Food trends: Taste transformation

We are a nation of food lovers. Now, don't take that the wrong way. It's not that Britain is getting podgy. What I mean is that as a nation, our taste buds are getting more sophisticated. We are searching out more unusual foods. And we have an insatiable addiction to cookery TV programmes and cookbooks penned by celebrity chefs.

If you want to measure just how far our taste buds have developed as a nation, here are a few startling facts. Between 1990 and 2010 there has been a 300 per cent increase in olive oil imports and a 7,000 per cent increase in the hours of food programming on television. Cookbooks, which used to comprise only six per cent of UK book sales, now account for 33 per cent.

Yet we are not actually spending any more time cooking at home. Indeed, we are a nation of people who like good food, but don't want to cook it ourselves. Great news for pubs.

But there are, more so now than even just five years ago, a vast number of restaurants and café chains competing directly with pubs for casual diners. When it comes to mid-price but high-quality meals, consumers are now spoilt for choice.

Which is where Allegra Strategies comes in. "The fast casual restaurant sector is fragmenting," says managing director Jeffrey Young. "At one end of the spectrum there is a growing appetite for low-priced, street-inspired cuisine and at the other, demand for higher-priced authentic restaurants that excel in food, environment and experience. Pubs will be serving food to go and all-day concepts will emerge. The 'one size fits all' approach will lose out in this dynamic marketplace."

Allegra is a strategy consulting firm. Its job is to provide insight into consumer and market trends, which it reports back to companies including Starbucks, Burger King, Marks & Spencer and Marston's.

It all sounds about as sexy as a pair of brown corduroy trousers, but bear with me. Through research conducted with consumers and dining company executives, Allegra claims to know what, in 2010, consumers actually want when dining out. And the information could be invaluable to pubs. Read on.

Rise of the artisan

Speaking at Allegra's Restaurant Leader Summit, Young said that food trends that were emerging before the recession but have since taken a back seat are beginning to be important again. "Trends which became less of a priority during the economic downturn, notably healthier eating and ethical consumerism, have re-entered consumer mindsets," he says. "Operators will have to meet renewed consumer interest and demand."

What's vital for pubs is that there is also growing demand for informality and variety. "The importance of quality of food and experience has heightened, as consumers have a greater understanding of food and appreciation for taste and provenance," adds Young. "This rising appreciation has led to opportunities for independents or small chains, which can offer consumers a more artisanal, individual experience compared with the large national chains."

The demand for more artisanal food and the impact this can have on sales has influenced the menus of even the most unexpected of food companies.

Sarah Power is marketing director for Burger King, UK and Ireland. She says the fast food chain's menu has had to adapt over the past few years to satisfy consumer tastes for provenance and more exotic foods.

"Our recession started in 2004. The proliferation of new restaurants and coffee shops started to take our customers away," says Power. The chain identified that consumers were reacting to both value deals and premium meals, and so split their menu into three sections - low-priced value deals, an everyday menu and higher-end meals.

Descriptions on the menus were altered. What was once described as 100 per cent British beef changed to Aberdeen Angus beef. American cheese became mature Irish cheddar. Back bacon became applewood smoked bacon.

Remarkably, changing ingredients in some cases and shouting about the provenance of others on the menu worked.

"We wanted to overthrow the view that fast food could not be premium," says Power.

However, something that didn't work for the chain, and something Burger King put a stop to with this change of approach, was the use of discount vouchers. Other chains, though, such as Zizzi and Ask, have become reliant on them. If the recession has left one legacy for food retailers, it is the discount voucher.

"The only recessionary consumer trend that has remained and dominates is value consciousness," says Young. "UK consumers do not just want, but expect, value for money. The challenge for operators will be to develop a cleverer approach to vouchering."

Someone who knows all about that is Mark Angela, chief executive of Pizza Express. Angela, former managing director of Greene King's managed pub division, is having to assess how the company can continue to run the offers, but in a smarter way.

"Three years ago when I joined, it was pre-recession and we were trundling along well," he says. "We had loyal customers who came back regularly. They were pre-recession credit-fuelled.

"We were resting on our laurels and were not hungry about going out there and getting business. We didn't feel the need to. And along came the recession."

The company made a decision not to cut staffing levels or hours, but could only afford this by getting more people through the doors. Hence the proliferation of vouchers. The level of demand sometimes overwhelmed the chain. But it has managed to grow its customer database from 14,000 names to 2.5 million.

Angela says: "The next nine to 12 months will be very tough. Value will remain key. But we will have to move to targeted offers using the data we have collected, work smarter and not do blanket offers. There is a strong feeling we will look back in a couple of years and think how little we knew and how far we have come."

The iPhone effect

Value may be important once you have a customer through the door but the consensus from the restaurant industry is that in future the internet will be the key to getting them there.

John Ray, head of the restaurant sector at Google, has watched as consumers have increasingly turned to the internet to locate where they will eat out.

He says that the average person spends 52 minutes online daily, a figure up 30 per cent from 2007. Seventy-six per cent of people look for local services online, with restaurant-related queries in particular shooting up by 30 per cent from 2005. Forty-five per cent of all web traffic to the UK restaurant sector is driven by Google.

"For us, search is a barometer. We are able to see search trends over time on any subject matter," says Ray. "We are finding people are searching for type of outlet, rather than specific venues. The US is way ahead of us on this, with 82 per cent of diners going online for information on restaurants. Seventy-six per cent use search as part of their decision process. We expect that to happen here too."

The rise of the internet phone is also changing the dynamics of how people choose where to eat out. Those with an iPhone are 50 per cent more likely to do a Google search according to Ray.

For those who had ignored the internet as a marketing tool until now, it seems you can no longer afford to. With customers not only searching for recommendations for places to eat out in their local area, but for value deals too, a decent web presence has never been more vital.

So if you want to boost your food trade, then log on, add some value offers, provide a takeaway option and seek out quality ingredients with provenance. If you don't, there are plenty of competitors who will.