What AI-powered Cultural Intelligence® reveals about food and beverage trends.
With the shift in mindset towards overall health, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are looking to shift their consumption habits to align with the recent increase in health consciousness.
Along with a change in consumption patterns, consumers are also looking to find more value in their products while food shopping. Finding value during food shopping means optimizing the quality and cost-effectiveness of a product, which is also important as it follows the trend of the simultaneous mindset shift towards finances among consumers.
At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, grocery shopping became a difficult task as many stores faced mass shortages leading to empty shelves across the country. The shortage of groceries and other necessities caused consumers to shift their mindset and how they value these products.
Though many stores continued to face a shortage of food products and household necessities throughout 2021, the journey to restabilizing the economy allowed for product shipments to slowly normalize and consumers to the “new standard” of grocery shopping with the shift in mentality driving shopping behaviors.
So how will these mindsets and behaviors from the past two years impact food and beverage shopping habits in 2022? CulturIntel set out to turn data and insights into potential trends and predictions to look forward to.
ABOUT THE STUDY
To better understand the mindsets and drivers that may impact shopping habits, the AI-powered market research tech CulturIntel harvested over 22.5 million digital conversations about food and beverage mindsets and shopping drivers in 2021 compared to 18.1 million conversations regarding the same topic in 2020.
Using its proprietary algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and big data tools, CulturIntel mined all available open-source digital discussions throughout both timeframes to structure and cluster patterns in public opinion and predict potential shopping trends for 2022 across various segments. The methodology used to understand these mindsets arguably represents one of the most authentic sources of insight; not depending on a survey or poll.
Segments in this study include: Overall conversations, Hispanics, Black Americans, people living with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
WHAT ARE THE MOTIVATIONS TOWARDS FOOD CONSUMPTION?
As we enter the third year of the pandemic, food plays an important role in people’s lives - both in terms of health-consciousness and shopping habits. Compared to 2020, overall consumers in 2021 are 1.2x more likely to focus on health as a main factor to food consumption. The other roles of food in consumption are nourishment, pleasure, and discovery.
In terms of food shopping, there are four main drivers to purchasing food and beverages: value, convenience, variety, and taste. While taste remains the most important driver for food shopping in 2021, overall consumers have become 2.8x more likely to focus on the value, or the balance between cost efficiency and quality, and 1.3x less likely to prioritize the variety of the food and beverages being purchased.
WHAT ARE THE DRIVERS TO FOOD SHOPPING?
TOP INSIGHTS AND TRENDS
ASIAN AMERICAN
When broken down by segment, roughly 75% of conversations among Asian Americans prioritize nourishment and pleasure as top mindsets. In terms of drivers to food shopping, almost a quarter of conversations revolve around having variety as a top priority. This means that Asian Americans' top shopping trends indicate a preference towards having a diverse daily menu and enjoying many different meals, all while they remain sure that the food is both nourishing and enjoyable to eat.
HISPANIC AMERICAN
Out of every segment, Hispanics are the most focused on the value of the product when food shopping. Simultaneously, Hispanics are also the most focused on pleasure as a top mindset and 1.9x less likely than overall to focus on discovery of new foods. From these insights, we can predict that, throughout 2022, Hispanics will likely continue to purchase a majority of the same products without the urge to discover new foods. We can also anticipate that Hispanics will continue to focus on meals that they know are enjoyable but also valuable in terms of purchasing.
PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES
Finally, people living with disabilities are 1.6x less likely than overall to focus on nourishment as a top mindset, the least likely out of each segment. Instead, people living with disabilities are the most likely out of any segment to prioritize health and discovery as mindsets along with being 1.3x more likely to view convenience as a top food shopping driver. In 2022, people living with disabilities will likely be looking for products that are convenient and align with their lifestyle but are also healthy, diverse meals.
HOW TO TURN INSIGHTS INTO ACTION
Staying on top of data trends allows businesses to not only better understand multiple consumer segments, but also to create more meaningful relationships and target various segments with a meaningful campaign that allows them to feel seen and heard based on their mindsets and attitudes towards food and beverages as a result of the pandemic’s impact.
Want to learn more about what Big Data uncovered on food and beverage mindsets and drivers of 2020 vs. 2021 and insights to spot key trends throughout 2022?
