It’s fair to say that pretty much everything we do in marketing is underpinned by insight. To meet our target audience’s needs and desires, we need a deep understanding of the different (and constantly changing) factors at play.
Insights are a key ingredient of any marketeer’s toolkit – useful for developing our understanding of market trends, and for using reliable facts and figures to shape all kinds of marketing activity (from strategy to big campaigns, right down to menu development).
But let’s face it, rising pressure on budgets means you can’t always commission an all-singing, all-dancing research project on every topic. So, savvy marketeers are getting creative – diving deep into credible free resources to understand their markets and make the right decisions for their brand or customers.
For food insight, we’ve found that the big boys such as The Caterer or The Grocer are great places to start, but, what if you’ve already reached your free monthly article limit, or they don’t have quite what you’re looking for?
From deep dive research reports to social media and consumer trends, we’re here to upgrade your morning food and drink briefing with key places to start.
Here’s where the Cracked team dig for foodie insight…
For data-driven insight reports and whitepapers, we head to Mintel.co.uk
Perhaps you’ve heard of its comprehensive research reports, and you could well be thinking “I don’t have the budget for one of these!”. We hear you! Fear not, Mintel often publishes blogs, podcasts and summaries of its larger reports for free, which are packed with useful insights and snippets of data. Head here for hardcore food facts and statistics.
Between October and December every year, a host of companies will publish trend predictions for the year ahead. While all of these reports may not be free, certain chapters and general overviews are often available so you can understand and summarise new findings. This kind of insight becomes our holy grail for the coming year – we save a whole bunch of food predictions so we can refer back to them at any point.
Two of our favourites are the Waitrose Food & Drink Report and The Food People’s Trend Predictions. These kinds of reports are invaluable for understanding what’s happening in the food market as a whole – seeing where flavour profiles are heading and what the hottest new ingredients will be. They also allow you to plan ahead, meaning your menu changes can be on-trend even when planned months in advance!
To uncover the hottest openings, new food finds and innovations, we can always count on:
Hot Dinners is our absolute favourite for the hottest foodie tickets in town, with new restaurant openings, current trending food finds AND it’s always packed with offers for eating out in London. If you want to stay up to date with what’s hot and what’s not, add this site to your on-screen favourites bar!
Both foodies and brands flock to Tik Tok and Instagram to share and discover the latest food trends. Why? Their highly visual nature and wide demographic make them the most reliable social platforms for discovering new food trends. Plus with algorithms placing top trending posts at the top of your feed when you search for food (or if you’re food-obsessed like us, they’ll appear in your feed anyway!), it’s super easy to browse the latest trends capturing the nation’s attention.
Find top-notch insight and inspiration from @Foodism (everything on food and drink in London), @clerkenwellboyec1 (London-based restaurant finds), @thomas_straker(whose culinary talents rose to TikTok fame during the pandemic), and @bompassandpar (for its immersive and wild food experiences!).
Need support keeping up with the latest trends, understand them, and use them to your benefit, we recommend getting in touch!
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