re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store

SN SPECIAL REPORT
ADV E RTIS EM EN T
RE-ENERGIZING A KEY AISLE OF THE RETAIL FOOD STORE
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SN SPECIAL REPORT
Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Get ready for a
massive warm front from the
frozen foods aisle that melts
consumers’ chill.
It’s fast approaching. To fire up
frozen foods – by appealing
in new ways, making it easier
to shop, and engaging key
shopper groups - brand
manufacturers and retailers are
busy innovating in products and
packaging, marketing and instore placement.
As a result, some experts say
the aisle could soon become a
more frequent destination for
a multitude of tasty, convenient
meal solutions and dessert
indulgences. This would usher
in better performance and a
higher shopping-list presence
for frozen foods.
“Frozen foods can play a role
in being a very complementary
and fun category to the rest of
the store. Cold can be cool,”
says Neil Stern, senior partner,
McMillan Doolittle LLP, in
Chicago.
New approaches make frozen
foods aisle a cool place to shop
R
etailers and brands are in
sync about re-invigorating
the frozen foods aisle by
making it more meal solutionsdriven and consumer-centric.
To be seen as integral to a nation
that wants to eat healthier, but has
less time to prepare meals and a
notably restless palate, frozenfood marketers of meals and sides
continue to:
r develop better ingredient profiles
in their products
r add varieties and call out product claims that are in
demand today, such
as gluten-free and
low-sodium
so dinner is often the same dish for
everyone. But frozen foods can be
part of an otherwise cooked meal to
suit individual tastes. It’s not ‘either
or,’ it’s ‘mix and match.’ A host can
serve a fresh salad and complement
mains with a quality frozen entrée,
sides and dessert.”
Many frozen food brands also
engage key Millennial and Boomer
segments with updated media
mixes that include more social
platforms and instructional websites with meal ideas – to get on
the shopping list early in the trip
Improve visual prompts
Better in-store visuals (including
digital media to attract more Millennials) are another way retailers
can help shoppers locate frozen
products they want more easily,
r emphasize how the
freezing process locks
in nutrients at their
harvest peak
r improve packaging
technologies for even
easier meal prep that
retains food appearance, texture,
taste and nutritional worth
r innovate new dishes, often with
celebrity chefs, and add popular
ethnic flavors to satisfy demand
for new tastes and boost the
possibilities for mix-and-match
meals at home that include fresh
and frozen components.
Personalize and engage
“What better way to deliver personalization than with frozen foods?”
poses Gary Stibel, managing partner, principal, founder and CEO of
New England Consulting Group, in
Norwalk, CT. “The average home
cook makes six or seven things well,
planning process, and raise aisle
traffic beyond the estimated 1 in 5
shoppers who currently look in the
frozen doors on any given trip.
Collaborate to win
Moreover, brands collaborate with
retailers to make frozen foods
more accessible, appealing and
ready for impulse sales within the
store. This increasingly involves
secondary displays of frozen
foods in open coffins near meat,
seafood and produce to encourage
mix-and-match meal decisions,
and near checkout for impulse
indulgences such as ice cream and
desserts. Supermarkets such as
“The average home cook makes six or
seven things well, so dinner is often the
same dish for everyone. But frozen foods
can be part of an otherwise cooked meal
to suit individual tastes.”
– Gary Stibel, managing partner, principal, founder
and CEO of New England Consulting Group
28 SN April 21, 2014
Kroger and ShopRite also display
select frozen foods in their clubpack aisles to help compete against
wholesale clubs such as Costco.
This Easter, for instance, ShopRite
is displaying large 50-count tubs of
Delizza Patisserie mini-cream puffs
and eclairs in its club-pack area.
encourage browsing, improve
product visibility behind glass
doors, and quicken purchase decisions. “Better way finding is critical
to help customers navigate,” says
Neil Stern, senior partner, McMillan Doolittle LLP, in Chicago.
Stern suggests that stores and
brands take new steps to stir
consumer interest, guide traffic in
time-efficient, welcoming ways,
and match frozen foods to shopper
goals for variety, taste, convenience, health and portion control:
r Show Web-enabled videos so
customers can see selections and
what products look like finished
and ready to consume.
r Highlight the variety of thousands of frozen SKUs – over “x”
organic meals, “x” gluten-free,
1,000+ entrees, and so on.
r Connect the frozen food department to the home kitchen
through graphics that warm the
department’s image – move it
away from a cold and sterile feel.
r Selectively deploy spot merchandise displayers, and devote the
necessary attention to keep them
well stocked to drive impulse
sales. O
supermarketnews.com
Chicken burgers from the #1 chicken
sausage brand*, now in the freezer case.
Drive freezer sales with al fresco!
NE W
The chicken sausage segment is growing 3x faster than the overall dinner sausage category –
proof that consumers are seeking delicious and healthy alternatives to help them live and eat better.
Call Chris Reisner at (617) 889-1600 x258 or email alfrescosales@kayem.com to find out more.
Samples available now! 1st ship February 2014 . Also look for al fresco frozen meatballs coming this spring!
*AC Nielsen Grocery Unit Volume 52 wk thru 09.28.13
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SN SPECIAL REPORT
Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Experts: The many ways to
reinvent and uplift frozens
G
ary Stibel, CEO, New
England Consulting
Group, points to a coffee analogy to illustrate today’s
potential to dramatically uplift
frozen foods - and turn the $50
billion+ industry from the hibernating giant it’s behaved like
lately into an inventive aisle fully
tuned in to how consumers shop
and eat today.
To reinvent the frozen food
aisle calls for bold new thinking, messaging and positioning,
urges Raymond Jones, managing director, Dechert-Hampe
quality, convenience and yearround availability, and fed it to
their kids (Boomers), who grew
up eating them and are still major buyers – Millennials perceive
the aisle differently, says Jones.
To many of them, “anything not
fresh is anathema, except for ice
cream. They view frozen foods
as their parents’ or grandparents’
thing.”
This generalization doesn’t account for the appeal of betterWhile Seniors saw frozen foods
for-you products, portable
as a solution - they liked the
breakfast foods, and international tastes that resonate with the
younger set. But it does point
out the stark contrast between,
say, restaurants that constantly
introduce new flavors and presentations vs. the sterile frozen
foods aisle. Jones rhetorically
asks, “Are you really competing with fresh preparation of
other foods in the supermarket,
or with what people are being
introduced to in restaurants?”
He urges retailers to trend-spot
in eateries, bring in frozen versions of what sells there such as
Thai food, and sell that newness
– Raymond Jones, managing aggressively as part of the dedirector, Dechert-Hampe & Co. partment’s image makeover.
To many Millennials
“anything not fresh
is anathema, except
for ice cream. They
view frozen foods
as their parents’ or
grandparents’ thing.”
Continued on page 32
What Millennials, Boomers
want from frozens
Frozen Food Attribute Hierarchy
Millennials
A
Boomers
Z
Taste/Quality
Convenience/Speed
Expense/Cost
Health/Ingredients
Quantity/Satiety
Millennials aren’t a homogeneous group, says Brian Davis,
senior project manager, New England Consulting Group.
“That’s because younger, better educated, higher-income
Millennials, most of whom are still single (See Table, Column
A) are very different – and eat differently than – the older,
less well educated, lower-income Millennials (Column Z),
who are usually married with kids. Boomers, despite their
own differences, are more homogeneous than Millennials.”
(The darker a circle in the Table, the more heavily a particular
group emphasizes its importance.) “The frozen foods industry
has to convert Millennials as they transition from being
single, carefree eaters in restaurants to being more costconscious family heads,” Davis adds.
Meanwhile, Phil Lempert, known as the SupermarketGuru,
cites the emergence of the “IndieWoman” in his trends for
2014. She represents a critically important Millennial segment. Almost 31 million strong, the “IndieWoman” is 27 and
older, lives alone, has no children, and spends $50 billion on
food and beverages each year. She has no time, so looks for
brands to offer more semi-homemade meals that use fresh,
high-quality ingredients, such as multi-serve frozen meals.
Lempert also says Millennials make the supermarket social:
57% of Pinterest is food-related content – and one-third of
respondents to a PriceGrabber survey say they have bought
food or cooking items after seeing them on site. Next up will
be “click to buy” for consumers wanting to purchase ingredients for a recipe they see on social media and have them
delivered, Lempert predicts.
30 SN April 21, 2014
supermarketnews.com
Source: New England Consulting Group
He describes how “coffee sales
were declining years ago, the
beverage had an unhealthy
image, its price was cheap, and
it didn’t taste very good. Since
then, CPG brands capitalized on
a trend reversal that began with
Starbucks in foodservice. The
coffee brands in supermarkets
used Starbucks to rethink how
consumers relate to coffee – in a
fashion that brought them back
to hot, to quality, and to higher
prices. We also know now that
coffee is reasonably good for
you. Frozen food brands should
be able to follow in the footsteps
of coffee’s reinvention.”
& Co., Trumbull, CT. “If you
want to fire up frozens, the first
thing you have to do is get away
from the notion of selling frozen
foods – and get to ‘we’re selling
meal solutions to consumers.’
That they’re frozen is simply
form following function. It is
a tag driven by operations. We
don’t identify cereal by its package. We have to ultimately think
more about the end-consumer
usage of these products.”
NEW al fresco all natural chicken meatballs,
coming soon to the freezer case!
76.4%
-1.1%
-4.5%
Total Meatball
Category
Turkey
Meatballs
Chicken
Meatballs
al fresco helped drive HUGE GROWTH
in the chicken meatball category*.
Today’s customers want to eat better, and all natural, gluten free al fresco chicken meatballs are exactly what they’re
looking for: gourmet flavors without fillers, 60% less fat and 40% less sodium than beef and pork meatballs.
Call Chris Reisner at (617) 889-1600 x258 or email alfrescosales@kayem.com to find out more.
Samples available now! 1st ship August 2014
*AC Nielsen Grocery Unit Volume 52 wk thru 02.18.14
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Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Continued from page 30
He also thinks frozen foods
could perform better once
retailers assort strategically - to
suit how family structures and
lifestyles are changing across
America, since these societal
shifts affect food consumption
patterns. About half of all adult
meals are eaten alone, so it’s
counterproductive trying to sell
larger serving sizes. To refine
further, single-serve assortments should vary with different
population groups in local markets: a young man in a Chicago
apartment may want gluten-free,
while his grandma in Tampa
prefers an easy to heat-andeat meal choice. Millennials
especially graze – they may
have six mini-meals a day - so
sell them food to be consumed
on the go such as pizza snacks,
hors d’oeuvres, and breakfast
sandwiches, advises Jones.
Since many Millennials focus on
eating healthier, it also pays to
assort organic, gluten-free, natural and calorie-control choices
in frozen foods, adds Jones:
“Manufacturers are bringing
these items out. Retailers should
offer them as solutions to entice
Millennials to overcome their
reticence over buying frozen
foods.”
The more effective the solution selling, the less younger
consumers will continue to perceive the frozen-food aisle as “a
monolithic presence that hasn’t
changed in decades, and that
they have a hard time interacting with,” says Jones.
Jones agrees with Neil Stern,
senior partner, McMillan
Doolittle LLP, that better signs
are urgently needed - especially
digital messages for Millennials - to point out new items with
better ingredient mixes, identify
meal occasions, and improve the
shopping experience. He cites
two findings of his own research
for clients:
r Up to 25%-30% of shoppers
who enter a frozen-foods aisle
walk out empty-handed because they can’t find what they
are looking for, or nothing
struck them.
r The average shopping trip
has shortened to about 20
minutes. This leaves perhaps
two minutes to visit the frozen
food aisle, an encounter that
is typically triggered by ads
in the chain’s circular, which
means it is often price-driven.
To build traffic in the frozen
foods aisle, it would be better, he
a taste of Mexico,
India or Thailand
with sampling
“would bring
shoppers in on
an adventure, for
a more defined
purpose than a
savings deal,”
— Neil Stern, senior partner,
McMillan Doolittle LLP
says, to create special events and
occasions rather than heavily
emphasize discount promotions.
For example, a taste of Mexico,
India or Thailand with sampling
“would bring shoppers in on an
adventure, for a more defined
purpose than a savings deal,”
he says. Other starter thoughts:
Have breakfast with a friend
today. Bring ice cream to a local
youth baseball game.
In the same vein, Stern suggests
the introduction of Korean
cuisine and a line of entrees
inspired by food trucks. He also
thinks crowdsourcing could
effectively engage consumers in
the frozen food aisle. “Involve
customers in the creation and
selection of new items,” he said,
citing an ice cream brand that
“did a great job of this creating city-inspired flavors last
summer.”
Once “you get shoppers to come
to frozens, they’ll probably buy
an item and maybe another.
A person might evolve from
buying a breakfast sandwich
the first time to fuller meals
later on,” states Jones. He notes
how seasonal promotions in the
candy aisle attract shoppers who
buy both seasonal and everyday
candies on the same trip.
Yet when stores do price-promote frozen foods, he advocates
the use of end-aisle freezer cases
as an effective tactic. “In contrast with shelf-stable products
in center-store, where retailers
can pack out enough inventory
to support a three-to-five times
deal lift, there’s finite space to
display frozen items, which
could otherwise make a retailer
go out of stock.” O
Getting social
with frozen
food consumers
T
he media mix of Al Fresco brand could represent how
many smaller to mid-size brands - lacking majormedia dollars - could make inroads with targeted
audiences such as Millennials, and possibly earn category
visibility at food stores in the process. Says Sarah Crowley,
the company’s director of marketing: “If you don’t satisfy
Millennials’ information needs about your products, they’ll
find it elsewhere. They’ve multitasked their whole lives.”
Its main components are: a brand website with recipes and
product information; a newsletter with 180,000 opt-in subscribers, up from 127,000 a year earlier; a national partnership with the Food Network TV, magazine and online; and
social media efforts headed by a specialist hired last year.
The central reason for this mix is that the brand’s users are
digitally savvy. Some 40% of its newsletter subscribers use
their smartphones to pull up recipes in the aisle; each recipe
creates a specific shopping list, so it is actionable on that
store visit. Moreover, in 2013, 11% of website visitors reached
it via a mobile phone, but by February 2014, that figure
soared to 34%.
The dedicated social media manager posts, tweets and pins
at least 20 times a day and responds to every consumer post
or comment. As a result, each month Al Fresco generates
2 million views on Facebook and 300,000 recipe views on
Pinterest. “Facebook is where every brand should be and do
it right. You have a one-to-one relationship with consumers
everyday. It’s quick and truthful,” states Crowley, noting an
important retail twist: it can do retailer-specific messages.
She explains, for example, that Al Fresco can message its
84,000 Facebook fans by zip code that overlap Publix trading
areas so they know about product availability, coupons and
promotions in Publix stores. In addition, Publix has more
than 1 million followers, so the brand can send paid messages to their fans. Similar programs are possible with other
retailers. “These days, social media has to be integrated into
everything you do. Millennials expect you to communicate
with them that way,” Crowley adds.
The brand measures engagement with these metrics for the
past 12 months: 165,000 sweepstakes entries (vote for your
favorite Al Fresco recipe); 42,000 new Facebook likes (84,000
total); plus the rise in e-newsletter opt-ins.
It will soon launch a new sweepstakes with The Food
Network and will be a sponsor for the network’s first-ever
concert event in September. O
32 SN April 21, 2014
supermarketnews.com
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Capturing the halo effect of fresh
A
large-scale industrywide advertising campaign, due for imminent
launch, is designed to lift consumer interest in frozen foods
and remind America about how
the freezing process locks in
nutrients and makes healthful
foods convenient to eat anytime
of year.
This message crystallizes much
of what major brands and retailers have been doing recently –
that is, aim to successfully link
relevant frozen-food categories
and products (such as vegetables, fruit, and entrees with
natural ingredient upgrades and
packaging technologies that protect nutrients) with consumers’
growing desire to eat healthier.
Why? Consumers often think
‘healthy’ means ‘fresh’ and
increasingly shift their sales to
store perimeters.
As people flock to fresh, they
may overlook other healthful
choices within the frozen foods
aisle (and other areas of the
supermarket) that also marry
longer shelf lives than perimeter
foods, as well as convenience
and value. To the extent consumers can be swayed to think
of frozen foods as worthy augments or alternative choices, frozen foods can be seen as integral
to more eating occasions. To
appeal to millions of consumers
with specific dietary preferences,
the artful uses of packages, signs
and media messages that call out
low-sodium, gluten-free and organic claims are both persuasive
and directional.
“There’s no question the industry has to step up and educate
average consumers on why we
freeze food to begin with – it is
good for you,” says Gary Stibel,
CEO, New England Consulting
Group.
To associate frozens with health
is to associate with the most
powerful trend driving supermarket sales today. The 2014
National Grocers AssociationSupermarketGuru Consumer
Survey Report notes that
“supermarkets command the
fresh-food spend within their
trading areas. The highest level
in the survey’s history, 85.9%
of respondents say they spend
supermarketnews.com
more than half of their freshfood dollars in supermarkets.
This is up from 84.3% in the
prior two years. This…dovetails with consumers’ desire to
eat healthier – as well as with
nutritionists’ and dietitian’s rise
in consumer recognition.” These
findings suggest that retail nutritionists, either in-store speaking with customers, or on the
chain website, could help build
rightful nutritional credibility
for appropriate products in the
frozen food aisle.
“The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has long maintained
that frozen vegetables and fruit
are similar to raw,” states The
Wall Street Journal, also noting
“U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) dietary guidelines make
no nutritional distinctions between fresh, frozen and canned
produce except to avoid foods
with added salt or sugar.
“At a typical supermarket, frozen
produce may be as vitaminrich as fresh,” it adds, because
nutrients escape from fruits
and vegetables when exposed
to heat, light and oxygen during transport, sitting in store
displays, and in homes before
being eaten.
Both older and recent research
studies support this. The
Journal of Science of Food and
Agriculture noted in 2007 that
nutritional equality is possible between fresh and frozen,
depending on how crops are
stored and processed. In 2013,
the Frozen Food Foundation
partnered with the University of
Georgia to compare the nutrient content of fresh and frozen
blueberries, strawberries, corn,
broccoli, cauliflower, green
beans, green peas and spinach.
Items bought at six independent
grocery stores were analyzed
under three conditions: frozen,
fresh (on the day of purchase)
and fresh-stored (after five days
of storage in a kitchen refrigerator). “Our research shows that
frozen fruits and vegetables are
nutritionally equal to – and in
some cases better than – their
fresh counterparts,” says Dr.
Ronald Pegg, associate professor at University of Georgia.
“In particular, Vitamin A was
greater in frozen fruits and vegetables than select fresh-stored
fruits and vegetables.” Adds Dr.
Elizabeth Pivonka, president and
CEO of the Produce for Better
Health Foundation, “Fresh and
frozen produce have minor nutritional variances and provide a
wide range of valuable nutrients
essential for good health.”
Other experts agree. In her
Grocery Manufacturers Association blog, Sarah Levy, RD,
nutrition and health analyst,
states, “Fresh produce provides
your body with an abundance
of important vitamins and
minerals. However, the notion
that all other forms of fruits
and vegetables are nutritionally
inferior is untrue.” She cites the
FDA: “Canned as well as frozen
fruits and vegetables can be
used interchangeably in the diet
with, and are just as helpful as,
raw fruits and vegetables.” And
the newest Farm Bill, passed
by Congress in February 2014,
expands USDA’s Fresh Fruit and
Vegetable Program to include a
new one-year $5 million pilot
program for elementary schools
in five states to test the efficacy
of serving canned, dried and
frozen fruits and vegetables as
snacks to low-income school
children during the 2014-2015
academic year. Congress will
be able to evaluate results and
consider permanent expansion
with the 2015 reauthorization of
the Child Nutrition Act.
Consumers respond to
purer products, easier
shopping experiences
Large and small manufacturers
in many frozen-food categories
aim to improve the nutritional
profiles of their products (lower
sodium, gluten-free), and invest
in packaging technologies to
retain nutrients, taste and tex-
ture during heating. Meanwhile,
new entrants to the aisle aim
to differentiate through simple
nutrition panels and natural
ingredients.
“Shoppers scrutinize labels. They
look for what’s in a product, and
what’s not in a product,” says
Sarah Crowley, director of marketing, Kayem Foods, in Chelsea,
MA, which has recently expanded
distribution of its segment-leading Al Fresco Chicken Sausages
from the refrigerator case into the
frozen food aisle as well. “This
awareness of food content crosses
all demographics,” she notes,
citing Kayem’s own research,
which prompted it this winter
to launch Al Fresco Gourmet
Chicken Grillers as an alternative
to beef burgers. This landed the
brand within a growth section
of frozens, where it has opportunities to promote with buns
and condiments and grow retail
Continued on page 36
April 21, 2014 SN 33
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SN SPECIAL REPORT
Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Engaging consumers to think fresh when
shopping the frozen aisle
By Kraig R. Naasz
C
onsumers entering their local
grocery store today are being
increasingly encouraged to shop
certain aisles and stay away from others.
Shoppers are being told to avoid “processed” foods and skip the center aisles
when making their grocery lists and filling their shopping carts.
While misguided, this message is clearly
resonating with consumers. Food makers
and retailers are all too familiar with the
impact, as they’ve watched both foot traffic
and sales decline in the frozen food aisle.
To reverse this trend, frozen food makers
and their retail partners must engage
consumers in a new and much more robust conversation about the category.
There’s a simple truth that must be
conveyed to consumers: “Frozen is how
fresh stays fresh.” Enter the Frozen Food
Roundtable.
Through the Roundtable, leading frozen
food makers and retailers are developing
a first-of-its-kind category promotion
campaign. Organized under the auspices
of the American Frozen Food Institute
(AFFI), the Roundtable is launching a
positive, multi-year, multi-million dollar,
consumer-facing nationwide campaign.
Our goal is to change the way
consumers think and feel about
frozen foods and bring them back
into the frozen food aisle.
The Roundtable is comprised of AFFI
member companies ConAgra Foods,
General Mills, Heinz North America,
Hillshire Brands, Jasper Wyman & Sons,
Kellogg Company, Nestlé USA, Pinnacle
Foods, the Schwan Food Company and
Seneca Foods.
To fully engage the consumer, the
Roundtable will deploy a multi-faceted,
surround sound campaign utilizing
traditional and digital advertising, a
robust public relations program to engage
food and nutrition thought-leaders and
influencers, and a comprehensive retailer
engagement platform.
To change perceptions, and ultimately
shopping behavior, the Roundtable will
engage consumers at home, on-the-go
and in the grocery store.
To bring the campaign to life at the
retail level, the Roundtable will provide
retailers with a suite of digital assets
through an online resources portal. These
assets will be made available to retailers
for in-house printing and customization,
and include door clings, shelf danglers,
digital banners, social media content,
e-mail and circular templates and a 25
second tag-able television spot.
This approach and these materials have
been developed based on feedback the
Roundtable received from a survey of
leading retailers and our participation at
the National Grocers Association
show in February.
Participating retailers are represented on the Roundtable’s Retail
Advisory Council, where they can
provide feedback and direction
to fully optimize the campaign
to achieve maximum consumer
engagement.
We have also engaged the Acosta
Marketing Group to help facilitate
retailer involvement and assist
retailers in accessing and deploying campaign assets.
The response to date among
participating retailers has been
tremendous, with retailers both
large and small across the country
expressing a keen willingness to
leverage the campaign to help
drive increased traffic and sales.
Given the scope and size of this
unique endeavor, it is not the
least bit surprising that the campaign has generated immense
34 SN April 21, 2014
interest throughout the frozen food
industry. Over and over we’ve heard that
the time is ripe to begin a new conversation with consumers.
The Roundtable began seeding this conversation through a public relations effort
last November to promote the findings of
a just-completed “market basket” study
commissioned by the Frozen Food Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit
organization committed to supporting
research and education efforts that highlight the positive attributes and benefits
of frozen foods.
The Foundation-commissioned study,
conducted by the University of Georgia,
compared the nutritional profile of frozen
fruits and vegetables to that of their
fresh-stored counterparts. This groundbreaking study conclusively demonstrated
that frozen fruits and vegetables are as
nutritionally rich as, and in many cases
packed with more nutrients and vitamins
than, their fresh counterparts.
Our efforts to promote the study’s findings generated more than 340 television
news broadcasts, 1,100 print placements
and over 106 million media impressions
over two months.
get the message that freezing is simply
nature’s pause button, nothing more and
nothing less. The Roundtable will utilize
this messaging framework to engage and
encourage consumers looking for tasty
and nutritious foods to think frozen and
shop the frozen food aisle.
Our campaign is a unique undertaking by
frozen food makers and retailers to invite
consumers to take a fresh look at frozen
foods.
By partnering with retailers of all shapes
and sizes, and in all regions of the
country, the Roundtable’s campaign will
play a pivotal role encouraging shoppers
to make that turn down the frozen food
aisle and fill their carts with freshly made
frozen foods.
I invite you to contact me at info@frozenfoodroundtable.org or (703) 821-0770 to
learn more about how your company can
become a Roundtable campaign partner. O
Naasz is president and
CEO of the American
Frozen Food Institute.
Millions of Americans are beginning to
supermarketnews.com
Join leading frozen food makers
in a new consumer campaign
touting frozen:
info@frozenfoodroundtable.org
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Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Continued from page 33
transactions.
“Convenient, better-for-you items
command premium prices, especially with the economy improving
and people starting to spend more
on food,” adds Crowley. “Consumers do feel more confident, but we
still have to earn the incremental
spend since everyone is so used
to being frugal. Category managers are happy to see these items.
Why not find ways to showcase
them, such as with separate cases
for cross promotions, sampling,
signage and in-store coupons.”
Such efforts could help frozen
foods blend more successfully with
the rhythms of shopper trips. For
much of the frozen foods aisle, the
fundamental of being seen behind
glass doors is challenge enough.
Manufacturers say packages in the
freezer case require glamorous
beauty shots to have appetite appeal
and capture consumers’ attention. These photos, leveraged by
good retailer presentation, need to
“Convenient,
better-for-you items
command premium
prices, especially
with the economy
improving and
people starting to
spend more on food,”
— Sarah Crowley, director of
marketing, Kayem Foods
For Tejada, the frozen foods aisle
“needs to look to new products that
reflect the ever-changing business
landscape. Consumers want more
natural, healthy and authentic
products in an inviting environment that’s easy to shop.”
People also like to treat themselves. The same highly visual
merchandising approach helps
stimulate impulsive purchases of
thaw-and-serve indulgent desserts.
Package readability and visibility are both essential to the Top
Operations
excellence vital
to frozen-food
performance
R
etailers will soon push for more productivity and
operations excellence from frozen foods, as smaller
store formats become more common and potentially squeeze departmental space. Also, they’ll have to
compete increasingly with AmazonFresh home delivery
and other online merchants, perhaps with their own
delivery or online order/store pickup services that include
frozen foods.
The social contract between food retailers and frozen food
brands calls for stores to keep the cold-chain integrity in
place, and to make buying the 3,000+ SKUs in the typical
aisle easy and safe for consumers. This requires excellence
in refrigeration, which in turn means an unseen, behindthe-scenes performance at moving refrigerant throughout
the system as well as in separate outpost coolers.
SUPERIOR
A S HER W OOD COMPAN Y
make the consumer visualization of
how they’d prepare, serve and eat
these foods at home easier.
Since glass doors impede shopper intimacy with products – and
shoppers want to understand
products “in more
detail” than ever, says
Luis Tejada, vp-sales at
Goya Foods, Secaucus,
NJ – the brand has
moved towards packages that allow the
food inside to be seen.
“We believe seeing
the actual products
fosters a trust of quality and authenticity,”
he adds.
Therefore, Goya’s
see-through bags of
a line extension of
Discos (dough for
turnover pastries)
prominently state
“For Baking.” The
item provides an
alternative to frying, and retains the
authentic taste of
the original Discos. Other Goya
packages prominently combine
36 SN April 21, 2014
natural ingredients with healthful
and exotic taste appeals. Among
these: Packages of fruit pulp,
primarily used to make shakes,
call out “100% Pure & Natural.” Its
steamable bags of vegetables have
vivid colors and up-close images.
10 category sell-through rate of
Delizza Patisserie European-style
pastries – which are differentiated by a Belgian recipe and the
use of fresh dairy cream, eggs and
enriched wheat flour as about 75%
of its ingredients. “People want to
internationalize their palate. How
many Belgian beers are out there?
People buy them all the time,”
says Fred Liggero, vice presidentsales and marketing of Delizza, in
Battleboro, NC. “They also want to
eat fresher, all-natural ingredients.
“Our challenge is showing them
off,” Liggero adds, noting that
double-door endcap displays at the
end of frozens aisles help the brand
move 35% of its yearly volume
during peak home entertainment
season between Thanksgiving and
New Year.
Such displays will have to be
meticulously earned by any frozenfood manufacturer, in an era where
retailers such as Target eliminate
freezer space to make room for
displays of more dairy yogurts, and
where supermarket giants such as
Kroger and Ahold develop private
labels in attempts to reap higher
margins from successful niches in
frozens. O
The goals, according to Superior, a Sherwood Company,
are to eliminate or reduce refrigerant leaks, maximize efficiencies and lower operating costs, says Dino Sciullo, vice
president-marketing of the parent firm based in Washington, PA. “Leaks are costly in terms of operating cost, food
waste, downtime, and unsightliness to shoppers if they see
puddles. If there’s frost on a door, something is going on,
and shoppers can’t see the products. So valves, in a way,
can connect directly to frozen sell-through rates.”
Several developments in frozen food cases and the rebirth
of natural refrigerants excite Sciullo, who observes:
r New doors weigh less and are easier to open, and new
showcases use LED lights to add aesthetic appeal to food
products.
r Carbon dioxide, which is easier on the environment
than today’s refrigerants, is becoming a potential refrigerant of the future – and the valves Sherwood produces
can handle the higher pressures. “CO2 systems are providing supermarkets a new alternative to become more
cost-effective in operations while positively affecting the
environment. There are a few technology hurdles with
dedicated CO2 systems, which many manufacturers
such as ourselves are working on to make CO2 systems
more affordable to comparable refrigerant systems,”
states Sciullo. “To be greener is a position retailers could
market to customers in their trading areas. And to be
able to operate the frozen foods aisle at lower cost could
be reflected in better selling prices to consumers.” O
supermarketnews.com
Do refrigerant leaks melt away your profits?
Save up to $3500 per year!
When a supermarket doesn’t rely on Superior valves, you can expect
a store to be less efficient. Non-Superior valves are responsible for
refrigerant loss every year. This means profits can quickly evaporate
— especially when you factor in the added costs of labor, downtime
and spoilage that can be associated with repairs.
For superior leak-free performance on all your refrigeration systems, count on valves
designed and manufactured by Superior. Our durable and robust valves use extraordinary
sealing systems to provide the best in leak protection. In addition, they are:
6 100% leak-tested under pressure to ensure customer satisfaction
6 Compatible with newer refrigerants like 407A and 407C to make remodel
projects worry-free
6 Rated for 700 PSIG service for higher-pressure refrigerants
6 Compliant with UL® and CE specifications
Put expensive refrigeration leaks on ice. Superior enables supermarkets to contain costs
and help save the environment.
Be sure to specify Superior — A Sherwood Company on all your commercial
refrigeration system projects.
888.508.2583
superior@sherwoodvalve.com
MADE IN USA
ADV ERTISEM ENT
SN SPECIAL REPORT
Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Aisle-wide goal: launch a new growth era
I
f numerous initiatives by
retailers and brands once
again place the frozen
food department on a markedly upward path, it would be a
most-welcomed performance.
In the 52 weeks ended January
18, 2014, dollar sales of frozen
foods (prepackaged UPC products only) edged up a bare 0.3%
to $50.4 billion, according to
Nielsen all-outlet U.S. data. This
was the smallest dollar gain in
four years of data available. In
the same period a year earlier,
dollar sales rose 1.5%. This
followed a 3.3% advance in the
comparable period ended in
2012, and a 1.3% gain in the
period ended early-2011.
On a unit basis, however, minus
signs mark the past three years.
A volume decline of 0.5% in
the most recent 52-week period
followed dips of 1.5% in 2013
and 0.9% in 2012, and a 1.5%
gain in the comparable period
ended early-2011, according to
Nielsen.
There are bright spots today to
build on and learn from within
the frozen foods aisle. The
Nielsen all-outlet database indicates that today’s most notable
ones include:
r Meal starters, up 35.7% in
dollar sales on a small base
so far to $55.6 million, a gain
achieved on a 75.9% unit
volume rise.
r Breakfast foods, up 6.4% to
$3.2 billion, growth achieved
on a 6.2% unit volume increase.
r Ice cream, up 1.4% to $5.9
billion, on a 2.0% unit volume
gain.
r Pizza and pizza snacks, up
1.9% to $6.2 billion, on a 0.7%
38 SN April 21, 2014
r Unprepared meat and seafood, up 1.3% to $5.9 billion,
albeit on a 2.4% unit volume
dip.
r Vegetables, up 0.6% to $5.3
billion, on a 2.2% unit volume
rise.
There are some clear retail innovators in frozen foods, whose
ideas engage consumers of every
generation, and position the
sector as a not-to-be-missed
part of the shopping trip. A few
examples:
r Safeway creates full-meal
impressions, using secondary
displays of frozen foods as
focal points. For instance, a
Cinco de Mayo promotion in
a mobile frozen case, wheeled
next to a dairy department
cheese display, could have a
frozen protein source surrounded by tortillas, guacamole, sour cream and a wine
rack above it.
r At Publix, a Make Italian
Tonight meal-solution display
is able to pair companion
items around a frozen protein
source, which is located in a
small, mobile unit and shown
in a highly visible location.
r In Trader Joe’s, the frozen
foods aisle is the center of
the store. Equipped only with
open showcases that maximize
product visibility and ease
access (no swinging doors to
impede traffic), shoppers face a
merchandising medley in this
aisle. Below are frozen varieties of international cuisines,
tempting desserts, fruits,
vegetables, breakfast foods
and center-plate meats and
seafoods. Above are numerous packaged, shelf-stable
sweet treats – cookies, candies,
crackers, sauces and seasonal.
The store relentlessly culls
slow movers from its mix to
rotate in new items with more
appeal, and this is true in frozens. A personal touch: store
staff sometimes roam the aisle,
engage shoppers in conversation about their food-shopping
mission and preferences, and
make specific purchase recommendations based on what
shoppers tell them.
“The store makes the trip seem
more like a culinary adventure
than a chore,” says Brian Davis,
senior project manager, New
England Consulting Group,
Norwalk, CT. Among the
unique, bold flavors he cites in
frozen foods: asparagus risotto,
shrimp with green curry and
jasmine rice, arugula pizza,
southwest salmon en croute,
and chicken tikka masala with
basmati rice. “Because Trader
Joe’s emphasizes specialty products, it sells more per square
foot than the vast majority of
supermarkets.”
Specialist retailers
demonstrate best
practices
Due to open at press time on
the Upper East Side of New
York City, Babeth’s Feast will
sell primarily frozen foods – in
a high-end specialty mix that
differs greatly from mainstream
supermarkets. Its 10 categories
of nearly 350 items include:
traditional French recipes,
breakfast items and pastries,
appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, and
sauces and spreads.
All are made of quality ingredients and flash-frozen to help
preserve taste and nutritive
value. Staff will advise on recipes
and menu planning, and cooking
demonstrations and tastings will
occur in store. The company
also sells online, has a social
media presence, and says it has
ambitions “to become a category
leader in frozen specialty food
across the United States.”
Picard is France’s leading frozen
foods retailer, posting 1.4 billion€ (Euros) in annual sales
from more than 920 stores
countrywide. The USDA Foreign
Agricultural Service describes its
mix as “high-end.” The company
itself says it sells 1,100 privatelabel items, supported by 200
new recipes a year.
A local blogger extolled the
chain for its cool ambience,
where staff stroll the aisles in
white lab coats while pushing
insulated shopping carts. Not
long ago, in 2010, Picard beat
out IKEA, Amazon and Sephora
as “French people’s favorite international chain” in an OC&C
study of 14,000 consumers, reported The Connexion, France’s
English-language newspaper.
Against a backdrop of 2.5% annual frozen foods sales growth
(Kantar Worldpanel data), the
Scottish retailer Farmfoods, a
frozen foods specialist in its
300+ stores, said its sales grew
by nearly 44% in the quarter
ended February 2, 2014, reported The Guardian. That would
make it the fastest-growing
grocer in the United Kingdom.
By contrast, a Kantar analyst
told the paper, Tesco and Morrisons sales fell, Asda was up just
0.5%, Aldi jumped 32% and Lidl
rose 17% in the period.
Value prices drive Farmfood’s appeal. Consider what
10£ (pounds) buys: a dozen
salmon filets, 3kg of chicken,
or 30 pork steaks. Your choice
for 1£ deals include branded
waffles, sausages, ice cream
bars, desserts, pizza, sandwiches and sides. The chain also
sells its own private label. O
“Because Trader Joe’s emphasizes specialty products, it sells
more per square foot than the vast majority of supermarkets.”
— Brian Davis, senior project manager, New England Consulting Group
Photo: courtesy of Flickr creative commons, daveynin
So it would require a dramatic
lift for one research firm’s prediction to be realized. It forecast
that U.S. frozen processed food
(retail volume) would rise 2%
annually to 4 million tons in
2017 – and that dollar sales
would rise 6% annually in
that period. If new programs
and ideas gain traction with
consumers, they would uplift
the department’s actual recent
performance.
unit volume climb.
supermarketnews.com
Shoppers pay a premium for good food made with natural ingredients.
We’ve put those values forward with the new look of our All Natural Ice Cream.
No big words, no long lists. Just a natural sales advantage.
Contact the Turkey Hill Dairy Sales Department at 800-873-2479
Email: trela@turkeyhill.com
2601 River Road, Conestoga, PA 17516 | turkeyhill.com
C h e r r y Va n i l l a | S a l t e d C a r a m e l | Va n i l l a B e a n & C h o c o l a t e | C o f f e e | M i n t C h o c o l a t e C h i p | C h o c o l a t e | Va n i l l a B e an
©2014 Turkey Hill Dairy
ADV ERTISEM ENT
SN SPECIAL REPORT
Firing Up Frozen: Re-energizing a key aisle of the retail food store
Building
passion for
ice cream
r The ice cream case is easy to shop, with
clear price segmentation and brand
blocking
It also helps that people of every age associate ice cream with fun. “People are beyond
passionate about ice cream,” says Colin
Wright, senior trade relations coordinator, Turkey Hill Dairy, Conestoga, PA. The
brand dials up emotions with professional
sports team sponsorships and special flavors such as Phillies Graham Slam, Yankees
Pinstripe Brownie Blast, Yankees Bronx
Bomber and Steelers Blitzburgh Crunch.
Their packages include a sticker bearing a
unique code, which consumers can enter
on the sports-flavor webpage to try to instantly win game tickets and a grand prize
trip to spring training.
Limited edition and seasonal flavors rotate
in to stimulate palates at the freezer case. In
April, for instance, Turkey Hill has Sweet
Potato Pecan Pie and in May-June Peaches
& Cream. These short runs serve as test
markets for potential full-time flavors –
and the brand relies on consumer input
from its social media efforts and 190,000
e-mails and calls it receives annually about
its products.
F
or a mature, nearly $6 billion category to post 2% unit sales gains last
year is impressive (Nielsen data).
What does ice cream do right that other
frozen food categories could learn from?
Several things:
r Category manufacturers innovate in
products, packaging and promotions
r Some involve consumers in the
development of new flavors
r Some improve and simplify
ingredients, and call this out prominently
on packages
r Some expand formula choices (no sugar
added, less fat) to suit dietary wants
Some of its online metrics: 78,227 Facebook likes, 1.05 million webpage visitors,
more than 9,000 Twitter followers, and a
popular blog. Through these, Turkey Hill
targets Millennials and others with coupons and contests, and provides a format
for product discussions.
Its packages are both interactive and transparent in the information they provide:
QR codes scanned by smartphones
take consumers to coupons, product
information pages, and contests.
And to build trust in its products,
language on packages is “clean and
concise,” says Wright. For example,
the 2013 re-launch of its All Natural Ice
Cream added cream and prominently listed
ingredients on the package’s principal
display panel. O
“People are beyond passionate about ice cream.”
— Colin Wright, senior trade relations coordinator, Turkey Hill Dairy
12 ways to
fire up frozens
1.
Innovate products with international tastes, restaurantinspired recipes, and better ingredient mixes.
2.
Emphasize packaging that makes items easy and safe to
handle and prepare, saves time, and retains taste, texture and
nutrients.
3.
Frame a new dialogue with consumers of every generation
about cool aspects of frozen foods - that they bring world
cuisines to their table, and are convenient, value choices,
increasingly healthful and tasty.
4.
Stress how frozen foods can suit today’s on the go lifestyles,
smaller households, and other shifting needs of consumers.
5.
Show off healthier choices – gluten-free, low-sodium,
calorie-control – for people with dietary concerns.
6.
Excite shoppers and build aisle traffic with special cuisinedriven events, especially around big eating occasions such
as ethnic holidays – host tastings of international foods and
other new items.
7.
Assort strategically to meet demand in local markets. Where
upscale fits, have better-quality premium and super-premium
brands that parallel food trends in restaurants and can remind
people of their own travel experiences. Korean and Thai are
good examples today. People are willing to pay higher prices
for the right product experiences. And higher-end shoppers
also buy routine brands when in the aisle.
8.
Improve aisle navigation with signs that call out variety, new
products, dietary benefits, and different cuisines. Digital
messages and videos are the language of Millennials, and can
make it seem as if glass doors aren’t in the way.
9.
Message consumers extensively throughout the path to purchase – get on the shopping list early. Use an intelligent mix
of conventional and social media.
frozen foods with fresh choices, as well
10.Cross-merchandise
as in the club-pack section and at the checkout. Outpost
coffin displays help capture halo effect of the fresh sales bonanza – for instance, frozen sides, vegetables and fruit near
the meat case, seafood and produce. Also, indulgent desserts
perform in the club-pack aisle, especially during peak home
entertainment seasons, and ice cream always beckons at the
checkout.
nutritionists in store and on the Web to educate shoppers
11. Use
about the health benefits of frozen foods – especially the flash
freezing of fruits, vegetables, meats and wild-caught seafood
at time of harvest to lock in peak taste and nutritional value.
from the best practices of top operators – merchandise
12. Learn
meal solutions, assort strategically, show off new exciting
tastes and healthful choices, and have staff roam the aisle
and recommend purchases.
40 SN April 21, 2014
supermarketnews.com
NEW!
Here’s why retailers
nationwide are sweet on
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According to 2012 52-week
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Make a splash in your frozen food sales!
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* Nielsen Strategic Planner, Total US (unit sales), 52 weeks ending 12/21/13
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