Translating Trends into New Products
The true art of trend tracking comes in the strategic translation of trends into meaningful new food products. Employ a variety of strategies for translating trends.
CCD uses consumer and culinary trends to inform initial product strategies and to align products with consumer needs. By looking closely at relevant overarching consumer trend drivers, we can drill down into the culinary arena to translate.
Here’s an example. Let’s take the larger consumer trend of Customization. Ever since Burger King declared we could have it our way, American consumers increasingly demand custom products. We can now custom-design our own Mini Coopers and iPod playlists. How does this translate to the culinary arena? Look at Custom Burger, the Joie de Vivre Hotel restaurant in San Francisco where diners build their own burger by choosing a patty, bun type, toppings, and sauces from an extensive list. You can’t get any more custom than that! Burger ingredients include many culinary trends: American Kobe beef, fried Petaluma egg, arugula, and Ketchipotle.
Culinary trends also differentiate products, extend brands, and build bridges to new consumers. Just by looking closely at some cutting-edge herbs and spices we can see how this is accomplished. Add an unusual spice blend like Moroccan ras el hanout to create signature fries; flavor chicken dishes with unusual Asian herbs like lemongrass; attract heat seekers with a piri-piri sauce marinade.
Another way to translate trends is to cross trends to create white-space opportunities. If a quick-serve is looking to roll out a distinctive new handheld snack, it could cross the Health and Wellness trend with the Ethnic trend to yield savory empanadas, Indian dosas, or even frozen Mexican ice pops or paletas.
From these few examples we can see the strategic role culinary and consumer trends can play throughout the food-product development process and how translating trends can yield exciting new products that resonate with consumers today.
As for what’s trendy? Today’s emerging trend is “kokumi.” If you don’t have a clue what that is, believe me, you will.