Celebration days are big business for food and drink companies.
But, the same retail categories seem to reap the benefits every year.
At Easter, the chocolate egg category is worth £327.9m [Kantar Worldpanel, 16 w/e 23 April 2017] whilst on Mother's Day, British people spend around £260m on flowers [The Co-Op, 2015].
With innovative new product development, food and drink companies can take advantage of gaps in the market for celebration days.
Here are five products to stimulate thought:
1. The Cheester egg from Blacksticks blue has picked up listings in Morrisons and Asda in 2018. This half-egg of blue cheese, accompanied by chutney and crackers, is an interesting change from the usual chocolate egg.
2. Novel advent calendars have increasingly hit the mainstream with examples including craft beer, malt whisky and cheese advent calendars. The Snaffling Pig Co’s calendar (£18) was a sell out in 2017 with each door hiding a 7g bag of flavoured pork scratchings.
3. The Manly Man Company questioned why there wasn’t a men’s gift equivalent to a bunch of flowers and so launched 100%
edible bouquets of beef jerky. However, they quickly realised that beef jerky bouquets don’t only appeal to men and so are launching a new brand that appeals to all genders.
Credit:
The Manly Man Company
4. Label personalisation has taken off in the last few years with Nutella and Veuve Cliquot champagne both offering customised product labels or tins with the name of a special place or person. In 2016, Marmite offered personalised jars for Mother’s Day. For £4.99, the brand’s name could be replaced with a loved one’s.
5. Steak and Father’s Day go hand in hand but how do you generate buzz for a plain piece of meat? Simple, super-size it. Aldi launched their whopping 16oz Big Daddy rump steak in 2017 especially for Father’s Day and picked up extensive media coverage in the process.
The ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre can support food and drink companies with new product development from market research to recipe development, labelling guidance, chemical analysis, shelf-life determination and product benchmarking.
Ed Gilbert, Marketing Executive
For more information
Email:
ZERO2FIVE@CardiffMet.ac.uk
Telephone: 02920 41 6306
