Brands need to be prepared to be flexible, agile and analytical to meet consumer demand post-pandemic in 2021.
“The most important thing is to have a view of the world – a model of how to do things – and be prepared to adjust quickly. All too often, people will assume that last year looks like this year. Don’t set and forget a forecast. Be prepared for very big swings,” explained Chris DuBois, SVP, Protein Practice, IRI Worldwide.
He predicts that brands should expect to see big swings between foodservice and retail when foodservice begins to recover post-pandemic.
“Some chicken processors are going to be able to understand what drives that change and they’ll be able to understand how to position themselves to react and some won’t,” DuBois added. “Not everyone can win.”
Sales volatility
2021 could be a tumultuous year sales-wise. There are a lot of questions that need to get answered. Will we get a COVID-19 vaccine? How will it be distributed? Will COVID-19 go away? What’s the impact of unemployment? What’s the impact of any additional fiscal stimulus?
“None of us truly know, but we can all guess,” he said. “But all of those factors impact so many other things.”
Capitalize on new buyers
New buyers played a major role in driving sales for brands in 2020.
“What we saw in 2020 was one of the biggest influxes of new buyers that brands have ever seen,” said DuBois. “What we learned in 2020 was that when you reconnect with a new buyer of your brand within the first four weeks, the return in ad spent was ten times greater than if you’d waited 16 weeks.”
The brands that capitalized on connections with new buyers were the ones who succeeded in 2020 – and will continue to succeed in the future, he said.
Let’s put those new cooking skills to use
The COVID-19 pandemic shifted most of the consumer demand from foodservice to retail. With that, more consumers began to cook more from scratch.
“People are much more confident in their cooking. We all had to learn how to cook in 2020,” DuBois said.
Successful brands help consumers put these newfound cooking skills to use, making it easier to find recipes online and purchase the ingredients they need with ecommerce.
“We are seeing a much more integrated online interactive way that retailers are helping people cook so they go right from a recipe to a YouTube video to the ability to put the ingredients they need right into an ecommerce shopping bag.”
View our continuing coverage of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Like what you just read? Sign up now for free to receive the Poultry Future Newsletter.
