Market Consumer Insights

Trend - Brands are integrating activism and charitable actions directly into business models and consumer loyalty programs. This helps consumers directly influence the amount of charitability from a business, making activist consumers more likely to frequently engage in these brands over others.

Insight - Voting with the dollar is a popular concept in North America. Consumers value brands that are transparent, authentic, and have a positive impact on the world. Some interact exclusively with these brands, while others prefer to do so when possible. Of the brands that engage in charity work, consumers prefer those that demonstrate their values with tangible actions. These consumers are more loyal to brands that integrate activism directly into the core business model.

Trend - CPG brands and restaurants are launching foods made with chai ingredients. Chai is popular in drinks for its strong, spicy, floral flavor, and its health benefits. This is now being made available to non-tea-drinkers in the form of snacks, breakfast bars, bakery items, and packaged goods.

Insight - The modern consumer in North America has countless flavors from international locations available to them for snacks, drinks, and foods. These consumers are willing to try new flavors, pairings, or interpretations of recipes, to find a new flavor, with priority given to functional foods. Some of the most popular flavors for drinks, such as chai tea or blue curacao in alcohol, are often only found in beverages, making it difficult for certain customers to ever try these flavors.

Trend - Amid the rising cost of chicken set on by the pandemic, restaurants are turning to dark meat alternatives for chicken wings. Chicken thighs are meatier and often richer in taste, making them a popular choice for QSR brands across North America. These are served fried, tossed, or with sauces.

Insight - Restaurants were of the industries hit the hardest by the pandemic, with rising costs of supply and an ever-dwindling consumer base willing to dine in. Following the pandemic, while indoor dining has returned, prices and supply have yet to return to normal. Restaurants with affected supply sought alternative products to ensure steady supply and affordable pricing, creating demand for typically less-used parts of foods in North America, such as chicken thighs or feet.

Trend - Companies in the production, retail, and logistics spaces are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) models to reduce emissions. The AI models help optimize production, cut-out excess waste, better manage inventory, and improve overall sustainability using predictive and analytical models.

Insight - In recent years governmental regulatory bodies have placed increased pressure on businesses to reduce emissions and go green. As a response to this, many businesses have made green commitments with strict timeframes, often aiming to achieve net-zero emissions in a matter of a decade. These businesses aim to achieve these goals without reducing their profit margins, meaning they often do not want to hire new departments. As such, they are increasingly turning to analytical AI models.

Trend - Brands across multiple industries are launching consumer-to-business-to-consumer (C2B2C) storefronts. C2B2C offers consumers discounts on products and enables consumers to sell unwanted products while the business handles transactions and verifies the quality of listed items.

Insight - When consumers no longer require products, whether it be clothing, technology, or furniture, they often turn to third-party marketplaces for all-purpose listings. However, these marketplaces pose various risks, causing some users to be wary of misleading products and scam attempts. Some consumers desire streamlined ways to liquidate older goods safely and securely, while others desire quality goods at discounted prices. Brands are responding by launching first-party C2B2C marketplaces.

Trend - Brands are turning to food-grade resin packaging for its low environmental impact, its comparable performance to unsustainable packaging, and its affordability. These packaging solutions make products more appealing to consumers as brands can market the sustainability of the product inside as well as its packaging.

Insight - While consumers are increasingly drawn to sustainability across numerous industries, the food & beverage and beauty industries are especially scrutinized for their environmental impacts. Consumers in these spaces not only vote with their dollars against brands that remain using unsustainable or animal-cruel methods, but are also willing to boycott products that fall into these categories. This places pressure on brands in the space to transform traditionally unsustainable packaging, such as plastic bottles, with newer, more eco-friendly materials.

Trend - Brands are creating ultrasonic purifiers that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. These purifiers use ultrasonic waves to kill bacteria that grow on food during spoilage significantly more effectively than washing with water, saving customers money and reducing food waste.

Insight - With food prices rising at sharp rates due to inflation and other economic factors, the average consumer can not afford to have food spoil before it is eaten. These customers want food to be readily available for cooking, meaning they do not want to freeze food to extend its life. As a result, these customers turn to technological solutions that can preserve foods for longer without requiring extra prep time or work when the food is needed.

Trend - Brands in the food supplement space are creating vegan protein and superfood powders with mushroom blends. These brands incorporate adaptogenic mushrooms for their cognitive and muscular benefits, offering not only a vegan alternative to protein powder but one that offers more utility.

Insight - Consumers with active lifestyles frequently keep up with new trends in the health and wellness space. These consumers want products that not only serve basic functions, but offer numerous health benefits on the side, as these products better support health-focused lifestyles. Many of these customers are turning to brands that are willing to incorporate new ingredients with scientifically-backed claims. Brands are therefore pressured to innovate on modern health trends.

Trend - Gen Z-focused brands are launching menstruation-inspired products and campaigns that uplift and empower women, aiming to destigmatize menstruation through wholesome branding and marketing. This helps younger women take more pride in their bodies and not resent the menstruation process.

Insight - Marketing practices for menstruation care products are traditionally subtle, using codewords and drawing attention away from the menstruation process wherever possible. This causes young women to feel ashamed and feel they should resent menstruation. These young women want to be knowledgeable and aware of their bodies while feeling empowered, placing pressure on brands to create more uplifting products that do not shy away from the reality of being a woman experiencing menstruation.

Trend - Brands are repurposing a traditional Japanese tea style, Hojicha, in drinks and desserts in the west. Hojicha, while commonly a health-focused drink in Japan, has a strong roasted flavor profile that suits desserts and sweet drinks well. The ingredient is gaining popularity in North America.

Insight - Tea drinkers in the west gravitate toward teas with strong flavors and underlying health benefits. Even when seeking dessert-style drinks like bubble tea, these consumers do not always want caffeinated black teas as the base, but rather something lighter and healthier mixed with sweet ingredients. These green teas leave the consumers feeling less bloated, but they often have a bitter flavor profile. This led to brands looking to more traditional teas for alternate flavor palates.