Many major companies are posting their predicted 2019 top trends that will influence the industry in the future. A good amount of the survey responses also wanted me to focus on trends.
Trends are important, but the industry is moving faster and faster. How can you even keep up? This year, instead of looking for trends, I’m looking at opportunities.
In food, you have to be in this for the long haul, which is ironic because the trends move so fast. The trends I chose will not fizzle out and die and if you start now, you will probably be an expert in about 2 years.
If you dare go all in and focus on a specific subject, then look into these budding trends. As the slower companies adapt, they will be looking at you for expertise.
Here we go.
Alt Animal Products
With animal advocacy, nutritional benefits, and sustainability efforts at an all-time focus, this makes sense. It makes a statement.
If where you are currently working at uses animal products, perhaps it can be your job to find an alternative or create a plant-based version. Maybe it’ll be cheaper and more sustainable. Taking initiative in this type of product will make you valuable. Showing the non-believers that what you create is not only tastier, but healthier and better for the planet brings a very powerful skill set that will make you valuable in any company. This trend is not going away. As more people are realizing meat’s pretty bad and want to eat less of it, people will appreciate that your product cares about the environment.
Turning animal-based products into plant-based was actually my specialty in Isagenix. I worked on creating a plant-based protein bar and a plant-based protein chip to supplement the food products on Isagenix. Not only do those initiatives taught me how the plant-based industry worked, how they tasted and how they react, but a lot of these skills are transferable to well, plant-based meat and most likely with every other plant-based products out there.
As one LA businessman put it, not having a vegan option is like burning money. Start with that when you pitch your manager.
We recently talked to someone who oversees a pretty big meat operation and he talked about animal byproducts. Though many are vital, the dependence of supply for each by-product becomes a messy chain reaction. For example, leather is in less demand, so we have all of these cow carcasses that go to waste. There are thousands of products that use animal by-products so there is no excuse not to find innovation in this category.
I’ll also lump in clean meat in this category. It’s starting to bubble up in many places. New startups, new methods, and new communities. This technology will take a few years before it becomes commercializable so the perfect time to become an expert in the subject is now.
If you’re interested in learning about more opportunities in the clean meat space, Paul Shapiro wrote a great article about the trends of 2019.
Supply Chain Technology
One could argue that these recalls are a good thing because now people know about them, and we have the technology to find the cause very fast. The recall culture has changed for the better and it is a great example of transparency in the industry. I’m sure some people in the world correlate frequent recalls with a worst food system, but that is a different issue.
With my talks with Inscatech and FoodLogiq and Mars, food supply chain is very complex and it’s been amazing to learn more about it through these wonderful guests. I think the biggest issue is that people don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, and nobody knows where to draw the line. How much should the consumer actually know?
An opportunity in this is exactly that. Who will be the first to share something new that people want to hear? What people want to hear isn’t necessarily always good, but it’s always important. People wanted to hear about glyphosate, and people want to hear about the potato farmer in Idaho.
As more food companies pop up, perhaps the best weapon to gain trust in your consumers is transparency. It’s a great buzzword, but being 100% transparent makes your product not unique and so a balance has to be met to stay competitive. How far will you go?
Flash-In-The-Pan Ingredients
Chickpea and Cricket protein have popped up as commercializable options in the realm of proteins.
CBD, raw cacao, and other products are now going into a volatility state.
These are what I call flash-in-the-pan ingredients. People are banking a lot on certain ingredients that may or may not be the next big thing.
The most prominent of these ingredients is CBD, and it mirrors the irrationality of bitcoin. Not that it will never be successful, there is a huge chance that it can be, but that everyone thinks they’ll become millionaires if they go all in early. Most food conferences have a CBD panel that gets packed to the brim. It’s a gold rush, which has a similar air to bitcoin. The issue I had with bitcoin is that so many people proclaim that they are experts, but could not explain any of it in a single sentence. There are signs of that in the CBD industry.
So besides my rant on CBD, it is a hot, trendy ingredient. So were blueberries, coconut oil, raspberry ketones, alkaline water etc. It can work, but can it really help the world? Keep this in mind when it comes to becoming an expert at something. Sure, your ingredient might help someone lose weight, or be happier, but is that really how you want to impact the world? Especially with so many issues going on right now? Reconsider when you see a trendy ingredient. You might rationalize, because you spent so much time or money on the trend, that it will bring good to the world, but will it really?
If you’re in it for the money, perhaps the best thing to do is to recognize how things trend, and capitalize on that. It is definitively true that if you made the right call, you can make a lot of money becoming an expert on a trendy ingredient. I can’t tell you how many consultants are now experts in CBD products. Understanding how these types of ingredients go viral and how they become regulated is an evergreen skill that will make you very valuable.
Food With Impact
Food waste, food that supports farmers, food that can help the planet all fall into these categories. There are many issues that plague the world and branding your food as a way to save something is pretty cool.
However, blowing up can actually have its consequences in this regard. There was a great article from the New Food Economy about how a company who wanted to promote bison meat did more harm than good. Palm and Coconut oil, known for their saturated fat properties, solved the transfat issue but gave us deforestation issues.
Both big and small companies are looking in ways where the ingredients that they use can tell the story of the people who make them and this type of statement is very powerful in the premium market. Many companies such as Regrained, are getting funded to solve the issue of food waste, while big companies like Mars are making statements about supporting their farming supply chain.
As we as a general public understand where our food comes from, an opportunity right from the get-go that has been budding its head is “who is making it?” This is of course, very challenging in a supply chain perspective because the chocolate you eat might be a blend. Yet coffee and chocolate producers are focusing much more on single origin and ethically sourced products.
The consumers want to feel good when they buy your product and communicating the importance of who buys what is really important. Soom foods has done this with a single source tahini sauce and has weaved a great story in regards to how the sisters found this source.
As more ethnic food goes into the market, the ability to tell the story of where it comes from becomes extremely valuable as it shows not only transparency but authority.
Overall, food companies that can clearly promote the story of where their food comes from will generally make a more trusting food entity, while also convincing people slowly, that food is complex, and should be appreciated.
Who Do You Serve?
Since I study marketing a lot, a lot of the top marketers are shifting perspectives when it comes to selling products. It’s to shun the non-believers and focus on serving the people that like your product.
Perhaps it’s better to have 10 people who love you than 100 people who like you.
Today is not the time where you have to have everyone like your product. In the past, that was definitively the case but now, you can serve a specific part of the population and still reap the rewards.
Whether the focus is location, demographic, or cause, focusing and caring for these people might bring you a bit more joy in your heart. Do you have to be the best plantain chip in the world or will your hometown do for now?
The food industry is now in a situation where they can make a product for everyone. With the ability to gather data, iterate in months and test out markets, the philosophy of product development is shifting. It’s not quite how the tech industry does it with Minimum Viable Products, but it’s very close. Since food costs physical resources, it is an incredibly expensive maneuver to deliver crap to your intended audience and reiterate. However, it is an opportunity to slowly create different flavors that have a slightly different formula and cycle through like that. With the trend now being a new, hit flavor every month, this gives the ability for companies to sneak in cleaner labels, or better ingredients. This is kind of what I did when we introduced new bar flavors at Isagenix.
So the direction that you can take, no matter if you’re an entrepreneur or working in a big company is to just keep on making things better for your intended audience. This doesn’t have to be your customers, but perhaps your boss, or the C-suite team, or the decision makers who make your idea come to life. Care for them, make sure your intent is clear and what you’re doing not only benefits them, but you as well. Maybe that’s the secret to move up in this world.
Extremely interesting.