"Foodservice operators should capitalize on visual trends through social media"

In a bid to tap into this trend, Japanese sauce maker Kenko Mayo has rolled out a blue-colored salad sauce with spirulina extracts and collagen. The product’s electric blue color is due to spirulina content. Kenko Mayo added collagen and focused on its visual properties. This innovation resulted in an unusually specific healthy sauce, capitalizing on the visual trend that grips young, health conscious women.

Global sentiment shows that consumers are open to trying new concepts. This still holds true for the reserved Japanese consumer; as 51% of Japanese women aged 25 to 34 prefer trying new products over experiences, according to GlobalData’s 2018 Q3 consumer survey.

The company identified two trends that will drive the future of foodservice products. These are the trends to be connected globally via social media, and the increasingly popular trend of making products specified to consumer niches.

Cassius Prempeh, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Kenko Mayo exceeded sales expectations and its success demonstrates a shift within Asia-Pacific. Rather than companies being the first movers when it comes to trend-setting, it is the consumer needs communicated on social media that dictate the direction in which companies take their products.

“Millennials are increasingly aware of the fuller visual experience. They pay more attention to the visual qualities of the food that they consume and share experiences with the world on social media, including Instagram.”

Indeed, according to GlobalData’s 2017 primary research, 49% of Japanese female consumers aged 25 to 34, share pictures of the food or drinks they consume on social media a few times a month or more, giving credibility to Kenko Mayo’s decision to target young health conscious women.

Prempeh concludes: “Whether this Instagrammable food trend can fully transform the eating habits of consumers or not, what we can see is vibrant – even artificial colors – paired with natural ingredients such as spirulina becoming a key purchase driver with consumers in Asia-Pacific. Kenko Mayo blue salad sauce’s success indicates that as long as there is a platform to post pictures, consumers will continue to pay more attention to the visual qualities of the food that they consume.”

For more information:

Email: pr@globaldata.com

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