Drinking

Implications - The keto diet's low-carb, high-fat nature is inherently restrictive, giving brands the opportunity to serve those on the diet by offering them specialty dessert options. The emergence of such products reveal how brands can look to consumer restrictions or selectiveness as opportunities as opposed to barriers. [More]

Implications - Cafe brands are offering coffee and tea beverages that retain the basic ingredients of these beverages, but that are enhanced by visual effects in the form of richly pigmented, unlikely colors. These products come as consumers increasingly prioritize aesthetics in their purchase decisions, largely due to their social shareability. [More]

Implications - Borderline invasive alcohol-monitoring implantations are becoming more common as institutions and brands seek to empower consumers in reducing their intake of such beverages. The use of attachable monitoring chips ensures accountability on the part of consumers seeking to enhance their health or overcome alcoholism, while giving companies in-depth quantifiable information on consumer lifestyle habits as they relate to alcohol intake. [More]

Implications - Paleo dishes are no longer something that consumers must make at home from scratch, with brands like those in the baking industry offering sweet, packaged Paleo snacks and dishes. This shift speaks to the curation and niche targeting that consumers now expect brands to cater to, with brands responding by prioritizing individual preferences that they can still monetize. [More]

Implications - With the rise of DIY craft cocktails has also come a renewed interest in DIY craft juice and tea products, and brands are catering to this shift by offering kits that allow consumers to easily put together alcohol-free beverages. These products cater to the experiential and DIY preferences of consumers, without sacrificing on the convenience that ready-to-eat products offer. [More]

Implications - Individuals with necessary or self-enforced dietary restrictions are increasingly able to turn to subscription services to cater to their specialized nutritional preferences. This shift comes as consumers increasingly demand and prioritize products and services that suit their niche interests and needs, rather than trying to cater to as many people as possible. [More]

Implications - Fashion brands are incorporating cafes into their spaces, or creating co-spaces from scratch in which both clothing and food can be purchased and enjoyed. These retail spaces offer the benefit of an experiential purchase journey in which consumers are able to slow down and better appreciate the products being offered — benefitting the brand by enhancing the likelihood of purchase. [More]

Implications - As more consumers turn to organic products, food subscription services are doing the same. This shift speaks to the fast-adapting nature of the subscription industry, along with the base consumer desire to leverage customization to obtain maximum benefits – in this case, in health and wellness. [More]

Implications - Liqueur brands' oft dairy-based beverages are offering alternatives that cater to vegans and those who are lactose intolerant. The accommodation of varying dietary lifestyles and restrictions in an unlikely industry speaks to the fact that customer variance is now the norm rather than the exception, and that brands must increasingly adapt to niches rather than continuing blanket approaches to selling their products. [More]

Implications - Moving a step beyond simply improving consumers' health overall, beverages are being marketed as functional products that solve specific physical ailments consumers are facing. Creating a sense of personalization and catering to consumers' desire to enhance their wellness, this shift reflects a change in how consumers view food and beverage products more broadly, specifically as a means to bringing them closer to who they want to become. [More]