Two markets, one industry Editor’s note: Elohi Strategic Advisors’ chief insights officer is Mark DiDomenico. There are two separate markets for food and beverage spending: food-at-home, which is primarily served by the retail grocery channel, and food-away-from-home, which is covered by the foodservice channel. Although manufacturers frequently produce goods for both markets, the channels are very different from one another, and they typically have distinct sales and marketing teams for each. In a similar vein, each market has very different metrics for measuring spending, volumes, and market share, in addition to consumer attitudes and perceptions. Standard procedures for one market frequently do not apply to the other, despite the fact that researchers frequently switch between the retail and foodservice industries. Recognizing the particular requirements of sales teams and executive leadership
Food and beverage companies use consumer-focused marketing strategies, such as print coupons, internet advertisements, television commercials, and social media, to try and sway grocery store customers’ decisions. For instance, the consumer selects between two sandwich bread brands that compete on the shelf with branded packaging and placement. Scans at the checkout counter provide data about these options, enabling in-depth analyses of sales and dollar volumes, product movement or velocity, promotion effectiveness, and market share by brand. Today’s available scan data offers fundamental insights for almost all retail channel strategies and tactics.
Food spent away from home accounted for $1.34 trillion in 2022, or 56% of all food expenditures in the United States, according to the USDA. Approximately 1.5 million foodservice locations, also known as stores or units, account for this expenditure. The size and complexity of the foodservice channel, which has almost 23 times as many stores or units as the retail grocery channel, make it nearly impossible to conduct a thorough analysis of product movement and tracking, necessitating a completely different approach to research and insights. Compared to their retail counterparts who concentrate on consumer and shopper research, industry professionals who measure and monitor the foodservice channel specialize in both B2B and B2C research. There are three primary categories of businesses that sell food and drinks for immediate consumption.
