Why is it an important time for the Med Diet? Why are manufacturers and the government concerned with healthy eating? How can we engage more consumers with the Med Diet? Ipsos MORI's Ethnography Team presented our findings to the Food and Drink Innovation Network on Wednesday 27 June 2012.
transcript
THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET
– THE CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE
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Why is it an important time for the Med Diet? Why are manufacturers and the government concerned with healthy eating? How can we engage more consumers with the Med Diet?
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In Great Britain 23 adults in 100 are obese
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… 23% (and rising) of adults in the UK are obese, and…
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In the US 34 adults in 100 are obese
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… one third of Americans are obese!
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Globally, more people now die of obesity than malnutrition
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Last year it was estimated that more people died of obesity than of malnutrition. Obesity is now a global epidemic with related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure putting an increasing financial and social toll on government and society. But what should happen next? How is the world going to respond? (International federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Disaster Report 2011)
Half of people globally think governments SHOULD NOT get involved in what people choose to eat
Source: Ipsos Global @dvisor, November 2011 5
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When the public are surveyed, more than 50% of people say that governments should NOT get involved in telling people what to do….
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BUT 88% think governments should make companies PROMOTE healthy choices
Source: Ipsos Global @dvisor, November 2011
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..but they WOULD like governments to change the way companies promote and provide healthy food. THE INDUSTRY IS BEING BLAMED FOR OBESITY . HOW CAN WE LEVERAGE THE MED DIET TO ADDRESS THIS GLOBAL EPIDEMIC ???
THE MED DIET
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APPROACH
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INTRODUCE THE SURVEY AND THE COMMUNTIY SURVEY 512 respondents took part in our online engagement survey Mix of gender 359 Females (70%) 153 Males (30%) Wide age range 110 aged 18-34 135 aged 35-44 135 aged 45-54 132 aged 55-65+ Social Listening We began this project by utilising the social listening component of our tool to explore the topic of healthy eating and lifestyle choices. By taking the listen first approach, we reviewed what was happening and being said online to help inform the line of questioning for our community activities and ethnography work. Community Ipsos MORI Connects is our syndicated community. It hosts 1,000 UK residents who participate in community activities such as discussion forums, blogs and surveys to meet specific research objectives. For this project, we employed a survey, discussion forum and blog activities to help better understand the consumer perception of the Med Diet. A survey was used to test the recognition and understanding of the Mediterranean Diet among our community members. Then showcased 3 very different individuals to gauge the first response and map the Mediterranean Diet experience first-hand. Finally, we moderated a discussion board to interact with community members and learn more about their food habits and considerations.� Ethnography
Had not heard of the Med Diet?
42%
Yet they recognize some of the
of healthy eating
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‘Eating a broad variety of foods is important for our health’
‘People who live in the UK don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables’
‘Olive oil is the healthiest oil’
‘Mediterranean people live longer because they have a healthy diet’
‘Naturally colourful food is usually healthy’
‘Eating red meat every day is essential to good health’
relate
those concepts
to the Med Diet
But they
Diets aren’t for me, I’m more
about a healthy lifestyle
A diet rich in fruit and veg
is best
Olive oil is actually good
for you
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THERE IS LITTLE RECOGNITION THAT THE MED DIET CAN DELIVER ON A NUMBER OF HEALTH BENEFITS
There’s no disputing the science behind the Med Diet, there’s just little recognition of
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Med Diet http://vimeo.com/43849633 Password: ipsosmori
PLAY FILM
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In order to explore this disconnect, we took a participant from the survey who ate a Med Diet, but who was unaware of doing so. We did this to explore their reaction to the Med Diet and also to understand the behaviours which have led to him engaging with the Med Diet - cooking from scratch, no ready meals, sourcing locally, local markets, eating and socialising.
Across the community participants outlined the following challenges when engaging with the Med Diet Expense Our bloggers found certain elements of the Med Diet expensive (ie. fish, seafood, olive oil, etc.), but also said pre-planning with a weekly grocery shop helped to reduce costs associated with dining on the go with ready meals or take-aways. There was also discussion about less expensive options like chicken. Overall, the bloggers qualified the expense by a belief that healthy and nutritious food is more costly than junk food.
This mirrors broader food and nutrition trends...
Driven by time pressures and increasingly fragmented
lifestyles, a marked difference between
is emerging in the approach consumers are taking.
“cooking” and
“preparation”
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Consumers are leading busy lives – with increasing pressures on prioritising and balancing both work and leisure. This is creating a challenge in balancing the need for healthy and nutritious food that is both convenient to buy and easy to make, with less time for preparation - but with the demand for more serving occasions Balancing these pressures is further complicated by the fact that consumers are increasingly used to individualism and self expression in many of their lifestyle choices ranging from shopping to eating out – and ideally they would like to apply these values to the food they prepare and eat at home A marked difference between “Cooking” and “Preparation” is therefore emerging – based on traditional perceptions of what constitutes the most appropriate ingredients for a meal
In saying this, there was a sense of appreciation for the pragmatism and simplicity of the Med diet
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Social Listening suggests that consumers recognize the Med Diet as a ‘lifestyle’, rather than a ‘diet’. Consumers relish the assistance in re-aligning their choice architecture to make healthier choices.
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Sometimes life is so busy its nice to be
told what to do, the Med Diet doesn't enforce
points and regimes, more guidelines and that is
why it works for me, its not rigid.
- Andrew
HOW TO PROMOTE THE MED DIET?
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FOR THOSE THAT HAVE HEARD OF THE MED
DIET, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF KEY FOOD
GROUPS THAT RESONATE
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Like any innovation, a key step is to build awareness. The Med diet is no different.
MED DIET ASSOCIATIONS
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So what does that mean for the Med Diet?? These could be key food groups to leverage in marketing or branding of the Med Diet (but is too simplistic as a basic approach).
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And evidence shows that
if consumers ‘know’
about the diet they are
more likely to
the benefits
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So part of the challenge is to build Trial! Repeat looks pretty good!!!
AWARENESS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET BUILDS ON
HEALTH PERCEPTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THESE TYPES
OF FOOD.
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Mediterranean people live longer because they have a healthy diet
Red wine is better for your health than white wine
Drinking wine with food is better for your health than drinking wine on its own
Naturally colourful food is usually healthy
Olive oil is the healthiest oil
People who live in the UK don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables
The British Government should encourage food manufacturers to sell more healthy foods
The British Government should encourage the public to eat foods that are healthy
Eating a broad variety of foods is important for our health
0 10 20 30
% difference in agreement between recognisers and non recognisers
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This shows that if consumers recognise the diet, they will understand the benefits and be more likely to ‘buy into it’. But this is half of the problem, it still does not overcome the challenges outlined in the first part of the presentation, including the negative connotations involved with the word “Diet”. Additionally many of the benefits associated with the Med diet are longer term benefits that accrue from adopting a more healthy lifestyle
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How do we overcome
the challenges?
How can we guide
manufacturers in
leveraging the Med
Diet?
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The key is to fully understand the barriers to adoption and then design offerings that help consumers either actually overcome the barriers or feel like they are being adequately rewarded for their efforts.
RELATE IT TO PEOPLE’S LIVES
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Barrier Need Features
Understanding the barriers to engaging in the Med Diet tells
you what barriers exist to
people are buying health
related products
Key product features should relate to specific
triggers/ challenges
Relating a barrier to a
particular need allows you to
think about how to delight
consumers
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The Benefit is what they are seeking from product. When discussing products, the benefit should relate to / ‘talk to’ the challenges so that people buying the product know it is a product they should buy, based on their perceptions of the Med Diet. Provide examples specific to Med Diet products here.
Long Term Benefit – Short Term Delight Challenges Consumer Delight
Features , benefits, products
Time Consumers feel like they’re cooking
a ‘proper’ meal, without it taking too long or without a large investment
of time
Quick, convenient and accessible
Expense
Consumers want to use products/ produce that are high quality, but without feeling like it costs more
than other average household goods
Affordable but high quality, in smaller quantities, value for money, relate to secondary benefits (e.g.time saving)
Access to ingredients
Consumers want to use fresh, local and natural ingredients that allow
them to bring together recipes
Local, fresh, natural, home delivery, bundling
Know how to cook
Consumers want to cook from scratch and learn about new recipes
and new types of food Easy to prepare yet interesting
and exciting ; assembly vs design vs creation
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Most people have a number of challenges in their life that makes engaging with the Med Diet difficult. In addressing these issues we need to identify how products can alleviate these tensions and create more desirable sets of behaviours. The challenge for marketers is therefore to work out what the likely choice architecture is for the challenge through to the desired set of behaviour. This will shed a lot of light on how to position products. One option is to look at so-called consumer need states, for example, in relation to the med diet ‘being a good mum’, ‘looking after my family’, ‘giving my family nutritious food’, ‘being a great hostess’ are relevant. By finding and understanding relevant desired consumer experiences, we can then look to find unique and exciting ways to delight the consumer.
Emerging trend “assembly cooking” –
preparation of basic convenience food
enhanced by added personalised
ingredients to elevate it above a basic level
– closer to the consumers perception of
proper cooked food
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A specific trend that could be used, and that addresses a number of the Med Diet challenges is this notion of assembly cooking Due to time restraints convenience food is still seen by many as the basis for many meals – but there is the growth of “Assembly” cooking – convenience food presented as partly freshly prepared (as opposed to just served) As well as adding personalisation, the added ingredients are increasingly being chosen to “elevate” the food above the basic level that much convenience food is seen as representing – partly in deference to a need to serve “proper” food
MED DIET FOOD KITS
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Home delivery of local fresh produce – tailored to the Med Diet & supported by other activities – e.g. recipes, menu planning, on-line communities Co-sponsored events – health clubs, local sporting teams, local restaurants, on-pack offers Med Diet App – link this to shopping lists and home delivery In store – e.g. Stir Fry aisle, Olive oil near exotic breads, fresh produce layout, bundling, events Product labelling – med diet specific
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The Med Diet Majority usage
Increase awareness of
usage situations
In excess of 30mls per day
One portion every 3-7 days
Suggest cheaper more sustainable alternatives
and promote ease of cooking
1 portion every 1-3 days
One portion per week
Opportunity
2 portions /day One portion every two to three days