Natasha Bangel speaks with Consultant Doris Zelinsky: 
How Can Food Companies Keep Up with Gen X

When Gen X’ers get home at night, they don’t turn on the oven and rattle the pots and pans. In fact, they’re unlikely even to set aside the time and place for a meal with several food groups arranged on a plate. Instead, they’re snacking six or more times a day. This burgeoning population will have a significant impact on the way food companies package and market their products. To find out how food manufacturers should address this phenomenon, Nerac Food Science Analyst Natasha Bangel talked with Doris Zelinsky, an independent consultant whose practice includes food manufacturers and retailers. Ms. Zelinsky is the former COO of Country Home Bakers, a family-owned bakery supplier, and VP of operations at the Lenders division of General Foods.

Natasha Bangel: What should food companies do to keep up with today’s lifestyles?

Doris Zelinsky: The most important thing companies can do to understand today’s lifestyles is to get under the headlines. For example, we all have been exposed to the headline that consumers no longer buy most of their food at traditional supermarkets. Getting under this headline makes us realize that we should no longer plan, as we have often in the past, to deliver a food product for one channel. Rather, niche products that work for the consumer will entice these same shoppers in different channels, and many of these channels are in locations we have not thought about before—such as discount and off-price stores that sell food or convenience marts that are adding fresh food depots in their stores.What do companies need to change to accommodate today’s younger, active consumers for whom three squares a day is an anachronism?As many as a third of the “meals” people report eating today are snacks. “Meal occasions,” the moniker we used at Kraft, are being supplanted by “occasional meals.” In addition, for my boomer generation, convenience was king. Today, healthful eating is the large, vibrant new prince. Companies are changing rapidly to accommodate new consumer patterns. Next time you are traveling, stop in an Au Bon Pain. This chain, whose appeal was based largely on its delectable sweet goods array, now features smaller snack-sized plates with veggies and unusual dips. Look at the explosion of hummus in the dairy cases of supermarkets, including mini hummus packs to snack and go.

How does the changing face of America factor in?

America’s changing face will profoundly impact the diversity of our food. In my generation, 27 percent of the population was identified as “nonwhite.” In today’s emerging generation, over 40 percent identify themselves that way. Between 2002 and 2010, Hispanics in America will grow 26 percent, Asians 27 percent and blacks 17 percent while the white population will remain nearly flat. The huge growths in these populations will bring us an increase in food offerings that appeal to the niche groups but also create interest with other consumers. Think, for a moment, about the last 10 years: sushi bars in supermarkets, Brazilian meat-carving restaurant chains, and noodle-based steameries next to every college campus.

Marketing usually aims for the middle, but population segmentation means that more targeted messages are needed. What can companies do to reach diverse consumer populations?

In the future, the marketplace will award anyone still marketing for the middle an “F.” The rapid increase in our population’s diversity makes it ineffective to chase “average” consumers, who only exists in our heads. Nearly 15 years ago, a very smart friend in marketing talked to me passionately about how American food companies needed “nichification” strategies to succeed. My company was then creating cookies for the “average” bakery consumer. He pointed to soy-based products, calcium enrichment and reduced-sugar cookies as emerging areas of consumer interest. Today, soy abounds as a “given” in many healthier foods. Calcium enrichment ads for orange juice remind us that you can get more calcium from your morning OJ than from milk. And the explosion in obesity and diabetes is prompting interest in sugar-controlled alternatives, particularly in ethnic populations with higher propensity for these diseases.

Does that apply to purchasing patterns, too? Is the one-size-fits-all grocery store a thing of the past? If so, how will food companies deal with that?

Food retailers that don’t distinguish themselves in any way except owning a lot of the industry’s street corners are likely to lose the most. And retail “banners” that succeed at first by evoking distinct selling propositions but later become cookie-cutter versions of a one-size-fits-all grocery conglomerate are likely to follow closely on their heels. If those who just gobble up the best corners and those who were consumed by one-size-fits-all conglomerates lose out, where might we food shoppers be going? Like most industry experts, I don’t see us reducing our reliance on Costco, Wal-Mart , SuperTarget, and BJ’s for our basics, although our consumption of their awesome paper goods aisles and package sizes will decline as we become increasingly sensitive to the environment. Stores like Trader Joe’s and discounters that offer unusual foodstuffs will appeal to the “treasure hunting” eBay’er in many of us. When your travels take you near a Big Lots, check out the wonderfully unusual foods already tucked into their stores. More are being added, especially at the year-end holiday season. And, as savvy food service operators continue to blur the lines between the channels successfully, we will be shopping their front areas as well for niche foodstuffs to tuck into the bags with our meals to go.