Best Coffees - The Lempert Report

The Lempert Report Food News: Marketing, analysis, issues & trends and the impact on food and retail environments, specifically for the B2B food world with reporting and commentary on consumer and retailing trends by Phil Lempert. Phil can predict the future —and then help businesses and consumers understand it. For more than 25 years, Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies worldwide. Known as The Supermarket Guru®, http://www.supermarketguru.com, Lempert is a distinguished author and speaker who alerts customers and business leaders to impending corporate and consumer trends, and empowers them to make educated purchasing and marketing decisions. To see more of The Lempert Report visit: http://www.thelempertreport.com The Lempert Report for Thursday April 30, 2009 Food retailers are pushing loyalty programs, question is, is it driving sales? For a while, the classic thinking that foods and beverages would be safe havens in a tough economy held true. While consumer spending crashed on autos, apparel, home furnishings and more, people still needed to feed their families and sales on edibles didn't suffer much. But the enormous pressures on households in this persistent recession, couldnot be repelled over such a long term. Best-in-class store operators with well-run loyalty reward programs can post better sales and retain more customers, finds a new study by the Aberdeen Group entitled Cutting Edge Customer Loyalty: Retail Best Practices for Acquiring, Retaining, and Re-Engaging Customers. Certainly, food retailers have had their reasons to balk at investing in loyalty technology and the pricing/promotional strategies that these reward programs entail. As of the end of March 2009, 65% of retailers lack fully automated loyalty process tools at point of sale for customer sign-up, identity scan for program fulfillment, and redemption of loyalty rewards, according to the Aberdeen report. However, their findings suggest that loyalty tools—in the hands of Best Practice operators—work. For instance, 50% of best-in-class retailers use automated loyalty processes at POS, and they help improve customer retention by 16%. And when it comes to Best Practices: • 70% of best-in-class retailers are 1.5 times likelier to capture the CRM data at POS that enables them to map transaction data with customer demographics, and design effective loyalty offers. • 52% of best-in-class retailers can develop personalized loyalty offers. Having technology that can personalize the shopping experience is not new, but understanding how to use these tools still seems to be out of the reach of many food retailers.The Best Coffee in America This past Saturday we revealed the winners in our annual TODAY Show coffee taste test, and no surprise that best overall once again went to Dunkin Donuts which is now available in practically every supermarket for about $8.99 a pound. Cafè Bustelo won in the decaf category, and Weaver's of San Francisco for best organic coffee. Best Gourmet coffee kudos went to Bad Ass Coffee for their 100% Kona - which retails for just under $50. Unfortunately due to network standards we could not show or announce Bad Ass as a winner on the show - if you love coffee, this is one you will want to try badasscoffee.com No reservations These days, it looks like neither mom nor dad are making reservations. It is not surprising that findings of the latest SupermarketGuru.com Quick Poll show that households have absolutely clamped down on eating out or bringing in. When asked how many times per week do you eat away from home (breakfast, lunch or dinner)—thats 21 possible meals—24% said none and 44% said one to two. Thats more than two-thirds of adult respondents who said they eat less than 10% of meals outside of their own homes. Take out is less expensive than eating out, but consumers have iced that practice too. When asked, how many times do you order take out or delivery in a week, more than half (55%) said none. Another 38% said one to two. Thats more than 9 out of 10 who bring in rarely, and presumably are discovering new appreciations of home cooking. Our findings jive with results of a Better Homes and Gardens survey called The Food Factor: How America Cooks, Eats and Shops. Motivated by economic anxiety, 83% of women are trying to save money by regularly preparing meals at home, and 77% said the cost of food affects the meals they choose to cook.For more analysis and insights log on to the B2B page of SupermarketGuru.com. The Lempert Report uploads right here every Thursday.To reach me directly, please email me at Phil@SupermarketGuru.com For information on New Products, visit our weekly videocast: http://www.ratefoods.com/