Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

A pint down the local – a perfect start for the the week here in the UK press office. Talking about how Britons want to live near a pub The Telegraph quoted how Mintel has found that even infrequent pub-goers agree that it is important to have a good pub near where they live. “It is almost as if a pub is a bit of a status symbol for a community, even if they don’t use it much they want to know that they have the option to do so if they wish,” said Mintel. The same story was featured in the Irish Sun and UPI.  

Beauty was also big in the news this week, starting with The Guardian which spoke about how Avon is in a “ding-dong battle over its future.” Vivienne Rudd, Head of Beauty research at Mintel, explained how “The retail structure in Brazil isn’t sufficiently developed yet for the beauty industry, so direct sales is a much more valuable model.” The story was featured in Bloomberg BusinessWeek in an article titled “Coty Pulls $10.7B Avon Offer as Talks Spurned.” Also quoting Vivienne who said “The Avon bid was uncharacteristic for Coty, and I imagine Coty’s feeling a bit bruised.” The same story was featured in Leading Retail News. Still with beauty, The Times (T2) spoke about the changing face of botox.

Our latest underwear research made a splash in the Daily Mail in an article titled “From M&S, the comfy corset that promises a Mad Men waist,” the UK’s shapewear market is worth £135 million, with one in ten women using the products, according to analysts Mintel. Onto retail, Richard Perks was interviewed on BBC Radio York talking about Monks Cross.

Next on the agenda, the revamp of Kellogg’s, which was featured in Bakery & Snacks the article included comment from our packaging expert Benjamin Punchard.

It was also a great week for coverage of our travel research, our latest cruise research featuring in the Daily Mail in an article titled “Hanging with the crew! Almost half of younger holidaymakers consider cruising, says research.” The same story made it in to the Herald Scotland and Tour Experience in Germany.   Still with travel, this time Brand Republic quoted Mintel’s Tom Rees in an article titled “Industry view: Is easyJet’s marketing makeover working?” On to the two wheeled variety of transport, our  bikes press release continues to gain coverage, this time our research was featured in The Sun in Captain Crunch.

Finally in the UK, The Telegraph used Mintel’s latest leisure research to talk about the decline of the dinner party.  Mintel, the research company, recently found that 53 per cent of consumers are staying in more in order to save money.

Over in Oman, the Times of Oman featured our first aid data in “Selling thermometers to moms.” Sales of digital thermometers are up, growing about 17 per cent from 2005 to 2010, according to a report from Mintel, a market research firm. While in South Africa, Men’s Health featured our “free from” research.

Our nail polish data continues to gain coverage, this time in the Financial Times Deutschland. According to analysts Mintel, nail polish sales rose 14 per cent to GBP179m in 2010 as women, inspired by celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Rhianna, focus on their fingertips. In the UK, there has been a 16.5 per cent increase in the number of nail salons since 2008, according to Local Data Company, a retail consultancy. Still in Germany, Finanz Nachrichten.de quoted Mintel’s yogurt research.

In Spain, Nica Lewis was quoted talking about beauty and Asian men on Yahoo.com and in France, Richard Perks spoke about Asda in LSA. While our footwear research proved popular in La Stampa in Italy, the same story was also featured in FashionUnited in Spain.

Over in Asia, our noodles story continues to gain high profile coverage, this time in Food & Bev Asia quoting Matthew Crabbe in an article titled “Increased NPD could rehydrate consumer demand for instant noodles in China.”

In line with Mother’s Day this past Sunday, Mintel’s Chicago office distributed a press release based on our Marketing to Moms report that found that younger moms focus more on budgeting, nutrition and safety when they go shopping. Lifestyle and Leisure analyst Fiona O’Donnell was quoted as saying “The considerable expenses associated with having kids make budgeting and value-seeking more essential. At the same time, the increased time and logistical pressures of parenthood put a premium on convenience.” The story was picked up both in the US and the UK, appearing in Drug Store News, Retail Times and MediaPost Marketing Daily.

Next up, new product expert Lynn Dornblaser was quoted in her fourth USA Today article this year alone for a piece about the new low-calorie mango Slurpee while Advertising Age used data from one of our Mintel Menu Insights reports for a story about a new frozen yogurt shop.

Meanwhile, Beverage Industry referenced our insight to demonstrate the popularity of coconut beverages across the globe and direct mail figures from Mintel Comperemedia appeared in a CreditCards.com article that was also picked up by NASDAQ and Yahoo! Finance about payment protection plans. It seems more than half of all credit card mail offers include an offer for payment protection according to Comperemedia.

Other big stories where Mintel was featured appeared in The Wall Street Journal where they used our consumer usage data for a piece about home hair color, and NPR, where David Browne, senior analyst at Mintel provided the journalist with sales figures for the meat alternatives market and pointed out that just 12% of households use meat alternatives.

Closing out the week, Fast Casual highlighted Mintel Menu Insights info to illustrate the increasingly blurry line between fast casual and QSR restaurants while Prepared Foods utilized our ethnic food consumption figures for a piece about marketing to Hispanic consumers.