Keeping Your CPG Food Brand Hyper-Relevant in the Era of Personalization

In the world of consumer products, the “one-size-fits-all” idiom is terribly outdated. While custom hair care, supplement, and skincare regimen companies abound, it’s no secret that consumerism on all fronts is trending toward personalized products and services, and emerging grocery CPG companies like yours are rising to the challenge.

The cereal aisle is the perfect case study to examine the food industry’s shift toward personalization. Most grocers have replaced big brand-name products with less-processed, more nuanced options like grain-free O’s, keto granola, and high-protein crisps. Consumers are growing more aware of individual needs and personalized nutrition, causing strict brand loyalty to be replaced by hyper-relevancy and the desire for customization.

So, what does this push toward hyper-relevant product offerings mean for the food industry? It means companies are pushing to quickly create new product lines and offer a wider variety of items. It means grocers are resetting their stores constantly, picking up new brands and SKUs regularly. It means retailers are perpetually searching for products to fill the demand for the latest food trends amongst consumers.

To be successful in this new landscape, there are a few things you should keep in mind as you grow and evolve your products and overall brand:

Focus on function

• Consumers are looking for food products that can serve them in more ways than one. Placing functional ingredients (like prebiotics and probiotics) at the forefront of your branding will draw consumers to your offerings. B.T.R. Bar is one of the many emerging brands answering this call: their packaging dawns the keywords “superfoods” and “adaptogens” and each SKU is aptly named with value-added benefits “ENERGY,” “RECHARGE,” and “BLISS.”

Be diet- and lifestyle-specific

• As consumers grow more skeptical of ultra-processed foods and unpronounceable ingredients, the need for healthier, diet-specific products increases. Vegan, plant-based, paleo, keto, gluten-free, and grain-free are all buzz-worthy labels to consider incorporating into your labeling.

Tout locally-made

• When possible, take advantage of showcasing your product as locally-made. Consumers feel more tied to brands that produce good quality, sustainable food in their area.

Emphasize food as medicine

• Food is no longer simply a means to satiate hunger and provide energy. Food has taken on a role as a healer, is used to target and remedy specific ailments, and is marketed in ways to help optimize overall health and wellness. To remedy a cold, consumers much rather consume an immune-boosting juice shot, like those offered by Pulp Story, than take an over-the-counter supplement.

But it’s not enough to just create the products consumers want if your offerings can’t reach retailers’ shelves. This trend towards personalization has given way to heightened demand for specialty products from emerging brands, yet the traditional grocery distribution landscape makes it difficult for smaller companies to reach retailers. Especially in this era of high demand, many long-standing retailers and distributors must default to big brands that can mass produce products and front high distribution costs. This previously supply-driven food distribution model restricts retailers to a narrow list of available brands, and not necessarily those desired by today’s consumers.

Pod Foods enables brands like yours to access retailers, and helps retailers meet consumer demand for personalization and “good food.” Through leveraging historical purchase data and a digitalized wholesale model, we can recommend replenishment levels for vendors based on sales volume and offer a boundless assortment of products to retailers, emerging and established brands alike.

While you’re hard at work evolving your brand to meet consumers’ ever-changing needs, let us handle the rest by making Pod Foods your B2B distribution solution. Email us at hi@podfoods.co to learn more!

About Pod Foods

Pod Foods Co. is a tech-based, business-to-business wholesale food distribution company. Its mission is to remedy a dated and fragmented food supply chain with a data-driven, tech-enabled solution that benefits both food producers and retailers.