Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

For many people, Friday is their favorite day of the week – after all, it’s the start of the weekend and you get to enjoy the latest media highlights from the folks at Mintel. However, we also know that Fridays can sometimes seem like the longest day of the week so we’ve got some eye-opening mentions to brighten your day.

First up, MSNBC used some of our data into the energy drinks market for a story about male energy drink usage that explored the phenomenon of users who guzzle energy drinks but still feel tired afterwards. Next, a Wall Street Journal piece about the decline in credit card delinquencies that interviewed Mintel Comperemedia Senior Vice President Andrew Davidson was also picked up by a wide variety of publications, including Fox Business. Meanwhile a press release about IRA direct mail numbers (mailings are currently at the highest they’ve been since November 2009) that quoted Susan Wolfe, vice president of financial services at Mintel Comperemedia appeared on Yahoo! Finance and BusinessWeek. Other IRA data from our Oxygen reports was referenced in a Daily Finance story about a recent rise in popularity of Roth IRAs.

Other big Compere wins included three separate Deliver Magazine stories in one week–two quoted Davidson while the third quoted Gary Wooley, director insurance consulting. Wooley suggested that life insurance marketers should be reaching out to a younger demographic.

Meanwhile, Eric Giandelone offered insight into the university foodservice industry for a QSR Magazine story while our Mintel Menu Insights data was included in a Produce News Daily article. Our 2012 Dining Out report continued to get media attention, as this week Supermarket News used findings from the study, as well as MediaPost Marketing Daily.

This week we also distributed a press release about men’s fashion habits (25% of men lack fashion sense–who knew!?) that included consumer shopping insight from Retail and Apparel Analyst Ali Lipson and Director of Trends, Alex Smith. The story was picked up in various publications across the globe, including Business News Daily.

Closing out the week, The Detroit News referenced our outlook of the Greek yogurt market and our press release about local produce being of more importance to consumers than the organic variety, featuring comments from John N. Frank, Mintel category manager CPG food and drink, was covered by Drug Store News, Fast Casual, Restaurant Management and Progressive Grocer.

Over in the UK, it was a big week for drinks and our tea story quite literally made a huge “splash” in the media. Starting with the Daily Mail which talked about how Britain had gone “Potty for green tea” quoting Senior Food Analyst Alex Beckett who said: “While English Breakfast tea is fondly regarded, the expansion of coffee chains and the exotic flavours of fruit, herbal and green teas are encouraging consumers to diversify their consumption habits, prompting fewer cups of standard tea to be drunk.” Extensively quoting Alex, the story also made it in to the Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, AOL, NamNews and The Lady as well as key trade titles. As news spread worldwide, the story then got picked up by Fuji TV in Japan and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Continuing with drink, but this time something a little stronger, our cider press release hit the headlines once again, this time featuring on BBC News where Mintel’s lager sales data was quoted in an article titled – Will weaker beers help the brewing industry? Our wine data was also quoted in The Sunday Mirror in an article titled -Wine on the wane – Britain’s wine sales are dropping off after years of corking sales. Research firm Mintel blames “punitive” increases in duty and import costs for pushing up wine prices. Its findings come against a backdrop of falling alcohol sales, especially beer.

We were featured on BBC News on the growing trend towards chia-seed as an ingredient. In 2011, 72 new chia products hit the market and 28 new chia foods are already out this year, according to research group Mintel. Compare that with only seven new chia products for all of 2006 and you get a sense of its growing popularity.

FoodBev.com talked about how as many as 25 million people, almost half the UK population, could suffer from food intolerance, according to the charity Allergy UK. Mintel’s ‘Free From’ market data shows that ‘Free From’ annual sales have grown 300% in the last decade.

On to money and our finance research was featured in The Sun in an article titled – Save for a uni day. Soaring tuition fees are forcing parents to make saving for their children’s education a main priority. More than half who stash away cash for their kids say the main reason is to pay for university. The next most popular reason is providing financial security and helping with a deposit for a house, says a Mintel poll. Just four per cent put away to pay for weddings. Almost half of parents say they save for their kids regularly.

Meanwhile, our Director of Retail Richard Perks was called to comment on retail prospects on the BBC News (both broadcast and online). “February was the only month we’ve had bad weather really this winter and so the comparison is with a month when the weather was a little bit better,” said Richard Perks from Mintel. “Although this year’s going to be quite tough, the next stage is going to be a modest improvement. And of course also this year we’ve got the Jubilee and the Olympics, which are going to be great for consumer confidence.”

Next came food and our sugar and sweeteners research which was featured in The Grocer which spoke about how manufacturers are turning to artificial substitutes as the price of sugar soars. Indeed, over the past 18 months, 31% of the drinks launched that contained high-intensity sweeteners were not positioned as diet drinks (Mintel). Meanwhile our salty snacks data was quoted in Food Manufacture.co.uk and our Global Food and Drink analyst Marcia Mogelonsky was called upon to comment on Kraft Foods new name in Bakeryandsnacks.com in which she offered a luke warm response to the organisation’s new name.

Our European household data was featured on Bloomberg Businessweek in an article talking about how Reckitt Benckiser is promoting saving water with dishwashers. The article quoted how “Four in 10 adults own a dishwasher in the U.K. according to researcher Mintel. That compares with 77 percent in Germany, 52 percent in France, and 49 percent in Spain, Mintel said. In Europe, only Greece and Turkey have lower ownership rates than Britain.”

Finally, our security data was the subject of interest in The Huffington Post which talked about how citizens are spending more and more on security, saying “Mintel, a leading market research company, has estimated that the current burglary prevention market is peaking at around £100 million in the UK as we increasingly fortify ourselves within our homes.”

Over in Europe, our Kinetique trend continues to get great coverage, this time in Kosmetik and Weltonline. While our very own Richard Cope was quoted in Diariode Mallorca talking about “slow reading” and the movement away from electronic devices such as the iPad.

Over in Asia Mintel’s Tan Heng Hong was quoted in CNN GO which talked about how around 42 percent of Chinese tourists now prefer independent travel to Europe, while 53 percent stick with conventional tour groups. “I think group travel will still account for a high percentage of outbound travel because tourists from lower-tier cities are getting wealthier and want to see the world,” said Mintel’s Tan Heng Hong. “As for those who have been abroad, they will go with small groups of friends or individually. Solo travel will also grow.”