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March 26, 2014 by Rachel Geltman

Marketing to Moms: Top 4 Reasons for On-the-Go Eating

Key Takeaways for Marketers:

In marketing to mothers, brands should be aware of the pressures that moms feel in balancing the needs of their profession, their families and themselves. Snack food marketers should reinforce product benefits like convenience and portability to appeal to the consumer perception of being constantly on-the-go and out-of-time.

Brand messaging should communicate the emotional benefit of avoiding chaotic and unpleasant moments through proactive snack food purchases. Whether an on-the-go snack is serving as a pacifier or a reward, it’s always wise for a mother to have on hand.

Video Chat Network was tasked with understanding what’s important to moms when it comes to on-the-go eating. Here are the top 4 reasons our virtual focus group respondents gave for why they eat on the go:

1. We Multi-Task:

Being a mother is a full-time job, and for most of our respondents – not their only job. In juggling their professional and personal responsibilities, mothers are inclined to multitask in an attempt to get everything done. As such, on-the-go eating emerges as a solution for saving time.

“It’s a matter of saving time, but still getting something to eat when we are on the way to someplace else.” Tracy C.

2. We Are Always On-The-Go:

The rushed sensation that there’s always “someplace else” to be supports another key consumer insight: we eat on the go because we are always on the go!

“Nowadays, everyone is so busy. It used to be that people did most of their eating at home but now we do so much of it outside of our home.” Tara R.

There was a general perception across online focus group respondents that the sit-down meal was a thing of the past. Modern moms feel like every moment is a means to an end, leaving little opportunity for family meal occasions designed to be an end in themselves.

“I guess it’s a reflection of our multi-tasking society. When we are on-the-go, we aren’t sitting at a table and just eating. We’re running to the store, going to soccer practice, visiting grandma, or a thousand other things!” Lauren C.

3. We Avoid Problems:

Our online focus group respondents all recognized the chaos associated with their jobs as mothers. Eating on the go emerged as a solution for minimizing this chaos by avoiding problems associated with hungry children!

“Sometimes it’s pretty important to have an item, like after a soccer game when the kids have used so much energy and all they can think about is a snack and a drink.” Tara R.

Mothers recognized the value of proactively planning their day ahead of time to avoid stressful situations. Packing food for on-the-go eating was seen as a solution for keeping their children happy without having to resort to more expensive or less healthy options like fast food.

4. We Seek Rewards and Treats:

While several mothers in our panel considered on-the-go eating a part of their family’s routine, there were respondents that approached it more as a treat or reward for their child.

“Our first on-the-go occasion was treats after the orthodontist.” Jamie B.

Mothers that described themselves as more health-conscious (vs. time-strapped) were more likely to teach their kids about good eating habits. This could translate to a more mindful approach toward eating, where multi-tasking is not the optimal solution if it results in less conscious eating of more unhealthy and expensive snack foods.

Are you looking to uncover real consumer insights for your brand? VCN’s qualitative research methods leverage video chat technology to reach consumers in their comfort zones – getting you real insights into your most important marketing questions. Our webcam focus groups and mobile marketing research tools reach consumers at-home, on-site, or anywhere you need them!

Click here to request a quote and start leveraging real insights from real people today!

Filed Under: Market Research Insights Tagged With: consumer insights, cpg, cpg market research, market research mothers, marketing to moms, mobile market research, online focus groups, snack food market research, virtual focus groups

March 20, 2014 by Rachel Geltman

From Shopping List to Shopping Cart: 5 Insights on How People Make Their Shopping Lists

Insights for Marketers:

Consumer packaged goods marketers should be mindful of the ways that shoppers plan and execute their shopping lists. Understanding consumer behavior before and during the shopping trip is instrumental in getting shoppers to (a) plan on buying their product and (b) actually buy their product.

Seeing how some shoppers are inclined to research lowest prices in advance, supermarket brands should make it easy to find and redeem discounts for their products. They should plan promotional pricing strategically, continuously offering essential “on-list” items in such a way that optimizes foot traffic to their store (in the case of supermarket companies) or preference for their brand over a competitor product (in the case of CPG brands being sold at supermarkets).

Besides ensuring their likelihood of consideration pre-trip, brands should have a plan for encouraging users to buy their product in-store. Across our online focus group panel, going “off-list” was a common phenomenon, one that was encouraged mainly by product discounts but could be combined with factors like shelf placement and usage of promotional displays for maximum impact.

Video Chat Network was tasked with understanding the customer journey from shopping list to shopping cart. Here are some key consumer insights from our mobile marketing research study on how people make their shopping lists:

1. One person is mainly in charge of putting a shopping list together for a household, while other family members are invited to contribute items. The person in charge of the list tends to be the mother, with the father and children having opportunities to add their own items to the list before the shopping trip. Some of our respondents had a whiteboard or notebook at home where family members could add their items, while others used mobile applications that allow multiple users to collaborate on one shopping list.

2. While several of our online focus group respondents used these high-tech shopping list solutions, just as many seemed to be fans of good old pencil and paper. Most panelists were partial to one approach or another, with a few mentioning they use both high and low tech shopping lists depending on the nature of their shopping trip. Larger shopping trips were seen as more likely to necessitate using a shopping list app.

3. Most shoppers are not brand-specific in their shopping lists: they plan which product categories they need and choose a brand based on price. Some focus group panelists kept shopping list categories more broad, basing them on general product types like “Snacks for Kids”, instead of “Pudding Cups”.

4. Many shoppers do their research before writing out their lists, scanning sales and coupons to find the lowest prices before deciding what to buy at which stores. Some respondents make this a fixed part of their weekly routine – printing and clipping coupons, saving them into folders and planning their shopping trips around where and when products will be cheapest.

5. Shoppers tend to go “off list” and purchase unplanned products when these items are on sale or pertain to non-essential “impulse” type categories. Our virtual focus group panelists described making these purchases when there was a deal too good to pass up, even if they didn’t urgently need the product being discounted. Unplanned items were more likely to be non-essential, purchased due to promotional pricing or simply on a whim.

Are you looking to uncover real consumer insights for your brand? VCN’s qualitative research methods leverage video chat technology to reach consumers in their comfort zones – getting you real insights into your most important marketing questions. Our webcam focus groups and mobile marketing research tools reach consumers at-home, on-site, or anywhere you need them!

Click here to request a quote and start leveraging real insights from real people today!

Filed Under: Market Research Insights Tagged With: consumer behavior, consumer insights, cpg market research, mobile marketing research, online focus groups, online market research, shopping lists market research, virtual focus groups

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