'Tis The Season When Holiday Food And Beverage Offerings Appeal To Everyone
Jeremie Bohbot
LOS ANGELES
,
December 18, 2013
(Off The Menu)
–
Holiday offerings by packaged foods companies, restaurants and coffee houses are simply genius. They sell themselves. Every demographic and age group, whether consciously or subconsciously, looks for these special offerings during the holiday season.
Let me use myself as an example: Last week, I was at my local Vons and came across the Egg nog display. Now, egg nog wasn’t on my shopping list. Heck, it wasn’t even on my mind! But I saw it and immediately put it in my shopping cart. Why? Because I knew it didn’t come out very often.
Then a few minutes later, I came across “holiday” M&Ms. As both a consumer and a food and beverage analyst, I’m well aware that red and green M&Ms are available year-round. But guess what? It didn’t matter. I saw it and all I could think of was: “Oooooh, holiday M&Ms! That sounds good!” And in the shopping cart it went.
I ended my supermarket trip by buying my wife a cup of coffee at a Starbucks kiosk inside the store. Now you must understand: I hate coffee so I never get Starbucks for myself. But I saw that it was offering a special Peppermint Mocha beverage, topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate. So in addition to my wife’s order, I got the peppermint drink for myself. And I didn’t even like it! Again, I hate coffee. But ‘tis the season when special holiday treats just jump out at me.
Holiday food and beverage offerings don’t have to be spectacular. They don’t even have to be new! They just need to appear special. During the holiday season, appearance is everything.
Nevin Barich is the Food and Beverage Analyst for Industry Intelligence. He can be reached at nevin.barich@industryintel.com
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