Along with TikTok dance challenges, pandemic puppies and hybrid work, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a renewed focus on how we feed ourselves.
And this is one trend that doesn’t seem to be going away.
A late 2022 McKinsey & Co. survey of global eating patterns found 36% of respondents in the U.S. reported eating “significantly more healthy” since the pandemic. And 4 in 10 consumers are actively trying to reduce their consumption of animal-based meat products, according to the Natural Marketing Institute’s annual Health and Wellness Trends Database.
Plant-based diets have more visibility than ever.
As the demand for faux meat products falls (sales of plant-based meats have declined 21% between June 2022 and July 2023, according to Circana), health professionals, marketers and growers see a window of opportunity for people to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
What’s in a name?
First things first: What does plant-based diet mean? Within the produce industry, the term can be quite specific.
“Plant-based means the food is made from plants, as in something that is chickpea based, like chicken nuggets, meat and seafoods,” said Katie Calligaro, director of marketing and communications at The Foundation for Fresh Produce, formerly the Produce for Better Health Foundation. She prefers the term plant-forward eating to encompass diets that include low-fat dairy and lean meat as well as fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Consumers tend to be less exact: They “define plant-based in a variety of ways,” said Julie Lopez, a culinary nutrition consultant and registered dietitian for the Healthy Family Project. “It could mean 100% plants or simply a more plant-focused diet.”
Regardless of terms, she said, they all have plants in common. “And when consumers think of plants, they tend to heavily focus on produce.”
Celebrate the benefits
Much of the attention on fruits and vegetables is being driven by an interest in functional foods, said Amy Wood, senior vice president of strategy for Curious Plot, a marketing firm that specializes in food and agriculture.
In a 2023 national survey of more that 700 food-forward consumers, 72% of respondents across all generations described themselves as “very or extremely curious” about foods with gut health benefits. Seventy-one percent were “very or extremely curious” about foods with cognitive health benefits. (Not surprisingly, Wood said this curiosity grows as consumers age.) And 65% were “very or extremely curious” about immunity-boosting recipes. Interest in mood-boosting foods was particularly high with Generation Z and millennials.
Savvy retailers are tapping into this interest in functionality. At Harps Food Stores, a Midwest-based grocery chain, weekly flyers include quick nutrition tips related to produce.
“There is a lot of room for education about many commodities,” said Josh Rector, the chain’s produce category manager. “Like potassium — you just think of bananas. But there are so many items, like potatoes, that have just as much, if not more, potassium than bananas.”
The flyers highlight unexpected facts, Rector said, “like X contains as much vitamin C as an orange or Y is a natural source of melatonin.”
Amanda Keefer, managing director of Healthy Family Project, also focused on those types of benefits for a fall in-store promotion with Publix supermarkets.
“We had great signage showcasing produce partners,” she said. Messages touted “Lower your cholesterol with apples” and “Onions are rich in anti-inflammatory properties.”
For any campaign to have impact, however, you need to make sure the recommendations are relevant to a range of shoppers.
“Providing representation of cultural produce picks (such as yuca) helps customers to understand what a healthy choice might look like for their family,” said Emily Massi, registered dietary nutritionist and licensed dietitian nutritionist.
As Giant Food’s healthy-living merchandising manager, Massi’s focus is on getting customers to include produce with every meal to maximize the health benefits.
“When considering a diverse customer base with a variety of cultural considerations, budgets and preferences, remember: Fresh, frozen or canned — they all count,” Massi said.
Make it fun
The challenge is to translate consumer curiosity to action.
“Consumers know that fruits and vegetables are good for them, but they aren’t always acting on it,” said Calligaro of The Foundation for Fresh Produce. “We need to shift from the finger-wagging ‘you need to eat your vegetables’ approach.”
Instead, she advises focusing on the consumer experience and highlighting the benefits and immediate rewards.
“Think about how people are eating your products,” she said. “There is joy in eating berries. When people learn a new fruit or vegetable hack, they tend to do it.”
The information can be simple. “Just because we’ve seen the hack a hundred times, doesn’t mean they know it,” Calligaro said. “You can show it in a video — surprise and delight them, but also teach them something new.”
Healthy Family Project’s Keefer sees a similar trend.
“People are intimidated by fresh fruits and vegetables,” she said. “It’s easier for them to grab a plant-based product in the freezer than to know how to pick or prepare a butternut squash.”
To empower customers, Keefer’s team has focused on “edu-tainment” — content designed to educate as well as entertain. Working with PMG and The Packer’s own social media team, Healthy Family Project has launched an Instagram series featuring a different produce commodity every month; each video presents shopping tips, prep instructions and easy cooking ideas.
For a separate partnership with Bee Sweet Citrus, Healthy Family Project created a mandarin flavor combination infographic with ideas for pairing the citrus with foods such as honey and lemon zest or dark chocolate.
Using QR codes on in-store signage is another way to drive shoppers to easily achievable content.
Healthy Family Project’s campaign ran in more than 1,300 Publix locations and featured signs with QR codes that took shoppers to recipes accompanied by quick facts. For example, a chocolate-dipped mango pop recipe included instructions on how to cut a mango; a pineapple rice bowl recipe told people how to choose and store the fruit.
Using QR codes and video is a no-brainer, Keefer said. “The pandemic brought QR codes with menus. And it’s now common for consumers to look to video for how-to’s.”
The numbers support this service-oriented approach. Curious Plot’s consumer survey shows that 79% and 68% of early adopter consumers are very or extremely curious about “new ways to prepare vegetables” and “new ways to prepare fruit,” respectively, compared to just 45% very or extremely curious about “plant-based recipes,” said Wood of Curious Plot.
“Framing and language is important. Consumers are hungry for ways to keep fruits and vegetables interesting, but not exclusively in ‘plant-based’ ways,” she said.
Educate your team
If shoppers are confused about produce, chances are, some of the people on your own team are too.
“We take a lot of things for granted that we can’t assume sales associates know,” said Rector of Harps Food Stores.
This lesson hit close to home last summer when planning Harps Food Store’s Vidalia onion promotion. He discovered his wife thought Vidalia “was just another name for a sweet onion,” a sentiment shared by some of his associates. Working with the vendor, the store created overhead messages explaining the onions had to come from specific regions in Georgia and are available only from April through August.
“Not only are they seasonal, they are exclusive,” Rector said. “We work on informing the associates as much as informing the consumer.”
Help shoppers connect the dots
Cross-merchandising across the supermarket is another way to keep the focus on fresh fruits and vegetables.
“You are meeting people where they are,” Calligaro said.
Place bagged salad near the deli case, and position vegetables and fruit first in the grab-and-go section for shoppers picking up quick dinners.
“I’ve seen stores put bananas in the cereal aisle. Cereal is the No. 1 carrier of fruit,” she said.
Her favorite cross-promotion to date? A supermarket that merchandised fruit and vegetable trays next to cakes. Sales data showed that customers who purchased birthday cakes were also buying chips and salsa.
“They were having a party,” Calligaro said. “Adding fruit and vegetables made it easy and healthy.”
Include children
Almost 30% of parents of Generation Alpha (children born after 2010) said they involve their children in grocery purchasing decisions, according to a Morning Consult survey of 2,000 of these parents. Factor in that 66% of these parents said it’s very important to them that they purchase fruits and vegetables for their kids, and it makes sense to include children in marketing plans.
“You want an opportunity to introduce kids to new fruits and vegetables,” Keefer said, “so you don’t have to teach them as adults.”
For the team at Harps Food Stores, targeting the entire family took the form of a Healthy Bucks program. “We reinvented the dollar-off coupon,” said Rector, whose team piggybacked on a weekly Produce for Kids promotion. The paper coupons, which look like dollar bills with the supermarket logo, were handed out to children, who could use them to buy a piece of fruit or vegetable of their choice.
“We wanted to include them in the daily trip to the grocery store,” Rector said.
Tying the coupon to a specific department gave it new appeal.
“We’ve tracked the coupons internally, and easily 80% of what is handed out is redeemed,” Rector said.
Keep up with the trends
Finally, there is a big opportunity for grocers and marketers who can take advantage of news and trends around produce-forward eating.
“The Blue Zones are blowing up with the new series on Netflix,” said Keefer, referring to the five regions of the world where people live 100 years and longer. The Netflix series “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones” has spotlighted the customs of the inhabitants.
“Ninety-five percent [follow] plant-based diets,” Keefer said. “Social media is a great place to call out Blue Zone ‘Did you knows’ and tag their account.”
Media trends also build awareness.
“We used to have to build a big display and run a 30-second ad [to promote a commodity],” Rector said. “Social media trends are free advertising.”
Rector points to the emergence of veggie noodles several years ago. Sales associates noticed an uptick in customers buying zucchini and yellow squash to spiralize at home.
“We widened our allocation of the squash in stores,” Rector said. “Then we went out to our pre-cut fruit and vegetable vendor and asked if they could cut the squash for us so we could offer noodles.”
With the lightning-fast pace of social media, following trends needs to be a team effort. The goal is to convert people to long-term habits.
“If [jumping on trends] is what it takes, let’s not let it blow over,” Rector said. “There are a ton of benefits to eating fruits and vegetables. Let’s make it a routine after the trend is over.”
