FMCG Gurus announces its Top Ten Trends for 2021

FMCG Gurus has announced its Top Ten Trends for 2021. These trends fall into three key themes of health and wellness, safety and assurance, and taste and enjoyment. According to FMCG, the last year has intensified consumers’ health concerns, particularly their vulnerability to illness, causing them to re-evaluate their diets and lifestyles. This will manifest in consumer attitudes in several ways.

1. Proactive Living: Consumers will adopt a strong focus on avoidance and moderation of products and ingredients deemed to have negative health consequence. They will make day-to-day changes to their diets and lifestyle, with long-term goals in mind. Consumers will also actively seek out ways to improve their health, realizing that modern lifestyle traits, such as screen time, have been detrimental to their health.
2. Safe and Secure: Consumers will be risk-avoidant, seeking maximum value for money when purchasing products. They will adopt a high-low approach to shopping, saving money on certain products to justify spending more elsewhere. Consumers will also have a preference for locally produced goods because they are associated with being healthier and more sustainable. As such, consumers will attempt to reduce food waste, and cook more from scratch, reducing their reliance on packaged food.
3. Rediscovering Health: Consumers will be putting a priority on health and nutrition to maximize wellbeing, seeking out functional products that offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Among the health priorities will be immune health, digestive health, cognitive health, and heart health.
4. The Power of Plants: There will be a continued growth of the flexitarian diet, as consumer avoid meat and dairy as part of a proactive health approach. As such, taste and texture will be major consideration because consumers will expect plant-based products to mimic the experience of eating their animal-based counterparts.
5. Better for You, Not Best for You: Despite taking a healthier approach to diet and lifestyle, consumers will still want to indulge their cravings, ideally in a guilt-free way. This means lower sugar content, natural ingredients, as well as high probiotic and protein content.
6. Natural Blueprint: Consumers will seek out authenticity and story-based marketing when it comes to purchasing natural formulations. They associate natural products with maximum transparency of the ingredients in the products which translates to simplified nutritional information, free-from claims, and streamlined ingredient lists. Brands will have to find innovative and engaging ways to communicate transparency to assure consumers they are making the right purchasing decision.
7. Taste First, Think Second: Occasionally, to alleviate daily pressure and stress, consumers will indulge in foods as a form of reward and escapism. They will turn to nostalgic staples, or experiment with exotic flavors to create new experiences. They want to be excited by food even as they work toward a healthier lifestyle.
8. The Earth is Clear: Consumers are concerned about the environment as pollution and climate change wreak havoc on natural ecosystems and threaten the future of the planet. As such, environmental sustainability has become very important to them. This means brands should prioritize social and corporate responsibility in order to align with the values of consumers who continue to prioritize spend on companies that demonstrated ethical practices.
9. Menu for Me: Customization and personalization offer new solutions for consumers from a nutritional perspective. Because consumers sometimes feel that better-for-you products and health information are too generic, they are driving demand for products that offer solutions more suited for their specific health needs. This includes technology that provides real-time data about what the body needs as well as genetic testing that provides unique insights into personal health. However, FMGC warns that industry needs to consider security and ethical issues surround the information communicated.
10. Eating Out, Dining In: Consumers will continue to demand premium experiences from the comfort of their homes. As a result, brands, retailers, and foodservice channels will have to respond by broadening direct-to-consumer delivery services. Technology will play a big role in this as more consumers rely on mobile apps for their ecommerce and food delivery needs.

For a more detailed breakdown of the trends, you can watch FMCG Gurus’ webinar on-demand and download the slides here.