Following her New Year article on accelerating exports, Nicola Thomas, Director of the Food & Drink Exporters Association (FDEA) returns with her second piece. Originally featured in FMCG CEO magazine, it explores how UK food and drink businesses can harness global trends to sharpen market focus, spark innovation, and build consumer trust.
Nicola Thomas, industry adviser and Director of the UK Food & Drink Exporters Association pinpoints 3 potential tactical responses to global trends.
It’s that time of year when we are bombarded with global industry trend reports, webinars and articles from research providers, suppliers and professional service firms. Whilst undoubtedly serving as the backbone of the strategic planning process, trends are vast, multi-dimensional and inter-connected topics, with some such as Sustainability, Digitalisation and Health and Wellness, accelerating at such an unprecedented pace in an increasingly complex and volatile world that developing a tactical response to them can be a daunting prospect. However, it is certainly feasible to evaluate some of the salient global trends impacting consumers, retailers and foodservice operators and potentially translate them into quick international sales wins for your business. Let’s consider three of them:
Prioritising target markets
There are 190+ countries in the world and a key part of the export planning process is identifying the ones offering the most potential for your brand. By examining how trends are predicted to play out in countries or regions where you already have a presence or which are on your new market hitlist, you can see how they will influence consumer demand. Take Health and Wellness for example:
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Consumers in Asia are less sceptical about alternative proteins than in other regions but appeal is currently limited primarily to vegetarians; In Europe, plant-based has a much broader demographic reach but consumers are concerned about price parity with conventional product counterparts. Middle Eastern consumers are seeking authentic and traditional flavours as alternative proteins gain traction in both the retail and out-of-home channels; and the backlash against plant-based meat that mimics its animal counterparts in the US is propelling consumers there back to basics as they seek clean ingredients and genuine nutritional benefits.
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In South America and The Middle East the organic food category is set to record dynamic growth rates to 2030 as a result of its emergence from a low base today (both currently under 2% of the total healthy food market value compared to 15.5% in the US and 23.4% in Europe). Retailers and consumers are only now starting to seek out ‘next generation’ products which deliver on taste and quality, presented in eye-catching packaging to replace the very functional and bland ranges on shelf at the moment.
This research and analysis exercise can be very instructive in terms of highlighting where short, medium and long-term opportunities may lie. The UK is at the forefront of many Health and Wellness sub-trends, but they are well embedded and in some cases already extremely mature. By identifying and expanding into countries where your category is just starting to move from niche to mainstream, you have an opportunity to extend the lifecycles of, and revenues from, your current ranges. Conversely, if you don’t take trend evolution around the world into account when drawing up your export plans you could find that you are either too early to gain traction, hitting the market when it is becoming saturated or have missed the boat completely.
Stimulating innovation
Assessing how trends might impact a country or region going forward may also present opportunities to develop new products or, with some minor tweaking, tailor existing ones to meet evolving consumer needs:
For example, many of the rising middle class in Asia have yet to experience international brands but have huge appetite for premium gourmet snacks and confectionery. Countries such as India and China have a strong sharing treat culture so you may look to develop smaller formats for sharing bags to introduce your brand into the region.
Similarly, in emerging markets like Chile, where the free-from trend is nascent, you may find that most consumers simply don’t have the disposable income to pay the premium retail price your products need to command to be profitable. A reformulation with cheaper ingredients or smaller pack sizes could however, unlock access to around 20 million new consumers in that country alone. The result could be a another reset on a product’s overall lifecycle — and a new stream of revenue and level of innovation for you.
Building credibility with customers and prospects
Securing a meeting with a potential overseas customer e.g a supermarket chain or foodservice buyer, means you might have 20 or 30 minutes maximum to convince them to consider listing your products rather than the incumbent brand or the hundreds of other lines presented to them each month The feedback we get repeatedly from buyers and distributors in our network, is that ‘best-in-class’ suppliers ie. the ones who make them sit up and pay attention and go on to build successful long-term relationships are the ones who can demonstrate that they have understood the global trends influencing the market and category, along with the resulting shopper and consumer needs in that country. This makes for a powerful and compelling two-way conversation rather than a one-way sales pitch, especially as buyers don’t have the time to do this research themselves!
An effective way of identifying salient trends of importance to a specific retailer or foodservice operator is to look at their corporate values and strategic priorities on their website. For example, ‘Sustainability’ is very broad and multi-faceted: however, if we look elsewhere:
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Woolworths (Australia): their sustainability strategy has several overarching pillars including ‘We apply circular thinking in everything we do’, and ‘We embrace the power of partnerships to create change’.
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Carrefour (Global) is implementing a Food Transition strategy in all of its 30+ territories, measuring 17 CSR indicators including numbers of plant-based products launched and packaging reduction targets.
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Raffles Hotel (Singapore): focuses on food waste management and reduction, sustainable procurement, single-use plastic elimination and even a sustainable Singapore Sling!
This simple values check enables you to demonstrate how your brand and company values align with those of the customer or prospect in front of you and how you can support them in the delivery of their own sustainability goals.
In conclusion, monitoring global trends, their acceleration or deceleration in individual markets or regions, and their impact on consumption patterns and buying behaviours should not just be for long-term strategic planning.
Ongoing evaluation of how they are playing out around the world allows you to develop a more adaptive and proactive response to change. Interpreting and responding to these trends can become a powerful component of your export success toolkit. This not only positions your business to exploit future opportunities ahead of competitors, but also helps keep you on track for sustained international success.
The FDEA has a network of in-market partners around the globe who are UK brands’ eyes and ears when it comes to understanding, interpreting and leveraging trends at category level within a country or region. Please visit www.ukfdea.com for more information.
Please reach out to Nicola for further advice on growing your international sales, or to Carol (or your usual Kilburn & Strode advisor) for advice on protecting your intellectual property.