Euromonitor International recently launched new data for our Consumer Foodservice research database, and there are several key points emerging from the data. China is the fastest growing country for consumer foodservice in constant terms, with 9.5 percent growth in 2015. This reiterates China's importance to the overall consumer foodservice industry, with growth rates there only suffering compared to the country's own historical highs. The fastest growing growing foodservice category i...
Apr 07, 2016•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Viewpoints, Michelle Evans, Digital Consumer Manager at Euromonitor International interviews Bob Gilbreath Co-Founder and CEO at Ahalogy. Ahalogy is a Cincinnati, Ohio based social content and software-as-a-service company that builds content marketing tools to gain exposure for businesses on social network sites as a way to drive sales. Michelle and Bob discuss social network's role in driving individualized marketing and how companies can stand out using s-commerce to m...
Mar 25, 2016•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the wake of Haier acquiring General Electric's appliance division, each company should look to respectively grow. Haier should focus on growing in areas where its premium brands would not be competitors. In fact, Haier has indicated it will bring GE brands over to China. GE should focus on Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa, areas poised to grow in consumer appliances....
Mar 24, 2016•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Middle East, and the UAE especially, has been identified as the next big hot spot for personal accessories growth, especially luxury personal accessories. Luxury store openings in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai have been cemented by the establishment of luxury malls in the cities. This new target area is especially welcome after the decline in China for personal accessories.
Mar 23, 2016•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The cocooning trend, where consumers stay home and consider domestic entertainment options, has been slowly gaining traction as consumers are saturated more and more with always-on internet and bigger and brighter entertainment options. The home is becoming less of a living space and more of an entertainment space. In short, consumers are finding less and less reasons to leave their home. Movies can be ordered via on-demand services and clothing can be purchased online. The cocooning trend is in...
Mar 23, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chinese appliance maker Midea recently purchased a majority share in Toshiba's home appliance division. Compared to other appliance leaders, Midea had already been collaborating with Toshiba since 1993, and the move fits in with Midea's overall corporate strategy. The acquisition gives Midea a foothold in western markets and overall global expansion, and the company will be ranked number one globally in consumer appliances after the deal is finalized....
Mar 22, 2016•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beer volume growth remains flat in developed markets, with Heineken an exception to this general trend. The company's two-pronged approach - premiumisation and Latin-inspired beers -helped appeal to the younger market and therefore gain sales. In fact, the premium offers of major companies helped counteract the impact from declining markets. Both Carlsberg and AB Inbev outperformed the market in China, a country which suffered noticeably this past year with a 6 percent decline....
Mar 22, 2016•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Three new virtual reality headsets are set to enter the toys and games market in 2016, including the Occulus Rift, the HTC Vive, and the Playstation VR from Sony. Sony’s new headset is a winner is both price and the fact that users only need a Playstation and Playstation camera to use the device, but the Playstation hardware is not as fast as a brand new PC which may lead some users to experience motion sickness. All in all, its an exciting year for these new devices, which may be the next big t...
Mar 21, 2016•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the government's focus on providing cooking gas connections and electricity to rural households, low-priced electronics may see a bit of an uptick in India over the next two to four years. Real estate development is one of the main focuses of the Union budget this year, and many housing projects are expected to pop up over the next five years....
Mar 17, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast India's economy is facing challenges such as high public debt, weak private investment and struggling agriculture. In 2016's union budget, the government has made attempts to face these challenges, as it aims to reduce fiscal deficit and increase agricultural employment especially to rural areas. Finally, the relaxation of FDI restrictions will boost private investment. For businesses, the new budget will stabilize government spending and will spur economic growth in the future....
Mar 16, 2016•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Domino's Pizza is at the forefront of mobile ordering in consumer foodservice, and the company recently announced that online orders in the UK reached nearly 80 percent of all delivery orders in the past year. Nearly half of those online orders were made using the company's mobile app. This is evidence that we have reached the tipping point in terms of mobile ordering in developed markets.
Mar 15, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast 2015 marked a new record of mortgaged properties, and more than 20 percent of all homes in the world will be owned with the help of a mortgage in 2016. Consumers who have mortgages are likely to cut down on other aspects of spending. China, however, has seen its housing market slow down as developers flooded the market over the past 15 years. Supply is simply outweighing demand in housing in the country. Finally, 2016 marks a record number of households, reaching 1.4 billion....
Mar 09, 2016•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gender blurring is a rejection of gender stereotypes and saluting an androgynous lifestyle. This trend has manifested itself in many ways: Calvin Klein's gender-free fragrance CK2, the declassification of toys by Disney and Amazon, and even Playboy's toned-down issue in March 2016. This trend will continue to impact the media, consumer ideals, and industries in the near future....
Mar 07, 2016•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Premium color cosmetics, men's grooming, multi-purpose products that offer convenience and natural ingredients will all play a large part in the Mexican beauty and person care industry in the years to come. Both international and Mexican brands are focusing on developing new products that offer multiple benefits for consumers, and although international categories dominate retail value sales of many products, Mexican brands are seeing higher growth than international brands....
Mar 04, 2016•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast The city of Hamburg, Germany recently banned coffee pods for use in all of its government buildings as part of a green initiative. Coffee pods are relativity large in Germany, with consumers there spending US $1.2 billion on coffee pods in 2015. Although the ban will not likely effect the overall coffee pods market, Hamburg is the first city to institute this type of ban and highlights an important trend: coffee pods are being seen as wasteful products. The possibility that other cities may foll...
Mar 04, 2016•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Luxury Goods in Asia Pacific have not fared well, suffering from weak economic stability. However, this has given a rise to affordable luxury goods in the country. These goods cater to consumers with lower spending power but who want to upgrade to luxury items. Large consumer markets, growing income levels, growing urban areas and a large middle class exist in many areas of Asia-Pacific and all help increase performance of affordable luxury goods.
Mar 01, 2016•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Consumers are constantly expanding their soft drink consumption outside of carbonates. Ready-to-drinks tea, bottled water and juices are just as prevalent to consumers as soda. As a result, companies are increasingly expanding their product portfolios outside of traditional carbonates categories. Coca-Cola, for instance, acquired Culiangwang, manufacturers of a plant-based protein drink in China and Chi Limited, a juice manufacturer in Nigeria. These acquisitions are proof that companies not onl...
Feb 17, 2016•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Starbucks has recently made some changes to its rewards program and mobile app, called My Starbucks Rewards. These changes are indicative of a move that Starbucks may be trying to put its rewards app at the center of its consumers mobile commerce ecosystem. For instance, consumers can now use the app to pay at Starbucks as well as order their beverages ahead of time. Reportedly, 9 million weekly payments at Starbucks take place globally. Starbucks has also rolled out delivery options in its home...
Feb 16, 2016•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Private label products are a lucrative market in Eastern Europe as many consumers switched to buying them during the economic recession and kept them a regular part of their shopping experience. Now, there is an increased number of premium private label brands entering the Eastern European market, posing an even larger threat to manufacturer brands. These premium private label products are closer in price to manufacturer brands, and manufacturers are being forced to think of new ways to continue...
Feb 15, 2016•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast The current move away from artificial colours and towards natural ones in packaged food is due to a trend in clean labeling, where consumers scrutinize ingredients, shunning products with ingredients that they are unfamiliar with or that are artificial. This trend has caused many packaged food manufacturers to rethink their ingredients, especially the use of natural colours. As more and more companies make the switch, larger, more established packaged food companies are under intense pressure to...
Feb 11, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cada vez más personas miran contenidos en sus notebooks, tablets y smartphones, y esto está afectando al mercado de televisores. En el año 2015 la mayoría de los países de Latinoamérica vieron una disminución en el volumen de venta de televisores. De acuerdo con Euromonitor International, el promedio anual de crecimiento de ventas de televisores entre 2006 y 2010 fue del 5% mientras que entre 2010 y 2015 fue de solo un 1%. Escucha este podcast para conocer más detalles sobre los factores impacta...
Feb 11, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast В 2016 году на украинский кофейный рынок может повлиять договор о зоне свободной торговли между Украиной и Европейским Союзом, который предполагает снижение, а в некоторых случаях, полное обнуление таможенных пошлин. Это, вероятнее всего, приведет к обострению конкуренции между национальными и европейскими брендами. Однако, в то же время, многие украинцы сознательно покупают украинские товары, проявляя свой патриотизм. Еще одним немаловажным фактором является украинское эмбарго против России. Та...
Feb 09, 2016•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Consumers are demanding food from operators that are free from additives, and in the industry today its expected of operators to make an effort toward clean labeling. This action is widespread in the industry currently, but there will be a point where consumers will see chains that haven't taken steps towards clean labeling as inherently lower quality. Although there has been discussion in the industry about consumer's ideas versus industry action, the fact remains that consumers are d...
Feb 04, 2016•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fashion brands continue to seek new ways in which they can harness the power of social media. With connected consumers driving the so called "selfie-culture" yet hesitant to engage with their favorite companies and brands outside of "liking" a brand's Facebook or Twitter account, companies must expand outside of trending hashtags and create lucrative sales channels on social media. In 2016, consumers are slowly migrating purchases to social media. Emerging markets are ah...
Jan 27, 2016•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Policy analysts estimate that between 500,000 and 1 million Americans will lose eligibility for participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamps Program, over the course of 2016. The prompt change in coverage for 2016 is due to federal implementation of a 1996 welfare law which limits childless, non-disabled Americans to three months of SNAP benefits within a 36 month period while unemployed. Food insecurity in the United States is a widesp...
Jan 27, 2016•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast McDonald's just released its fourth-quarter results, and the results are relatively positive considering what the industry was expecting. McDonald's is attributing these results to the all-day breakfast launch that came in October 2015. For the upcoming year, McDonald's will stick to its strategy of trimming back menu items, focusing on speed and efficiency and emphasizing value platforms. For now, solid evidence exists that the McDonald's turnaround is on the right track....
Jan 25, 2016•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast In January of 2016 Nippon Paper announced its plans to enter China’s diaper market as an original equipment manufacturer. Given China’s significant consumer base and consumer preference for quality Japanese diaper brands, the move is not without its merits. However, a number of factors need to be considered with respect to China’s future diaper demand. The change in one-child policy also comes amidst social and economic transformations that do not always work in favour of having more children. M...
Jan 22, 2016•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Euromonitor recently released new data for soft drinks and the results are showing 2015 as the slowest year for global carbonates growth in all of our historic data set. Microeconomic factors are definitely to blame, but there is also a heightened global sense of health and wellness that is turning consumers away from carbonated drinks. As consumers look to lower their sugar and calorie intake and governments looking to tax these beverages, both emerging and developed markets will continue to se...
Jan 20, 2016•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Three key trends are impacting global hot drinks: premiumisation, growth in specialist coffee shops and tea boutiques, and a health positioning. In the podcast Euromonitor International’s Senior Beverages Analyst Virginia Lee discusses how growing consumer sophistication is leading to growth in handcrafted coffee tea drinks and premium teas in “third wave” coffee shops and tea specialists. She also discusses how coffee and malt-based hot drinks companies are now marketing health benefits to sell...
Jan 15, 2016•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast McDonald’s, facing increasing competition from fast-casual operators and changing consumer preferences, was able to post some positive results in the third quarter of 2014. The chain recently simplified its menu, lowering operating costs and catering to the specialist trend in fast food. Now that the chain has simplified the menu, focusing on the quality and taste of the remaining items is key. In fact, McDonald’s took consumer feedback about its Egg McMuffin and changed the product last year, g...
Jan 12, 2016•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
