Companies that make breakfast foods might want to rethink their strategies. What was popular for the first meal of the day a decade ago is slowly shifting, according to information cited by the New York Times.
That source specifically looked at the more modern attitudes towards breakfast cereals that have emerged since the turn of the Millennium. It presents data from Euromonitor which shows a drop in cereal consumption between 2003 and 2013.
Flaked cereals and other kinds, including Cheerios and puffed wheat, suffered a combined loss of nearly 9 percent in sales, while children’s cereals of all types dropped by more than ten percent during this time.
Only museli and granola-type products increased sales during this period, pointing at a potential shift toward other breakfast options. This includes health-conscious offerings like yogurt which are also easy for consumers to eat on the go.
Another factor playing into the “new breakfast” movement is the way younger professionals shop and consume. In response to the Times piece, Grist contributor Liz Core says that her generation is making better choices and that cereal companies need to follow the example of other youth-oriented businesses.
“it’s not that we don’t enjoy the taste of sugary deliciousness, it’s that we’re becoming smarter consumers,” she writes, addressing major cereal manufacturers directly. “Other companies have been trying to sell us products that cater to millennial interests — by making cars more tech-friendly and fast-food look quaint and local.”
A large part of that comes down to how a product is represented on its packaging. Companies that make breakfast foods should use color label printers to create an image that is relevant to the times and reaches the desired audience.
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