Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

Again the Financial Times referenced our latest UK Hotels report in an article which discussed how last year the percentage of adults who stayed in three-star hotels dropped by 6 per cent, the biggest fall of any starred-hotel category. Still with travel, our latest UK Short and City Breaks research gained some fantastic coverage hitting the headlines in The Daily Telegraph – which talked about how Britons are increasingly opting for ‘nearcations.’ Soaring petrol prices and rail fares mean long trips to resorts within the UK, the so called ‘staycation’, are too expensive for many families on a budget, said market analysts Mintel. The same story featured in The Daily Mail and The Express. And more on leisure time, The Economist featured our latest nightclubs data highlighting how lovers of thumping music and human sweat are growing scarcer. A third of nightclubs have shut in the past five years. The market value of the industry has fallen from £1.8 billion ($3.6 billion) to £1.4 billion since 2007, said Mintel’s Senior Leisure and Media Analyst, Michael Oliver.

Our research on the coffee market in China was highlighted in the Financial Times. Coffee shops sales in China have grown at an average annual rate of nearly 30% according to our research, boosted by young urbanites who view the drink as an inspirational product.
The story was then picked up by the German edition of the Financial Times and Yahoo! Finance, and the Financial Times China. In India, the Economic Times featured our coffee research which predicted that the soluble coffee category in China should almost double in size between 2011 and 2015, attaining a value of $1.96bn by the end of this period.

Again this week, the Huffington Post turned to Mintel for several of its leading stories. Firstly, Marcia Mogelonsky, Director of Insight for Food and Drink at Mintel, talked about confectionery sales at Halloween. A number of companies had been burned by overstocking Halloween goods before the big day, and supermarkets are coming under pressure to not over encourage kids to indulge on sweet goods, Marcia said. The same story was then picked up by The Wall Street Journal in Germany and Today Online in Singapore. Also with chocolate Confectionery News looked at the state of the US chocolate market, once again quoting Mintel’s Marcia.

Still in the Huffington Post, this time on banking, Toby Clark, Mintel’s Director of Research for EMEA, said Santander was wise to stress the importance of “traditional” banking values such as growth in deposits and current account balances. “That focus on the bread-and-butter elements of retail banking should play well with consumers. Although conventional wisdom is that people don’t trust banks, the real picture is more complex. Mintel’s research shows that people tend to trust the people they have day-to-day dealings with.” Toby commented.

Meanwhile, the BBC interviewed Chris Wisson, Senior Drinks analyst at Mintel, about the UK gin market. “Gin is not yet the saviour of the spirits market that some are saying, but it does have the potential to become an increasingly important part of it.” Chris said.

As the nation was gripped with baking fever The Daily Mail used our very latest home baking research in “The Great British Bake Graph! Trend timeline” which reveals how our love of home baking has risen and flopped each decade since the 1900s (and we are now baking more than ever). From 2001-2006 the sale of home baking products increased by 25%, bringing total sales to £429 million in 2006. Meanwhile, our eating out research featured in the Financial Times in “Recession whets diners’ appetites” even as consumers reined in their overall spending, the UK’s eating out market has grown nearly 7% since 2007 to an estimated £31.5bn in sales this year, according to Mintel.

More on our research on coffee, Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Mintel’s Global Drink Analyst, Jonny Forsyth: “Experience from other markets tells us that once people get used to having a fresh cup of coffee in places like Starbucks, it’s very hard to go back.” The same story featured in WARC and Macau Daily Times both of which quoted Jonny.

Talking about Ikea in Bloomberg, our Director of Retail Research, Richard Perks said: “It’s very much a case that consumer demand is weak, particularly in furniture. There’s been a great reluctance to spend on furniture, on housing, or make any big investment. It’s classic recessionary impact.”

Over in Ireland, The Irish Sun highlighted our very latest Irish Lifestyles report in “Techies unable to crash out.” The same story featured in Market Research World, while the Irish Independent spoke about how around 3m consumers in the Republic now use online banking facilities, according to a survey by Irish-based market research firm Mintel.
Meanwhile, the Independent.ie quoted our bicycles research “It’s not just having a flashy bike, it’s having all the gear,” said Michael Oliver, Mintel’s Senior Leisure and Media
Analyst.

On to beauty, the New Straits Times in Malaysia highlighted our Kinetique trend that “encompasses electricity and energy in beauty” and how “beauty that’s plugged in” is “the key trend set to impact global beauty consumers and drive innovation in the year ahead”.

It’s been a busy two weeks in the Chicago office as well. First up, the New York Times referenced our cheese intelligence that found “26% of cheese buyers say a claim about winning awards is an important factor in their choice.” A second New York Times piece used our Halloween chocolate sales figures.

Meanwhile, our press release that announced that digital movie sales have quadrupled in the past five years and quoted Senior Technology Analyst Billy Hulkower was covered by Yahoo! Finance, Home Media Magazine and MediaPost Marketing Daily. Fiona O’Donnell, Lifestyles & Leisure Analyst at Mintel, was also interviewed by Progressive Grocer about cause marketing. According to Fiona, “cause marketing is not only increasing, but also becoming a standard business practice for companies of all sizes.”

Yet another often quoted analyst Alex Smith, Director of Consumer Trends at Mintel Inspire was sought out by MSN Money to comment on the growing popularity of machines replacing jobs usually done by humans, while Alex’s comments from a previous press release were reprinted in a Los Angeles Times story about getting men to do more cooking at home.

Keeping up the momentum, our Foodservice Expert, Kathy Hayden, was quoted in two articles this week. The first appeared in QSR Magazine where Kathy was asked to give her opinion on the current state of turkey sandwiches at restaurants. The second was in the Denver Post where she pointed out that booze-infused milkshakes at restaurants are “a curiosity factor and a novelty factor that can draw add-on sales.”

Other big mentions included a story in Bloomberg Businessweek that highlighted our knowledge of soy food and beverage sales, as well as the Huffington Post that utilized our insight into Latino alcoholic beverage consumption to illustrate how Latino beer sales hint at an economic recovery among Hispanics.

Mintel data was also used in a Fast Company article that discussed consumer interest in ‘real’ products and Mintel Menu Insights figures appeared in a Nation’s Restaurant News piece about an increase in whole grain pasta on restaurant menus.

Additionally, Prevention Magazine seems to be referencing Mintel insight on a weekly basis, and the past two weeks were no different. A story about vegan butter used our butter industry sales numbers while our raisin consumption info was used to answer the question, what’s healthier: raisins or cranberries?

Also of note, Creditcards.com sought out Mintel Comperemedia’s credit card direct mail volume research for an article about credit card interest rates. According to Mintel Comperemedia, mail volume is down 42% compared to this time last year.

Beverage Industry used Mintel’s Global New Products Database launch figures to show an increase in new beverages with whey protein, Mintel data about increasing popularity of retro drinks and stevia sweeteners were included in two separate Food Product Design stories and Supermarket News referenced our consumer baking insight.

Closing the week, Hilton Worldwide quoted out latest research on Casual dining and quick service restaurants, whose sales have increased to nearly $30 billion in the past five years. The story was picked up globally and appears in a number of articles including: Yahoo! Finance and The week in India, The Telegraph India, La Bolsa and El Economista in Spain.