The Independent Grocer Fills the Nutrition Gap -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 March 25, 2009 THE INDEPENDENT GROCER FILLS THE NUTRITION GAP WHERE CHAINS WILL NOT VENTURE To the 60s refrain, you are what you eat, we can now add you eat where you live. Some 40 years after digesting the first premise, were being told in a new study, that a neighborhoods food environment largely determines the healthiness of the local diet and the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed. A study in the American Journal of Health Promotion found there are many geographic pockets where supermarket chains just wont go, and that independent grocers who fill the vacuum can mine the huge opportunity of health. On average, the presence of a large supermarket in a neighborhood raised the average fruit and vegetable intake by 0.69 servings per day. The finding suggests that ethnic groups nutritional habits may be equally driven by access to the right foods and dietary motives. Latinos with a large local grocery store ate 2.2 more servings daily than did African Americans, according to research on Health Behavior News Service. At The Lempert Report we see this as one more notch in a growing body of research that lashes food retailers for their inability or unwillingness to open in certain neighborhoods, when it is so obvious that better foods in these areas could lead in turn to a healthier population, and especially a more attentive and successful group of youthful students. FOOD MARKETING 101 In a new weekly feature, we take a quick look at why some new food products become a success: this week, it's all about SweetRiot's new chocolate concept. These 100% dark cacao nibs are dunked in one of 3 chocolate coatings softening the often bitter taste of 100% cacao. Taking a page out of the Tic Tac marketing book, the package is convenient - but goes a step further, packed in a 100% recycleable (and reusable) metal container. Just like Tic Tacs they are 1 to 2 calories per piece. But here's a surprise - inside each tin is a slip of paper with a tidbit one cannot live without in cacao country Columbia, the fine for gossiping can be up to 90,000 dollars, and then lucky numbers on the back. Sweetriot is using their package art to define a new type of social network, where struggling artists can submit their works that embrace sweetriot's culture on its tins. The company's blog and networking tools is extraordinary. At $3.99 a tin they better be. Talking about Blogs CPG and retail marketers looking to connect their brands to consumers online, will increase their chances of success if they focus on blogs and social network sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Thats because two-thirds of the global online population visit blogs and social networks a lot; Internet users worldwide spend one out of every 11 minutes at these sites. They are now the fourth-most popular online activity — actually ahead of personal e-mail—according to the new Nielsen Global Faces and Networked Places report on social networkings new global footprint. Brand image in this online realm could quickly affect how consumers relate and buy, or not buy, specific brands in the offline or online worlds. Some brands, like Skittles, Pepsi, Jack in the Box, and Whole Foods, have ventured into the member communities space with varying degrees of success. Most CPG brands have yet to follow.To reach me directly, please email me at Phil@SupermarketGuru.com For information on New Products, visit our weekly videocast: http://www.ratefoods.com/