bake - May 2012 - 21

latest innovation in a series of successful steps for Society Bakery, which sold its ﬁrst baked item in December 2003. Muns opened her Greenville Avenue store in February 2005. “The business has grown from nothing to over 30 employees and over a million in sales, mostly through word of mouth,” she says. Study ﬁrst Before you plan your own new product at your bakery, take a lesson from some of the most recent trends affecting consumers and how they shop for food. Despite a shopping list being a tool to stay on budget and eliminate unnecessary purchases, research shows that nine out of 10 shoppers still buy items not on their list, according to an ongoing shopper behavior study by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research. Of these shoppers who purchase off-list items, 66% say the reason was a sale or promotion, 30% say they found a coupon, and 23% simply wanted to pamper themselves. “Our data shows that 61% of off-list shoppers purchase an additional one to three items,” says Craig Elston, senior vice president of Integer. “This shows that if you reach a particular shopper at the right moment with the right message — for example, using in-store signage to play into their desire to pamper themselves — it can end with that item being added to their basket.” And consider this: 92% of consumers now say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising — an increase of 18% since 2007, according to a new study from Nielsen. Online consumer reviews are the second-most trusted form of advertising, with 70% of consumers surveyed online indicating they trust this platform, an increase of 15% in four years. Nielsen’s survey shows that 58% of online consumers trust “owned media,” such as messages on company websites, and 50% ﬁnd content in emails they consented to receive to be credible. Thirty-six percent of consumers report trust in online video ads, and 33% believe messages in online banner ads, up from 26% in 2007. Sponsored ads on social networking sites are deemed credible by 36% of global respondents.

“The growth in trust for online search and display ads over the past four years should give marketers increased conﬁdence in putting more of their ad dollars into this medium,” says Randall Beard, global head of advertiser solutions at Nielsen. “Many companies are already increasing their paid advertising activity on social networking sites, in part due to the high level of trust consumers place in friends’ recommendations and online opinions. Brands should be watching this emerging ad channel closely as it continues to grow.” These trends shed light on what inﬂuences shoppers to make a purchase. When it comes to what types of foods they crave most of all, a new study on adventurous diners found that foodies are signiﬁcantly more likely to choose menu items with bitter, sour and umami ﬂavors, according to the new Culinary Visions Panel survey. The survey explored over 500 consumers’ preferences for all ﬁve ﬂavors, including sweet and salty. The Culinary Visions Panel deﬁnes a foodie as those who always or usually like to try new dishes and ﬂavors. Sweet and salty were the clear favorites among the overall sample, with 81% of consumers reporting sweet as their personal taste preference and salty close behind at 67%. The same cannot be said for the other three ﬂavors. Umami, bitter and sour scored the lowest with consumers at 19%, 18% and 16%. “Flavor balancing is key to customer satisfaction,” says Sharon Olson, executive director of Culinary Visions Panel, “even though customers will say they gravitate toward one ﬂavor over another. When they choose a menu item, there is a wide variance in the dominant ﬂavors they choose.” If you want to challenge your customers a bit more, take a cue

81%
of consumers reported sweet as their personal taste preference with salty close behind at 67%.

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bake - May 2012

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