The old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day still rings true for most people, according to Packaged Facts' report Breakfast: Retail Product Trends and Opportunities in the U.S., 2nd Edition. The "breakfast believer", as identified by Packaged Facts, represents those who subscribe to the notion that breakfast is more important than lunch or dinner. Leveraging this positive sentiment can help companies and brands when marketing new products as well as rationalizing premium-priced breakfast food products. Women, over 65s, blacks, and Hispanics emerge as likely subscribers to the breakfast-believer mentality.
Since women embrace the breakfast daypart, it's likely that, as moms, many will continue to pass down the belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This helps explain why families are particularly important breakfast users. In 2018, the child population is 74 million strong, accounting for 22% of the total U.S. population. With little change in the number of children expected through 2020, industry players must engage kids earlier and retain relationships through the teen years to realize full market potential. The most effective marketers will leverage honed strategies to increase the connection with the core family market without alienating the childless household.
Older consumers also remain steadfast in their allegiance toward breakfast. The challenge is that the U.S. population is aging. By 2020, the 56.5 million adults aged 65+ will represent 16.9% of the population. This means that industry players will need to be mindful of the older consumers' breakfast habits and preferences to ensure market stability. Additionally, industry players may need to work harder to adapt to the preferences of younger consumers for the best opportunity for market growth.
Race/ethnicity also emerges as a
distinguishing characteristic in breakfast usage and habits, with blacks
and Hispanics championing the importance of breakfast. With an
increasingly diverse population, it's prudent for breakfast marketers to
understand that the importance of targeting households across the
cultural spectrum. The multicultural consumer requires marketers
leverage strategies in order to appeal to respective traditional and
cultural values, such as advertising in Spanish to better communicate
with Hispanics.
According to AudienceSCAN, 21.7% of Fast Food
Breakfast Lovers are willing to pay more for organic or healthy food.
Since that isn't what most fast food restaurants are known for, they're
probably do their research online to learn more about fast food
restaurants' nutritional information. About 87% will use Google, and
only 19.1% will go past the first page of search results. These
consumers may also retain health information they see on social media
ads since 14.6% find advertising on social networks useful. About 78% of
these diners are active on Facebook, 57.5% watch YouTube videos and
53.5% participate on Instagram.
As with any food and beverage
market, health and wellness trends are an ever-present influence.
Healthy breakfast innovation is prevalent in the grocery aisle, with
overnight oats, simple ingredient nutrition bars, and functional yogurts
exemplifying the influence. While low calorie and low carb were at one
time benchmarks for health food, attention has shifted to a greater
focus on low/no sugar or low/no added sugars. Sugar is an ingredient in
many packaged breakfast foods, especially cereal and breakfast pastries.
While health trends are evident in foodservice too, it can be difficult
to discern the importance of health to consumers when they dine out,
necessitating breakfast menus feature items that play to indulgence and
health independently. Industry players are doing their part in
addressing health trends through new product development of
better-for-you breakfast, but there's clearly room for more players to
find a seat at this table.
Fast food restaurants can advertise
their breakfast offerings to hungry Fast Food Breakfast Lovers in a
variety of ways. According to AudienceSCAN, 75.2% of this audience took
action after either seeing an ad on their mobile smartphone apps or
after receiving a text ad last year. They're also 114% more likely than
other adults to click on a text link ad on a website and 60% more likely
to respond to email advertisements they've received. Good,
old-fashioned TV commercials inspired 81.1% of this audience to take
action last year, so don't disregard traditional advertising methods.
AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.