DAWN FARMS TOP 9 | ISSUE 28| 2019
GLOBAL UPDATE ON CONSUMER, MARKET AND MENU INSIGHTS.
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1. SUBWAY GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND
Above and Beyond, Subway’s new UK creative agency, has launched the Make It What You Want campaign to promote Subway’s 21 new added and improved ingredients. The revamped menu gives customers exactly what they want; choice. However, the campaign also pokes fun at its competitors, implying that this ‘next level ‘menu choice may be too much for the likes of KFC, Burger King, McDonald’s to handle. Subway is targeting consumers who like to personalise their order, reinforcing its unique point of difference versus other leading food-to-go brands. Burger King arguably started the ‘food fight’ in recent years when it began incorporating Colonel Sanders lookalikes in its ads. Well, Subway has now just entered the ring...
2. TACO BELL’S STEAK REAPER
Taco Bell is popular among consumers who like a little spice in their life. It’s now testing its customers’ capacity for spicy food with 4 new nacho fries menu options – Steak Reaper Ranch Fries, Vampire Steaked Fries, Buffalo Chicken Nacho Fries and Loaded Taco Fries. Taco Bell USA searched for the hottest pepper they could find, namely the Caroline Reaper Pepper (‘World’s Hottest Chili Pepper’ - Guinness Book of World Records). This hybrid of a Ghost Pepper and Habanero pepper is cooled down by adding Reaper Ranch sauce. It’s served as topped fries or in a burrito with marinated steak, nacho cheese sauce, Reaper Ranch sauce, sour cream, and tomatoes.
3. FOOD COURTS HOTTING UP IN LYON
In recent years, food halls have been gathering pace in the US and Europe. France is no exception – note La Felicità in Paris and now 2 new exciting food halls in Lyon. La Commune, an impressive architectural building, has 15 food stalls serving up dishes from locally sourced French cuisine to global cuisine. HEAT is a new food court which opened last week as part of a start-up incubator initiative, hosting changing food concepts and events. Shipping containers have been transformed into gourmet food kiosks celebrating street food such as SIOUU Eat Smart, pizza (La Boîte Rose) or bagels (Estance du Marché). Watch out for the upcoming Part-Dieu roof top Dining Experience.
4. MCDONALD’S SALADES DU JOUR
McDonald’s France has added 4 ‘fresh’ new salads - fresh ingredients, freshly prepared and chopped each day. These include 2 classic salads (Caesar, Mediterranean) and 2 more adventurous gourmet salads - Fourme d’Ambert blue cheese, chicken, beechwood bacon, pecan nuts, cranberries and Tandoori chicken salad with grains, grapes, squash seeds and cashews both on a green salad base. Following a listeria outbreak in salads last year in France, promoting freshness and quality is key. McDonald’s goes as far as to list quite detailed ‘field to fork’ information for consumers on its website.
5. FICKLE LUNCHTIME FTG SHOPPERS
Despite breakfast advances, the lunchtime occasion remains key for food-to-go (70% of all visits – IGD ShopperVista Q1 study), with sandwiches and cold wraps featuring in over half of all transactions. Average spend is £3.76 rising to £6.17 in the evenings due to more hot items being bought. One interesting factor is that consumers are much more likely to visit more than 1 destination during the day (therefore splitting their spend among retailers) than on an evening occasion – another good reason to capture greater share of this market. Loyalty cards and self-checkouts lead the list of secondary appealing factors for FTG consumers, with young Millennial 18-24s showing most enthusiasm for digital self checkouts.
6. UNILEVER’S TINDER FOR IDEAS
Unilever has taken inspiration from an unlikely source, popular dating app Tinder, to inspire creativity among its team members. The tool ‘Idea Swipe’ aims to make it faster and easier for marketers to evaluate and implement new ideas. ‘Idea Swipe’ uses behavioural economics to create questions designed to provide quick feedback. Unilever believes technology is the way forward as the pace of innovation speeds up and demand for cost-effective strategies rises. In other news, Nestlé and McDonald’s are among those first to sign up for a blockchain media trial, the initial stage of which will be to provide end-to-end supply chain transparency around ad spend.
7. LIFESTYLE PIZZAS AT BLAZE
Who says pizza is only for cheat days? Blaze is borrowing from Chipotle’s playbook by introducing a line of 4 new lifestyle-focused pizzas along with 2 new low carb pizza crusts (Keto Crust - 6 grams of carbohydrates for the whole pizza - and a Cauliflower Crust). The ‘Life Mode’ pizzas are designed for those following specific diets, including the keto, protein, vegetarian and vegan diet. The Protein Pizza features Italian meatballs, chicken, smoked ham while the Vegan pizza is topped with spicy vegan chorizo. US QSR sales of plant-based burgers have grown by 10% in 12 months (NPD Group), driven by flexitarian meat-eaters. Ask us at Dawn Farms about our plant-based protein options >>
8. WHAT’S NEW IN SANDWICHES?
From döner kebabs to cemitas, banh mi and arepa to smörgåstårta; operators in the sandwich game are reinventing the classics with new twists and exciting flavours using ingredients from across the globe. Some new features in the mix include an increasing appetite for the following; Cuban sandwiches, breakfast wraps, fried chicken, sriracha-based sauces, vegetable or ‘cleaner’ breads. Shaking up the sides are the likes of quinoa, kimchi and delicious bean-based options. Click here to be inspired by a World of Sandwiches >>
9. NO BOUNDARIES IN FAST FOOD
An urban vibe features strongly among Domino’s France latest menu additions. To accompany the Bellachô (with chorizo) the new Domino’s Urban Kebab features kebab, merguez and a white kebab sauce as well as new kebab fillings in its Les Cal’z calzone range. In other fast food news, KFC France has announced the return of its Double Taco (last week we featured Burger King’s recent launch of its $1 taco in the US). Fried chicken tenders, along with tomatoes, cheese and guacamole, are served inside a hard tortilla shell wrapped in a soft shell.
At Dawn Farms we offer a full product solution for cooked, dried and fermented meat ingredients across pizza, sandwich and prepared meal sectors. We are proud to be the preferred supplier to the world's leading food brands and are considered to be the industry leaders in food safety, sustainability and insight-led product innovation. We put the customer at the heart of everything we do, which is why for your convenience all our products are fully cooked and ready-to-eat.
Visit our website to discover the ingredients that set us apart.
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