[1] Multinational packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers switched to fresh and organic alternatives. Can these food giants win you back?
[2] Try this simple test. Say the following out loud:
• Canned food
• Pre-packaged lunch
• Frozen TV dinners
• Soft drinks containing artificial colours and flavours
[3] If any one of these terms raised a hair on the back of your neck, left a sour taste in your mouth, or made your lips purse with disdain, you may be part of Big Food’s multi-billion-dollar problem. In fact, you may even belong to a growing consumer class that has some of the world’s biggest and best-known food companies scrambling to change their businesses.
[4] Lest you think this is exaggeration, consider this: industry analysts say that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in the market share since 2009. One expert compared them to melting icebergs. “Every year they become a little less relevant.”
[5] In some ways, it’s a strange turn of events. The idea of ‘processing’ – from salting and curing to the modern artificial preservatives – arose to make sure the food we ate didn’t give us food poisoning. Today we know that it’s the processed food itself that’s making us unhealthy. Shoppers still value the convenience that food processing offers but the pendulum has definitely shifted in their minds. They have more and more questions about why this bread lasts 25 days without going stale.
[6] Although the changing consumer landscape has contributed to lackluster growth among some of the industry’s major players, major food companies are still going strong. For now.