An A – Z of some consumer sector challenges and responses you should know

By Adrian Swinburne, Head of Consumer at 42 Technology

The manufacturing landscape is changing

The food and drink sectors are facing a number of challenges. These are due to changing consumer habits and preferences, regulations and environmental concerns. Also, issues of consolidation and the increasing influence of new emergent brands.

We explore the A to Z of some of the issues facing manufacturers and responses that may be needed.

Agility

The markets are changing faster than ever. There is a need to respond quickly and adapt – often a challenge for large corporations with deeply embedded systems and cultures.  But you must retain the ability for agile, but well considered, behaviours.

Brand

Your brands are key to your success but need to evolve and avoid becoming stale and outdated.  Sustainable and credible brand evolution and brand extension need to take centre stage in your NPD roadmaps.

Consolidation

Brand owners and retailers are not who they were last year. And it is guaranteed that next year they will be different again.  How does this continued flux influence strategy?  And how do you respond to increasing retail purchasing power?

Disruptors

Complacency is not an option. New entrants and niche entrepreneurial offerings are arriving faster than ever, and even though only 20% of these are likely to gain true market success, they represent a genuine threat to established brands.

Earnings

Whatever changes you may need to make to respond to your customers, consumers, market trends, competitors, regulations or social responsibility, ultimately everything needs to reflect in your earnings and delivering shareholder value.  That’s not always a comfortable balance.

Free-from

Recipe changes on strong and long-established products, including salt and sugar reduction, inevitably bring challenges to product formulations and manufacturing processes. Also, carrying the risks of consumer alienation when changes are made too abruptly.

Recent history shows both good and bad examples of brands making such changes.  Are your processes able to support these formulation changes and still deliver quality product?

Global

You may strive for a global footprint with consistency in products, operations and brands. But the reality of regional preferences, cultures and markets often presents barriers.  How can you intelligently standardise whilst maintaining tailored offerings?

Health

Global health agendas often lead to, often illegitimate, negative consumer perceptions, or even vilification of your brands through social media. It only takes a small and vocal community to inflict tangible damage.

Does your messaging properly support your brand positioning? And are you taking the right steps to mitigate opportunities for such damaging consumer feedback?

Information

… or more generally data, should be driving everything we do.  Know you markets, your customers and your operations.  Embrace Big Data and IIoT but in an appropriate way that delivers real ROI in acceptable timescales.

Junk

This could have a number of meanings. The most obvious of which is addressing the push-back against so-called junk food and its damaging effects on our health.  But it could also refer to waste in the supply chain, from the farm gate to the consumers’ household – the reduction of which has both societal and economic benefits.

Kaizen

We could hardly avoid raising lean and continuous improvement in our A-Z. But it is important to recognise that these principles can be applied to all of your business functions and operations, not just your factories and supply chain.

Loyalty

Much of your success depends on customer loyalty – loyalty to your products and to your brands.  But this cannot be taken for granted and diligent attention to your customers’ opinions and purchasing behaviour is essential.  This is especially true in these times where social media propagates views with some speed.

Measure

There is truth in the principle credited to Peter Drucker: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” And while there are arguably some aspects of business success that defy measurement, you must always challenge that viewpoint. Strive to establish the true facts rather than simply common belief.

Natural

The industry has made significant advances in its use of natural ingredients. Or more correctly, reduction of seemingly unnatural additives.  But the goalposts seem to keep on moving and what was considered acceptable yesterday is today meeting with consumer pressure for reformulation, even when such artificial complaints are proved to be invalid perceptions.

Trends towards flexitarian eating habits are also driving consumers’ purchasing behaviour and need to be embraced by brand owners.

Operational efficiency

Huge pressure has been placed on improving operations and driving bottom-line growth, and this places immense pressures on a business, even if the prize is worth the pain.

It can also lead to brand stagnation and open the doors to new entrants into the category.  A careful balance needs to be struck to ensure agility and passion are not sacrificed in the process of improving operational performance.

Plastic

It is rare to find a discussion in the drinks industry where producer responsibility and specifically, plastic, is not foremost.  Brand owners have the opportunity to take a lead with issues like rPET use and deposit return schemes or face stiff government-imposed regulations.

Quality

Your consumers (and certainly your retail customers) are often fickle and can respond quickly to real or perceived quality issues.  Robust monitoring and control of your operations is essential. Can you trust your quality KPIs?

Renovation

You may have noticed no mention of innovation. In the current climate, is there still room, or budget, for significant innovation in your portfolios or operations? Or does renovation need to lead the way in avoiding stagnation and erosion of market share? Possibly, this could be through targeting alternative consumption occasions or pragmatic approaches to extracting greater value from existing assets?

Sustainability

This topic is largely covered in the item on plastic and producer responsibility above, but merits emphasis. In particular as society becomes increasingly conscious (and vocal) of the impacts on our planet of some of the practices we have taken for granted for many years.

Taste

For the consumer, taste is everything!  Whatever other health benefits and desirable attributes your products might deliver, if it doesn’t hit the tastebuds, then you’ve got a problem.

Uncertainty

Uncertainty permeates most aspects of business operations, so embrace it. Use it to inspire how your business and your products can evolve.  Are there additional approaches you should be taking to measure your processes and information gathering to eliminate uncertainty?

Voice of the customer

Your consumers must be at the heart of everything you do and the impact on them of all of your actions must be properly understood.  Customer perception and loyalty can be damaged by seemingly unrelated actions, so take care before you act.

Water

Water scarcity is said to be one of the biggest challenges facing industries, with water set to become more valuable than oil.  The food and drink industries are in a position to lead the way in water use reduction.

Many already are in their manufacturing operations or addressing water consumption in their raw material supply chains through innovative agricultural initiatives.

X-factor

Brand owners need to recognise where they might have image problems. This can be due to invalid perceptions of product quality or health impact. Then they need actions to promote their brands and products with the right image and messaging to appeal to their target customers.

Y?

Robustly challenge why you are doing what you do?  Are your actions based on solid data and strategy?  Or are you making poorly considered tactical moves in response to loose market trends or unqualified data?

Zero

You will no doubt have numerous initiatives under way to strive towards zero waste, zero carbon footprint, zero emissions. We would encourage you to challenge all of your standardised processes to find creative approaches to reducing your impact.

Many of these issues are certainly not unique to Food & Drink and will likely apply to your work in other industry sectors.

If you’d like to discuss the article or hear where we can offer our expertise to you, then email Adrian.Swinburne@42t.com or answers@42t.com.