B2B | Shopper Connection | April 2010
Hunt's Brings Innovation to the Ketchup Category
Moms nowadays are looking for better-for-you products for their families. They want simple recipes, natural ingredients and quality at a fair price.
Hunt’s All-Natural Ketchup will inject vitality into a category that is hungry for innovation and growth. It provides the product attributes that consumers desire most. For example, recent research indicates 56% of households are concerned about high fructose corn syrup1. The new recipe does not contain HFCS or any artificial ingredients to enhance the flavor of delicious Hunt’s tomatoes.
Hunt’s All-Natural Ketchup will now only have these completely natural ingredients:
• Tomatoes
• Natural Sugar
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Garlic and other associated spices.
To maintain the brand’s best-in-class value, there will not be a price increase for the new ketchup. It will be offered in 7 sizes, including the only truly national branded 24-oz. option, a size used by 45% of U.S. households.
Hunt’s will drive awareness with expanded advertising and promotion. In store, opportunities include feature and display on 24-oz. ketchup during the launch period and Memorial Day holiday, as well as for all summer holiday periods.
1 Shopper Fact Sheet, October 2008, the Hartman Group, Inc.
Bringing Fresh Ideas to Shelf Stable
Since 1988, traditional grocery stores have lost 53 percent of their market share to other classes of trade, "leaking" shoppers to warehouse clubs, dollar stores, supercenters and limited assortment stores. Now more than ever, retailers must be tightly linked as strategic partners to find creative ways to maintain shopper loyalty.
Family Fun Spices Up October
Having an in-depth understanding of moms’ needs for hearty meal solutions and creative family gatherings during the October time frame has helped ConAgra Foods and retailers broaden the scope of the season to encompass more than just football or Halloween. Working with one major retailer, ConAgra Foods set out to focus on October as a season of transformation, driving significant results.
Fall is the Familiar Routine Time
During the fall month shoppers tend to stock up on easy-to-plan, hearty family meal favorites. Moms are more creative, and networks with neighbors for easy solutions before the holiday "storm".
U.S. consumers spend about 7 seconds per product when choosing what to buy in a supermarket. Consider that:
• Messages about how to juggle work, home, family, personal time dominate the media.
• Consumers increasingly live “jigsaw lives”, with one person having multiple roles.
• Formal meal occasions continue to drop, as grab-and-go activity increases.
• Input overload and the ever-growing proliferation of choice results in a confused, exhausted consumer.
Mintel International Group Limited. Shelf-stable Meals and Meal Kits - US - October 2008
Seasons Change
Grills, back-to-school supplies, Halloween costumes and Christmas decorations were all once reliable profit generators for supermarkets. But it's no secret that the advent of supercenters, dollar stores and discount formats has put the squeeze on the seasonal merchandise category.
Holidays Need Not Be Dismal
Fourth-quarter holidays and events used to be simpler and a lot less expensive. In times past, back-to-school was about anticipation and less about buying the latest fashion trend. Halloween was about kids' fun activities — making a costume, carving a pumpkin, innocent trick-or-treats — and less about turning your front yard into a Universal Studios horror lot to keep up with the Jones' spectacle down the block.
Kowalski’s Boo Bash
Kowalski's Markets' Boo Bash, a Halloween event for children, attracts bigger crowds each year, officials said. All nine Kowalski's units participated on the same evening this Halloween, and kids — with parents in tow — numbered anywhere from hundreds to 1,000 per store.
Convenience Continuum
Food retailers are testing planograms that group shelf-stable convenient meals together, rather than with their category parent.
Make Room for Meal Solutions
High-traffic departments like meat and produce are prime real estate for meal solutions. Progressive retailers are capitalizing on this notion by cross-merchandising everything from proteins and vegetables to shelf-stable sides, spices and even serving platters.
Cool Customer
Retailers have been responding to new consumer emphasis on convenience and value in prepared foods by offering grab-and-go versions of their most popular dishes and sides. Doing so is no easy feat, as retailers who offer these convenient solutions for customers must also ensure that these meals and dishes can be merchandised appealingly, and maintain their quality and integrity in a grab-and-go cooler.
To ensure you continue to receive ConAgra Foods e-mails, please add [email protected] to your address book.
©ConAgra Foods, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ConAgra Foods, One ConAgra Drive, Omaha, NE 68102