Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

With the economic climate remaining fraught and consumers cutting back on spending money on food, the influence of private label products has never been stronger. Earlier this week, our latest research on private labels food and drink, which found that the number of own-brand products launched last year overtook branded goods for the first time in the UK, captured a great deal of media attention. Chris Wisson, our Senior Food Analyst and author of the report, explained: ” Our research suggests that, on balance, consumers expect to buy more standard and value own-label foods while cutting back on brands.” The study appeared in: The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, AOL Money, Marketing Week, Food Manufacture, The Grocer, The Drum to name but a few. You can also hear Chris being interviewed on BBC Radio.

Mid-week, we proudly announced our new Mintel Household & Personal Care service, an innovative toolkit designed to provide research and expertise specifically for household, personal care and OTC healthcare brands worldwide. The announcement received coverage in specialist media, such as Happi, Daily Research News,  Stock Rants. Still with the personal care sector, at the start of the week we achieved some phenomenal men’s care coverage, as The Los Angeles Times used our men’s toiletries data for a story about male self-image and grooming. As our latest Men’s Toiletries report points out, 25-34-year-old men are most likely to use hair styling products and moisturizers, and to have their body hair waxed. The story was also picked up by local favorite, The Chicago Tribune.

More on the economic slowdown, our Director of Retail Research, Richard Perks, was in big demand to comment on British retailer Marks & Spencer and the decision to review sales growth targets and store opening plans. You can watch the interview on ITN  and ITV. Richard was then interviewed by a number of stations, including Sky News, Borders Radio, Imagine FM, Carlisle FM, Forth One FM on supermarkets’ regulation. Moreover, he was quoted in The Sun on high street stores spring sales: “Retailers need to clear their spring ranges to make way for the summer ones. Good weather this week could really help clear the overhang.” Richard said. In the meantime, signs of recovery raise hopes in Ireland, as seen in Drapers, which used our data on clothing retailing in the Republic of Ireland that will see a growth in value this year from £2.95bn to £2.97bn.

Other big news, Director of Innovation and Insight Lynn Dornblaser was asked to give her opinion of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company and was also quoted in a Supermarket News story about consumers and their love of nutrition tips. The journalist referenced comments Lynn made during a presentation at the Food Marketing Institute Show in Dallas earlier this month. Yet another Mintel expert, Eric Giandelone, Director of Foodservice Research, was quoted in an Advertising Age piece about the difficulties of serving beer at burger chains, while Kathy Hayden, Foodservice Analyst at Mintel, was quoted in a press release we distributed about the popularity of chicken on restaurant menus. The story got great media coverage, appearing in QSR Magazine, Restaurant Management, Food Technology, The National Provisioner and The Malaysian Insider in Malaysia.

The Sun again included our survey on shapewear, which is now used by one in ten women in the UK, in a piece on a new swimwear said to help women to look a dress size smaller. If it meets the promise, it surely will be a hit next summer! More on appearance, it looks like “big hair” is now big thing in the UK and the Daily Mail reported our data on the usage of dry shampoo in a piece titled “Sales of dry shampoo rockets as TOWIE triggers trend for big hair”: 23% of British women and 13% of British men now own a bottle. 

Also this week, the UK celebrated its National Vegetarian Week. Some of us in the UK office entered the challenge to go meat free for a week, and it looks like we were not the only ones. According to Mintel’s research “Meat-free and Free-from Food“, in fact, three in five Brits now eat meat-free food, a market that increased by 18% between 2005 and 2010. Is this the end of meat? To find the answer, read the full article on The Independent.

Then, The Times used Mintel’s data in two different pieces. The first one, titled “Recession seen in the rear view mirror”, referenced our research on cinemas, which shows how 85% of cinemagoers in the UK feel that box-office prices are too high. While the second one investigated the health effects of high usage of energy drinks, now a huge market in the UK. Sales of this type of drinks have soared by 20% in the past 3 years with the market for energy drinks alone now worth £1.1billion and a massive 59% of British consumers now sipping sport drinks to combat fatigue or to provide a boost. More on health issues, we also appeared in The Daily Telegraph on calcium supplement consumption. 

And as temperatures heated up this week, we also garnered a bit of cool coverage when The Rockford Register Star referenced our ice cream and frozen novelties consumption figures. Also of note, we snagged a second Supermarket News mention when they highlighted our natural and organic produce data. 

Finally, last week cruise research,  was picked up by Cruise News and Cruise and Ferry in Italy and Off Radar Cruise News in Cyprus.