Through time, Asian countries have had signification exposure to international and regional influences of culture and customs. Though by and large, Asians remain loyal to their traditional recipes, shifts in lifestyle, inter-regional and intra-regional migration, economic uncertainty and the ever evolving world of food science is impacting the what, when and how Thais are eating and drinking.
Lowe Counsel, Lowe’s global strategic insights and innovation consultancy, has partnered with Lowe offices across Asia to undertake a comprehensive regional investigation into the future of food. Entitled ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’ the report covers emerging mainstream behavior and attitudes to food and drink across Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.
The rich and numerous strategic insights that the report contains have been gathered via the Lowe Counsel network of over 300 Thought Leaders across the region. CEO’s of food companies, renowned chefs, food writers, nutritionists, social trend watchers and journalists and restaurant owners all contributed to this report. It is designed to help Lowe and its clients understand how best to prepare and plan in this ever-evolving market.
Fading Impact of Recession
Post a dip in lavish eating out and partying, food consumption is racing towards normalcy. There is no perceptible erosion in values placed on having a good meal. Food remains a highly emotional space for most Asians, and is in fact one of the last things to be affected with financial downturn.
Functional Foods on the Rise
With the increasing application of science to food processing, the ability of food manufacturers to offer products with highly functional benefits is constantly improving, making it possible to create brands that rely on fairly specialized functional claims. The interesting trend is that Asia now leads the world in the development and adoption of advanced scientific foods to enhance nutrition, beauty and performance. It is expected that this category will continue to grow as people look to food to provide a way of boosting and maintaining health, beauty and well-being.
The quest for youth, good looks, well-being and good health – all tangible and functional benefits are opening up opportunities for some food companies to produce products and brands which directly offer up these benefits.
Also, within the Food Study, we have evidence of other Functional Foods coming to the fore. For example different thought leaders cited the emergence of ‘Value added beverages’ which have added nutrients, aroma, minerals etc. Here is another quote from one of our panelists:
“Food supplement or nutritional supplement is increasingly getting popular. I see an interesting & smart promotion from Squeeze – “Flu Fighter” where they add vitamin C shot to a regular fruit smoothie. Leveraging health trend and H1N1 pandemic have been cleverly used as a marketing opportunity by Tipco here.” (R&D, Pizza Quick Service Restaurant, Bangkok).
Meaningful Convenience is the New Mantra
As people find themselves increasingly time-pressured, they will seek out and embrace quick, healthy and convenience food, and not necessarily fast food. This is evident from the sharp rise of traditional cuisines being available in ‘Ready-to-heat and eat’ format. However, looking ahead, Lowe Counsel’s research suggests that there will be a growing concern about nutritional content and decline of authenticity and taste, even resulting in a backlash against the erosion of values surrounding fresh flavors and authentic taste.
Food as a Lifestyle Experience
As consumer choice and eating power grows so does the more lifestyle oriented food products and eating destinations. Experiential eating lends credence to the adage about ‘living to eat’. With the gradual decline of home cooking, the yearning for freshly cooked familiar local favorites in a open kitchen ambience will increase. Within these environs there will be some experimentation with fusion food, but the latter’s appeal will remain confined to those seeking gastronomic adventure and fun. The ‘theatre of the live kitchen’ is also fuelled by a greater concern for the hygiene and safety of the cooking, as the alternative of street food leaves much to be desired in terms of hygiene.
In terms of implications, there are several. Those Food manufacturers who see themselves in the ‘Experience’ game, clearly need to build strong brands around ‘emotive’ appeals and those who see themselves in the ‘Functional’ segment, clearly need to re-evaluate their R&D budgets to ensure that they are going to be adding nutrients that is feeding the next big wave of needs in the market.
Back to Nature
There is a growing awareness of the benefits of simple eating simple, natural food, without additives, fertilizers and pesticides. However, while people acknowledge the positive sides of organic, pesticides free produce, there is some degree of confusion and lack of awareness of existing labeling of products and the obvious premium prices consumers need to pay for something organic. Moreover, there is no obvious way to tell if some produce is pesticide free is also fertilizer free. Governments have a big job to do, when it comes to regulating the literature and labeling around this issue.
Malaysian Highlights
Diverse Flavours but Nervous Experimenters
Summarizing the key trends in Malaysia, having conducted the Malaysian leg of ‘Food for Thought’, Strategic Planning Director – Anirban Ganguly is of the view that Malaysians are proud of their diverse cuisine but are very nervous experimenters’. The general trend is to stay within the broad range of Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisine; however there are pockets of Fusion food and Organic Food that are slowly gaining a wider appeal.
Although there has been an increase of choice in the Malaysian cuisine world, most people still tend to stick to the traditional staple diet regimen, and there is a current trend to relook and revisit the traditional “Kampung” cuisine and “Hawker” dishes and contemporize them; in some cases even export them as international cuisine.
Healthy Eating gradually becoming a priority
There is an increase in the awareness of “healthy” food and the importance of nutrition, the most noticeable change in the last few years is how Malaysians are having their breakfast, more of cereals and brown bread have now entered the Malaysian homes than ever before.
Based on the analysis of the thought leaders of the Market, Anirban Ganguly adds- “Although the issue of health and well being continues to be an area that has high awareness, the actual translation into action is not very promising. Malaysians continue to indulge and as a result ‘obesity’ today is on the rise, also an area of concern is heart ailments and hyper-tension.” However, overall there is an increasing enthusiasm today for leading a healthy life. With a change of diets as a first step and more emphasis on fitness and gyms.
Modern Kopitiams making a come back
Although time is a scarce commodity today, when it comes to food the Malaysians still like to take time to have their food, be it a quick snack or lunch or a lavish dinner, and there has been a rise of the modern Kopitiams serving delicious traditional food at value for money prices along with the recent rise of western ‘junk’ food for the ‘yuppie’ population.
Luxury & Premium seen more as hype
Highly priced, Exotic Ingredients (largely imported), 5 Star or Boutique ambience and exquisite presentation, unheard of names etc. continue to be the parameters of Luxury food. There is also a view that in the era of globalization ‘luxury’ foods have now become commonplace and is more a marketing ploy than anything else! The dichotomy is often food brands like “Starbucks” or “Coffee bean” which are looked upon a luxury brands because of the brand image.
Thailand Highlights
The Disappearing Family Meal Occasion becoming more apparent
Physical and Temporal distances between family members is fuelling and accelerating this trend. At a deeper level, this is symptomatic of an erosion of ‘family-proximity’ culture urban Thailand. The implication for Marketers is that they can leverage this insight to create brand experiences that evoke the sense of ‘family feeling’ and indeed help give a new meaning to family unions over meals.
Indian Flavours going popular
Fuelled by success at the Movie Box Office, Indian pop culture and food is gaining acceptance amongst Thais – which explains the appearance of the humble samosa and not-so-humble tikkas in the frozen section of hypermarkets. The cuisine will gradually start to peak in popularity before losing its reputation of being ‘special’ and becoming more mass. One leading hotelier, who keeps tabs on the rising interest in Indian cuisine in Bangkok, opined that Indian food will gradually lose its ‘specialty’ cache with its wider availability.
Home Cooking gets a new lease of life
Home cooking has two new ingredients: ‘Ready-to-cook’ and ‘Ready to Heat’. Thanks to food science, Thais are discovering the joys of tucking into their all-time favorites by simply buying the branded and packaged versions. The implication of this will be a longer-term quest to balance this trend with nutrition and freshness. But in the meantime, there will be a profusion of branded seasoning products, semi-cooked meals, and frozen foods.
Redefinition of Luxury Food
Luxury is getting re-defined with the new drivers seem to be revolving around the ideas of ‘rarity’ and ‘provenance’ The dishes which deliver the best and most authentic original flavors (eg.Norwegian Salmon) and are served with the least amount of processing are acquiring the status of Luxury Eating. In a city like Bangkok – notorious for its rapid rise and fall of fads, true luxury seems to be progressing towards genuinely pricey experiences.
In Summary
Overall, the 300 Asia-based Thought Leaders who have contributed towards ‘Food for Thought’ across six Asian Markets have brought a completely new level of richness to the understanding of the dynamics of food culture, and as the title of the study suggests – providing new food for thought, as we develop fresh strategic branding and communication solutions in the face of emergent challenges to all the food related businesses and categories.
Here is a sampling of implications that can be inferred from our findings:
To touch upon a specific upcoming trend of Experiential Dining, some rules and codes of the entertainment industry may be possible to apply. More inner-directed, emotive motivations may be necessary to tap to build appeal with consumers. In this regard ,one of Lowe’s Strategic Planning Tool helps us understand the realm of ‘Inner Directed Emotive Motivations’ – which are related to the entire spectrum of human motivations that upon being fulfilled helps build an affinity or an emotional connection with the brand. For instance, we know that all motivations are broadly subsumed under 16 broad universal human motivations of which several are strongly inner directed, such as:
- Social Standing: the desire for social status, prestige
- Curiosity: the desire to explore and learn and experience something new and unique