Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

It was celebrations all round in the UK last week, and what better way to mark the start of the Olympics than with some fantastic coverage for our very latest Champagne and Sparkling Wines report. Starting with the Sunday Telegraph which talked about how sparkling wine sales have overtaken Champagne sales for first time. Chris Wisson, Senior Food and Drink Analyst at Mintel, said: “Prior to the economic downturn, people saw Champagne as “aspirational and associated with success. However, since the onset of the recession people have re-evaluated how they spend their money… People are looking to enjoy luxury in more accessible guises and at cheaper prices.” The story was also featured in The Guardian and other trade publications including Just Drinks, The Daily Meal,  Decanter and The Drinks Business.

The story then went global featuring in ADEGA in Brazil, and Journee Vinicole in France and in the high profile Il Sole 24 Ore in Italy and ???? in China.

Still with drink, but this time our Drinking at home press release which continues to hit the headlines, this time in The Scotsman which quoted Mintel’s Alex Beckett. The story appeared also in the New Zealand Herald and the Indian Wine Academy.

Also quoting Alex, The Grocer ran a story on how the nation is getting a taste for loose leaf tea. “However, while many shoppers were aware of the flavour benefits of loose-leaf tea compared with teabags, they were unwilling to compromise on convenience,” said Mintel Food and Drink Analyst Alex Beckett, highlighting NPD opportunities.”

On to the nation’s health and our very latest OTC and Pain Killer release which was featured in the Daily Mail which spoke about back pain amongst the young in particular. Quoting Michelle Strutton, our Head of Household and OTC Healthcare Global Insight: “Too much time sitting, weakens muscle tone and this can lead to back pain. Many of Britain’s youngsters lead a sedentary lifestyle and lack of sport may well be contributing to back pain as well as poor posture. Britain’s youth are spending hours at a time slumped in front of TV and computer screens, which is doing nothing to strengthen their backs.” The story was also featured in The Sun, The London Evening Stand, the Huffington Post, MSN.com, BBC Radio Humberside, The Independent i and in Ireland in the Independent.ie and Herald.ie. Once again the story went global, with mass coverage in Australia, including The Daily Telegraph, Adelaidenow.com, the Australian.com and Perthnow.com. It was also a highlight in HTV in Vietnam, in Med India and in both Vest and Dir.bg in Bulgaria.

Our short haul travel research proved popular starting in the Daily Telegraph which discussed our latest travel trends. A market which rose by a third between 2010 and 2011. “The increase in holidays to Europe is being driven by a rise in package holidays. The popularity of all-inclusive holidays is rising as people do not want to overspend,” said Tom Rees, an expert at Mintel. The story was followed up in The Mail on Sunday which also quoted Tom. Still with travel and Tom, BrandRepublic looked at whether the opening ceremony will boost Britain’s appeal abroad? Featuring a fantastic quote from Tom, who said “The ceremony was obviously very successful, and it will look good, but measurable impact is difficult to gauge. Hotels in London are currently running at 85% capacity, so it is not bursting at the seams.”

Although Christmas is five months away, it seems it is never too early to think about the festive season, talking about Christmas arriving early in Harrods, the Guardian quoted Mintel as saying “This is all about capitalising on the sheer volumes of tourists expected over the next few weeks. Harrods is right at the top of the list of destinations and must get a higher proportion of its business from tourists than any other department store.”

On to Mintel’s chocolate data, Campaign quoted Kit Kat as the fourth-largest UK chocolate brand with estimated sales of £120 million in 2011. Meanwhile, on a healthier note, Consumeraffairs.com spoke about how consumers are trying to eat healthier foods and The Times featured Mintel’s health & fitness research in “How did we become so lazy?”

Meanwhile, our China haircare release was featured in Cosmetic Design Europe quoting Mintel’s Jiang Xinyi . The same research was featured in Wall Street Journal market watch, GCI Magazine and Happi, which talked about how 81% of urban Chinese hair care consumers prefer to purchase all-natural product, also quoting Jiang Xinyi, Research Analyst at Mintel:”The heightened level of awareness that has arisen from several high-profile safety scares in recent years has taken its’ toll on the rate of product development in several hair care categories, but hair colorants and styling agents were hit especially hard. The industry has responded with an increase in all-natural products. Now that China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine requires the cosmetics industry to adopt a practice of full ingredient labelling, bringing China towards being in line with international practice, hair care consumers can enjoy increased product transparency and feel better about the safety of the products they use in their hair.”

Our Mintel and L’Oreal research continues to feature in the media starting with The Sun. The skincare map was featured in Greensmile.com which spoke about how face masks are most popular in Wales, according to the report, called Here Comes The Science Bit, which was carried out by industry analysts Mintel. The same research was featured in Redonline. Still with beauty, The Sun featured our mens grooming research in “Man behind the mask.”

Still with beauty, Professional Beauty, quoted our “Kinetique” research in “Caci fuels growth in homecare devices.” Meanwhile, our US men’s beauty salon research featured in the Times of Malta while the same research featured in Infoseek in Japan. Elle featured our cosmetic surgery report explaining how Mintel research suggests that 1.25 million non surgical treatments were done in 2010, with Botox the most popular.

Combining both beauty and drink Beverage Daily quoted Mintel talking about how ‘Girly men’ could opt for alcoholic beauty beverages. Beauty beverages are big business in Japan and looking beyond regulatory hurdles preventing alcohol launches in the EU, could find a market with men, according to Mintel.

Finishing on a fun note, our bread research was featured on the BBC quiz while our weddings abroad research featured in FemaleFirst.

Over in Europe, David Jago was quoted in Food Navigator.com talking about Palm Oil and how it may be an emerging trend. In Africa, Ghana Web talked about how more African women are set to go natural. “More and more Black women are opting to wear their natural hair and discontinuing the use of relaxers.” This revelation was originally contained in a 2011 Mintel report which suggested that between 2006 and 2011, the sales of hair relaxer kits, have dropped drastically by 17%, an amount that translates into several millions of US dollars. The trend is “expected to continue,” the report concluded.

While in Belgium, RTL highlighted the trend towards natural beauty and Process Alimentaire featured Mintel’s Stevia research.

Finally the Chinese middle class story hit the headlines in the Portugal Textil the portal to the Portuguese fashion industry.

And in the US last week we snagged several more Beverage Industry mentions, this time on the topics of alcoholic beverage product launches, fruit juices and RTD coffee. Meanwhile, our press release on American consumption of healthy foods continued to have the media talking, this time appearing in Food Technology and Consumer Affairs.

Also of note, our insight into Hispanic beverage consumption (Hispanics are avid users of thirst quenchers and imported beer) that quoted Senior Multicultural Analyst Leylha Ahuile was covered by HispanicAd.com, Convenience Store News and Hispanically Speaking News.

Our analysts were also in high demand last week. Molly Maier was interviewed by Natural Products Insider for a story about natural cures for menopause. Molly pointed out that “Among those who report having experienced hot flashes or other symptoms of menopause, about one-third of women are currently treating, one-third are not currently treating (but have in the past), and one-third have never treated them.”

Our most popular analyst last week was Marcia Mogelonsky. She was sought out the by three different publications in one day for a comment on the sale of Peet’s Coffee to Joh. A Benckiser. Her quotes appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, KQED Public Radio and Bloomberg.

Additionally, Lynn Dornblaser was sought out by Crain’s Chicago Business and asked to comment on Kraft developing kid food for grown-ups while Global Personal Care Analyst Amy Ziegler was quoted in a press release about men’s salon usage. The story got great media attention and appeared in Drug Store News, Inside Cosmeceuticals, Yahoo! News, New York Daily News and GCI Magazine. Director of Foodservice Research, Eric Giandelone, was interviewed by NBC News’ BottomLine where he commented on how Chick-Fil-A’s President’s comments about gay marriage will affect the company’s bottom line.

And in finance news, Mintel Comperemedia direct mail figures appeared in a Fox Business story while quotes from Andrew Davidson were included in a piece in Yahoo! Finance about the connection between a tightening of consumer credit during the economic downturn and the decline in consumer bankruptcy filings.

This week kicked off with a Boston Globe article that quoted Fiona O’Donnell extensively and referenced data from our Marketing to Moms report. Fiona was quoted as saying that “use of chat boards had hit 11 percent in 2011, compared with 5 percent four years earlier. Meanwhile, even though 93 percent of Internet-using moms aged 18 to 44 employ social media sites to connect, the growth seems finally to be leveling off. Social networking is a quick hit, where you announce good news.”

Next up, Mintel’s Lisa Hronek was quoted in a CreditCards.com story that was then picked up by Fox Business and Yahoo! Finance where she discussed the prevalence of sign-up bonus offers while quotes from Global Personal Care Analyst Amy Ziegler and her presentation at this year’s HBA Conference were highlighted in a profile on Happi Magazine.

Another great story appeared in USA Today where Mintel’s sales projections for the Greek yogurt market were included in a piece about the yogurt craze that’s sweeping the nation and Drug Store News included our prediction that cooking sauce and marinade sales will grow 19% in the next three years for a story about at-home dining and condiment usage.

However, one of our biggest wins this week came in the form of an article written by an Associated Press writer that was picked up across the globe. Our stat about 2012 gluten-free food sales appeared in the story that was covered by The Washington Post, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and several Spanish-language publications throughout the US.