past. This is a move in the right direction when you consider the number of people living with Mental Illness and who now have more opportunity to find help.
Downloads of Wellness apps have increased by 24% (last April) in the UK where they equated to around 10 million. The foodservice industry has not been quiet (literally) in bringing this to the fore, with a personal favourite of the Coverpoint Team being the KFC ASMR website where you can de-stress to the sound of sizzling chicken or bubbling gravy. A more direct mental health awareness project appeared in Manchester, UK where the ‘Feel Good Club’ opened. This is a Mental Health Café which employs mental health first aid trained staff and has a secret code if you need to use it. We really do seem to be living in more compassionate times and we are hopeful that this will continue into 2021 and beyond. We support many of our clients in developing buzzing, active and exciting spaces. Looking at things more holistically, should assets also provide spaces where people can take a break from the sensory overload? If they do, foodservice spaces could support this by providing a retreat from the activity outside.
That leads us nicely on to the next ‘topping’ – Shifting Values. What we mean by this is the customers’ revaluation of what is important in their lives. As with Wellness, many people took 2020 to reassess every aspect of who they were, what they did, what effect it had on their environment, why and what value they place on things. What popped out of this self-inspection was a general feeling of social consciousness, sustainable focus and a realisation that material wealth is important but maybe not as important as we were always led to believe. When we look at surveys stating that 30% of people will reappraise the value they place on ‘things’ and 71% say that they will lose trust in a brand that has obviously put profit before people, it is obvious that society will have shifted priorities after all this is over. This has been highlighted in our industry by some real heroes (and villains but let’s not mention them). Brewdog make a regular appearance in our trends books purely because they are always surfing the edge of the trends wave (and I love beer). In this case, they have offered many of their closed pubs for use as vaccine centres (with a free beer included) and shifted a large amount of their production into making hand sanitiser. In fact so many restaurants and foodservice outlets have offered services and products to carers and the needy, that they are far too many to mention. This is amazing and I would like to add Coverpoint’s voice to the many thanking all health and front-line workers throughout the world. More importantly though, we expect consumers to remember and recognise this in their future purchase decisions.
Last but certainly not least is the Consumer Connections trend. It could be argued that the previous two trends have been moving forward steadily in the last 4 or 5 years. In fact, in our 2018 foodservice trends book, we discussed clean green (sustainable and healthy eating) and better business (where purpose and profit come together) so these are good examples of trends which have become more embedded and strengthened by the 2020 lockdown. However, the importance of connections was not really a ‘thing’. No one really shouted about social connections in the foodservice world; we all knew that this was the raison d’etre of a large segment of the industry. It’s always been about connections. Most of us haven’t seen a large number of family or friends for the best part of a year, never mind the guy at the supermarket self-checkout who you used to chat with every Saturday morning (Darius, I hope you are staying well, my friend). We are all human and we all need connections. We forgot about this for a while but not anymore. Not only have we seen a massive upsurge of online beer festivals and wine tasting along with the fitness, quizzes and dating (how?) but also we have seen companies who are ‘in this with us’ such as Burger King who offered to help independent operators by letting them advertise on their Instagram account.
On the whole, this has turned out to be a far more ‘positive pizza’ than maybe we had first envisaged. There are many things happening that make me feel like the world might be changing for the better. Call me a hopeless optimist but lets see how this pans out…….
For lots of great ‘In Practice’ examples and an all-round jolly good read, please make sure to download our trends book (www.coverpoint.co.uk). Over the next week or so, I will also be tackling the final section of the foodservice trends wheel, namely Supply – watch this space.