Differentiate To Dominate

Differentiate to Dominate

By adding ethnic dishes and bacon-flavored products, retailers could better differentiate their store brand frozen meals and entrées from the competition.

Time-strapped consumers looking for a hearty supper increasingly are turning to frozen meals and entrées. According to Thom Blischok, global president, innovation and strategy with Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group, frozen meals and meal components together make up the fastest-growing category for both store brands and national brands. And that strong growth should continue beyond 2012.

"For the next 24 months, I expect this category to grow between 5 and 10 percent," he notes. "Category differentiators will be ethnic flavors and unique simple meals."

Trends with traction

Meals and entrées with an ethnic flavor are especially popular with cash-strapped consumers looking for an exotic restaurant-style experience at home, notes Mary Chapman, director, product innovation with Chicago-based research firm Technomic Inc. And Americans are going beyond traditionally accepted regional dishes (Chinese, Japanese and Mexican) and trying Korean, Thai and Indian foods.

Bobby D. Ray, vice president, retail and private brands for Ontario, Calif.-based Haliburton International Foods, notes that a "different, unique and special" ethnic item really helps to increase the sales of store brand frozen meals and entrées.

"We believe strongly if a company has something that has a special taste profile — like a Mexican-style fire-roasted corn — the sales are going to grow," he explains.

Edamame is another in-demand ethnic product, Ray says. Recently, Haliburton developed an interesting variation on the traditional Asian dish for retailers' store brand programs.

"We have all seen the huge sales growth of edamame across the country," he says. "But we have taken it to the next level and developed a fire-roasted wasabi soy edamame blend. We expect to see sales go through the roof."

Trends on the horizon

One potential trend retailers should keep an eye on is that toward frozen meals and entrées flavored with bacon. The Global New Products Database (GNPD) from global market research firm Mintel International shows a wide array of products containing bacon.

"There are a lot of chefs and foodies out there who say bacon's over, which is just ridiculous, because it's not," Chapman says. "What's appealing about bacon is ... its smokiness, its saltiness, its yummy fattiness."

GNPD shows a number of national brand frozen meals and entrées containing bacon that debuted in the past year, including Good Foods' Bacon Mac & Cheese Meal and Gemelli Pasta with Cheese (flavored with Applewood-smoked bacon) from Harry's Fresh Foods.

In terms of packaging, Ray says brands increasingly will be including Nutrition Keys — a front-of-the-package nutritional labeling system launched by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute — on packaging for their frozen meals and entrées.

But sustainable packaging will be at the back of many brand-owners' minds until the economy picks up, Ray adds. True, General Mills had some success recently in using unbleached paperboard vegetable cartons made from 100 percent recycled paper for its Green Giant frozen vegetables. But this type of packaging can be very costly.

"With the current economic downturn, I don't see very many adding this type of packaging," Ray explains.