Capitalizing On New Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Consumption Patterns

Published by: Datamonitor

Published: Sep. 25, 2006

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The hot topic

The future decoded

Time pressured consumers are prone to skipping main meals

Meals are increasingly consumed out-of-home

Consumers are increasingly eating lighter main meals

There are age and gender variances in the propensity to skip meals

Breakfasts are increasingly informal, lighter, and are important for consumers' overall wellbeing

Lunches are increasingly informal, lighter and consumed in a broader range of locations

Evening meals are increasingly diverse and contradictory in nature

Convenience and health-driven consumption is detracting from mealtime enjoyment

Health increasingly impacts all meal occasions

Action points

CHAPTER 2 THE FUTURE DECODED

Introduction

TREND: Time pressured consumers are prone to skipping main meals

Europeans and North American consumers skip more than 15 per cent of breakfasts

Breakfast is more commonly skipped in Europe

Skipping lunch is most common in the US and is missed less often in Europe

Dinners are also being skipped more frequently

TREND: Meals are increasingly consumed out-of-home

Convenience is the biggest driver of out-of-home consumption

Breakfast is mostly consumed in-home, but out-of home growth is higher

Lunch is the most frequently consumed out-of-home meal

Most dinners are eaten in-home, though out-of-home growth is strong

TREND: Consumers are increasingly eating lighter main meals

Light meals are consumer defined but do share common characteristics

Convenience and health are driving the trend towards light meals

Light meal consumption can be associated with grazing throughout the day

Light meal consumption is highest at breakfast and lunch

Consumers are also increasingly eating light meals in-between main meals

There is a trend towards ""light meal snack occasions""

New and emerging occasions exist in light of dissolving dayparts

INSIGHT: There are age and gender variances in the propensity to skip meals

Young adults and early mid-lifers are most prone to skipping main meals

Consumers aged 14-34 skip over 100 breakfasts per year in many countries

Males are more likely to skip meals than females

Ethnicity also affects propensity to skip breakfast

INSIGHT: Breakfasts are increasingly informal, lighter, and are important for consumers' overall wellbeing

The majority of breakfasts are still eaten at-home

Breakfasts are increasingly characterized by speed and informality

The growth of cereal bars reflects the trend towards convenience

Cereal remains a popular, convenient choice

Breakfast is increasingly defined as light by consumers

Skipping meals, especially breakfast has a negative affect on performance and other broader lifestyle factors

Eating breakfast is associated better overall daily nutritient intake

Breakfast is associated with better physical performance and general healthier behaviors

Eating breakfast helps individuals maintain a healthy weight

Skipping meals leads to a spike in insulin levels

INSIGHT: Lunches are increasingly informal, lighter and consumed in a broad range of locations

Lunch is typically consumed away-from-home

Lunch occasions are increasingly informal

Lunch is when consumers are most likely to eat a light meal

INSIGHT: Evening meals are increasingly diverse and contradictory in nature

Consumers are keen to simplify the meal preparation and consumption process

Work-life balance problems impact consumer lifestyles, including meal habits

Mealtime preparation is one of the major lifestyle activities affected by lack of time and work-life balance problems

Preparation and consumption time is typically kept to a minimum

Time pressed consumers turn to prepared meals in the evening

Mealtime informality reflects the growth of prepared meals

Making prepared meals healthier and enhancing sensory appeal will boost usage occasions further

Bulk-buying of dinners is a new phenomenon that is taking the US by storm

Dinners are becoming lighter

There has been a conscious effort to re-prioritize evening meals

The evening meal is when parents want to facilitate proper family time

Consumers are seeking to improve their work-life balance

Preparing a home-cooked meal is still considred important, even if consumers are doing it less

INSIGHT: Convenience and health driven consumption is detracting from mealtime enjoyment

Excitement and enjoyment are vital factors influencing mealtime consumption choices

Consumers are not always excited by their mealtime choices making them disengaged shoppers

Those who enjoy cooking are also those who enjoy eating

INSIGHT: Health increasingly impacts all meal occasions

Pursuing a better diet is equated with better mental and physical wellbeing

Consumers are reporting a growing propensity to eat healthily

Consumers report difficulties eating healthily away from home

There is a strong need emerging for healthy and convenient meal solutions

Consumers struggle to satisfy their needs for healthy and convenient food solutions when out-of-home

A broad range of nutritional concerns characterize today's consumers

Consumers are seeking more information on healthy eating

Conclusion

CHAPTER 3 ACTION POINTS

Introduction

ACTION: Target the health and wellness trend in mealtime consumption

Create ""better for you products"" with a focus on what's added and what's removed

Clearly communicate 'better for you' product development techniques in order to (re)gain consumer trust

Educate consumers against the pitfalls of skipping meals, especially breakfast

Bring breakfast into consumers' consciousness

Make health a key focal point with future prepared meal innovations

Become an information resource for healthy living

Embrace interactive online content in a more creative way

Satisfy the unfulfilled demand for healthy and convenient food

Extend brands with already established health credentials

ACTION: Seek to bring the enjoyment factor back into food preparation and consumption

Consider how to get consumers more engaged in the meal preparation process

Encourage experimentation by using celebrity chefs and 'persuasive advertising'

Use sampling campaigns to alleviate consumers quality concerns

Embrace sensory and experiential marketing

Bring brands to life through campaigns that offer ""branded experiences""

Focus on sensory attributes to bring products into consumers' consciousness

Leverage the authentic credentials of products and brands

Provide consumers with detailed stories about brands and food preparation

Develop product ranges that are based on traditional/local cooking methods

Draw more attention to authentic ethnic offerings

Re-align products to reflect changing perceptions of luxury

Target consumers desire to replicate out-of-home dining quality when at-home

ACTION: Offer a broad range of product solutions across the meal preparation spectrum

Develop full meal kits to tempt convenience gourmets

Become an information resource and campaigner for improved family time

Show understanding and sensitivity to consumers' problems of making time for sit-down family meals

Target the desire to experience ""real meals""

Help parents become more involved in the meal preparation process

Use 'home-cooked' or 'slow-cooked' ideology when marketing future prepared meal solutions

ACTION: Target the trend towards lighter main meals

Primarily target females for lighter and healthier breakfast, lunch and dinner options

Males can be targeted with more substantive fills for between meal consumption

Develop 'flexibly positioned' products ban be positioned across dayparts

Target consumers' tendancy to see food products as 'all day consumables'

Seek to legitimize 'flexi-eating' habits to generate extra consumption occasions

ACTION: Offer convenient out-of-home solutions

Develop product formats more suitable for on-the-go eating

Explore new foodservice concepts

There may even be opportunities for a CPG branded foodservice offering

ACTION: Show awareness of changing demographics

Adopt the principles of ageless marketing into targeting strategies

Develop products that target smaller household sizes

CHAPTER 4 APPENDIX

Definitions

Research methodology

Future readings

How to contact experts in your industry

List of Tables

Table 1: Number of missed breakfast occasions per person per year, by country, 2005-2010

Table 2: Number of missed lunch occasions per person per year, by country, 2005-2010

Table 3: Number of missed dinner occasions per person per year, by country, 2005-2010

Table 4: The number of in-home breakfasts versus out-of-home breakfasts, by country, 2005-2010

Table 5: The value of in-home breakfasts versus out-of home breakfasts (US$ billions), by country, 2005-2010

Table 6: The number of in-home lunches versus out-of-home lunches, by country, 2005-2010

Table 7: The value of in-home lunches versus out-of home lunches, by country, 2005-2010

Table 8: The number of in-home dinners versus out-of-home dinners, by country, 2005-2010

Table 9: The value of in-home dinners versus out-of home dinners, by country, 2005-2010

Table 10: Number of light breakfast occasions (overall per person per year), by country, 205-2010

Table 11: Number of light lunch occasions (overall per person per year), by country, 205-2010

Table 12: Number of light dinner occasions (overall per person per year), by country, 205-2010

Table 13: Number of light meal occasions (overall and per person per year), by country, 2005-2010

Table 14: The number of missed breakfasts per person per year, by age and country, 2005

Table 15: The number of missed lunches per person per year, by age and country, 2005

Table 16: The number of missed dinners per person per year, by age and country, 2005-2010

Table 17: The number of missed dinners per person per year, by gender and country, 2005

Table 18: Overall and per person per year number of breakfast occasions in the UK, Europe and the US, by location, 2005-2010

Table 19: Average time taken by consumers to prepare meals by daypart, US and Europe, 2004

Table 20: Per capita expenditure on cereal bars (US$/head), by country, 2000-2010

Table 21: Per capita expenditures on breakfast cereals (hot and ready-to-eat), (US$/head) by country 2000-2010

Table 22: The number of light breakfast occasions, by age, gender and country, 2005

Table 23: Overall and per person per year number of lunch occasions in the UK, Europe and the US, by location, 2005-2010

Table 24: The number of light lunch occasions per year, by age, gender and country, 2005-2010

Table 25: Consumer survey: frequency of preparing a quick-and-easy and 'restaurant-style gourmet meal' at home, by country, 2006

Table 26: Total and per capita ready meal market value (US$bn) and (US$), by country, 2000-2010

Table 27: The number of light dinner occasions, by age, gender and country, 2005-2010

Table 28: Consumer survey: the importance that European and US consumers place on a number of health related dietary approaches, 2006

Table 29: The level of trust consumers have in various claims made by packaged goods manufacturers, by country

Table 30: Convenience-product attributes to instill in offerings

Table 31: Average number of individuals per house, by country, 2000-2010

Table 32: Definitions of product categories

Table 33: Definitions of consumption occasions

Table 34: Definitions of other terms

List of Figures

Figure 1: Consumer mega-trends continue to impact eating habits

Figure 2: Consumers are increasingly prone to skipping meals

Figure 3: Skipping breakfast is least common in Spain, but these countries are experiencing the biggest change

Figure 4: US consumers are far more likely than Europeans to skip lunch

Figure 5: A typical European and American consumer both skipped less than 20 evening meals in 2005

Figure 6: There are numerous ways the industry can respond to the increasing propensity to consume away-from-home

Figure 7: A light meal has traits of a snack and traits of a core meal

Figure 8: Convenience and health are the fundamental drivers of the light meal trend which is impacting all mealtime occasions

Figure 9: Light meal consumption is highest at breakfast and lunch

Figure 10: Consumers aged 14-34 are most likely to skip a main meal

Figure 11: Males are more likely to skip breakfast, lunch or dinner, although consumers of both genders do so frequently

Figure 12: Consumers are torn between a need for convenient foods and a desire to spend more time preparing a home cooked meal

Figure 13: Time saving products are highly valuable commodities to consumers seeking to redress work-life balance conflicts

Figure 14: Growth in ready meals will remain strong in Europe, but is stabilizing in the US

Figure 15: Bulk buying dinner schemes are gaining popularity in the US and are indicative of consumers desire for convenience solutions for meal preparation chores

Figure 16: Consumers across Europe and the US still attach a high degree of importance on preparing a home cooked household meal

Figure 17: Those who enjoy cooking are also those who enjoy eating

Figure 18: A lack of nutritious foods available out-of-home make healthy eating patterns difficult to sustain

Figure 19: Health-orientated consumers are now placing emphasis on a broader range of factors

Figure 20: To capitalize on the health and wellness trend manufacturers must also embrace the idea of 'positive nutrition'

Figure 21: Developing 'less bad' meal solutions is the minimum manufactures should do to target healthy meal demand

Figure 22: Marketing initiatives can help bring breakfast or any other mealtime occasion back into consumers' consciousness

Figure 23: Demonstrating the evidence behind why breakfast is important requires a delicate communication message

Figure 24: Factors that discourage consumers from purchasing prepared meals, based on consumer and industry opinion surveys, 2005

Figure 25: To bring the enjoyment factor back into mealtime consumption manufacturers need to persuasively suggest newer and exciting ways of preparing and consuming meals

Figure 26: The different levels of experiential marketing can be used to capitalize on the sensory mega-trend

Figure 27: With more mass market consumers showing a willingness to trade up brands risk getting 'stuck in the middle'

Figure 28: Manufacturers need to respond to consumers' growing expectations at-home fueled by increased dining out

Figure 29: Complete meal kits offer a number of benefits to consumers

Figure 30: Communication cues such as 'slow-cooked' and 'home-made' can help prepared meals seem more authentic

Figure 31: More filling savory products are well suited to meet male consumers' need for light meal between breakfast, lunch and dinner occasions

Figure 32: By targeting the light meals trend manufacturers can simultaneously align products with core mealtimes occasions and in-between meal snack occasions

Figure 33: Through simple re-formatting, products can become much more suitable for out-of-home consumption

Figure 34: There are more opportunities to target consumers with convenient meal solution out-of-home

Figure 35: Develop products that target smaller household sizes will be increasingly important in the next 10 years

Abstract

• Insightful consumer survey data conveying attitudes and behaviors for each of the core mealtimes and how eating patterns vary by segment and occasion
• Detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of consumer behavior assessing where, when and why they choose to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Extensive evaluation of best practice NPD and marketing campaigns that have successfully targeted changing mealtime occasions.
• Detailed Action Points pinpointing how to devise effective strategies appealing to the changing attitudes and behaviors of European and US consumers

• Obtain a comprehensive understanding of the key trends influencing breakfast, lunch and dinner occasions.
• Access a broad range of data including consumption frequencies by daypart, relevant market data and consumer survey insight
• Learn how to tailor your product portfolios and marketing campaigns to effectively target consumers' changing eating patterns.

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