On this episode, I discover the top ten food trends for 2023 with Jo-Ann McArthur, President at Nourish Food Marketing, who returns to the podcast to discuss her latest annual Trend Report: Food Is Transformative.
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
On this episode, I discover the top ten food trends for 2023 with Jo-Ann McArthur, President at Nourish Food Marketing, who returns to the podcast to discuss her latest annual Trend Report: Food Is Transformative.
Download the report here:
https://www.nourish.marketing/trend-report
About Jo-Ann
I don’t know much about marketing for real estate. Or for cars, detergents, or life insurance. I leave that to the generalist ad agencies out there. But helping our clients sell more food, that’s something Nourish knows an awful lot about. Because that’s all we do. So, if you grow or make food and you’d like to increase your sales, then you might want to talk to us.
As a Founding Partner and President of Nourish Food Marketing, I now build powerful brands for food and beverage products in Canada, the US and Europe, creating marketing strategies that help move products off the shelves, into the consumer’s shopping basket, onto their plates and into their hearts.
I’ve built brands and businesses at large blue-chip companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Cadillac Fairview. As a divisional President of Molson Coors, and a member of its North America Management Board, I led the charge to sell more beer more profitably.
I have also been an instructor at Schulich Executive School of Business, FoodStarter (a food incubator), as well as the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada and the Association of Canadian Advertisers.
I am founding chair of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada, a Past President of The Empire Club of Canada where I hosted leaders from around the globe, and serve as Past Chair of ABC Life Literacy Canada. I also serve on the board of Les Dames d”Escoffier Ontario Chapter.
Numerous television appearances, including recently as a food marketing expert in the international TV documentary series "Eat Me (or try not to)" airing on Curiosity Stream.
Previous speaking engagements include:
Star Women in Grocery
SIAL
STORE
World Trade Organization
Restaurants Canada
Ontario-European Agri-Food Forum
Food And Beverage Ontario
The Pet Food Association (Canada and U.S.)
Woman of Influence WXN
Packaging Association of Canada
IEG Annual Conference Chicago
World Congress of Sport New York
Women & Leadership Summit
Numerous Chamber of Commerce appearances
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide. Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail’s prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers for a second year in 2022.
Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast focussed on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms. Michael is also the producer and host of the “Last Request Barbeque” channel on YouTube where he cooks meals to die for and influencer riches.
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with the Retail Council of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:09
In this episode, I discovered the top 10 food trends for 2023 with Jo-Ann McArthur, President at Nourish Food Marketing. Who returns to the podcast to discuss her latest annual Trend Report. Food is Transformative. Jo-Ann, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast, or should I say welcome back to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing?
Jo-Ann McArthur 00:31
I'm doing well, Michael. Thanks for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 00:33
Well, you and I first met back at the Retail Council Store. You were, I think, on the podcast talking about the wonderfulness of eggs.
Jo-Ann McArthur 00:44
Yes, that's right, the EQA program. Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 00:48
That's right. That's right. So, you and I first met there, but then we've, we've been running into each other and particularly now that I'm more with Sylvain more in the food side. You've been on The Food Professor and you and I see each other. And I love your report and I thought hey, this what a great opportunity to get you on The Voice of Retail and, and, and chat about it. So, thanks for joining me. Where are you joining me from? Are you? Are you in the GTA area? What part of the world are you located in?
Jo-Ann McArthur 01:13
I'm actually in the Nourish offices. We are located in an old converted Legion hall at King West and Niagara Street just around bath-, Bathurst.
Michael LeBlanc 01:24
Oh, that's a funky area. That's very nice.
Jo-Ann McArthur 01:26
Yeah, (crossover talk).
Michael LeBlanc 01:27
And how long have you been back in the office? Like what, what did you do during COVID? Was it, the team, did you and the teamwork at home? Are you hybrid? How are you approaching that?
Jo-Ann McArthur 01:36
We're hybrid now. We, we do a lot of content creation for clients. So, people were adapting and rather than doing it in the studio here, they were doing it from their own kitchen. But yeah, we've migrated back, and all our shoots are back here. And you know, people are in two days a week and more if they want. So, it's a lovely office, so we tend to get people coming in a little more often. Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 02:02
Yeah. And you do, you do a lot of creative work. So, being together helps creativity, right, it's not about productivity.
Jo-Ann McArthur 02:08
Absolutely, (crossover talk) it's not just, yeah, yeah. And it's also just the soft intangibles. And yeah, yeah and you really need to have that time in the office. But not every single day.
Michael LeBlanc 02:19
Yeah. So, do you think that'd be permanent, like, would, you, did you do that, I'm on a bit of a tangent here. But you're, you're so experienced, and I look to you as a kind of a leader. So, you know, is this something you would have done before COVID? And is this something you think will persist? Is this the new way of work for you?
Jo-Ann McArthur 02:36
Absolutely. And, you know, I have to say we've set up our business luckily, to be able to work from anywhere prior to the, prior to the pandemic. So, we were able to pivot quickly, because we always wanted to let people, you know, have time to focus. So, we'd always had focus days where people know, meetings, you know, work from home. So, we've always had a hybrid, not to this degree. But you know, I think two days in the office, obviously more if there's client meetings, because our clients all want to come in now. Which is really interesting. There was a period there where they didn't even want to attend the shoots.
Michael LeBlanc 03:17
Right.
Jo-Ann McArthur 03:18
They didn't want to be on set. And they've continued to do that hybrid approach, which I think is a whole lot more efficient anyway for their time. But they do like coming in for meetings now in real life. So, you know, obviously the team comes in for that as well.
Michael LeBlanc 03:34
Right on. Right on. Well, we've kind of jumped in, tell us, tell us a little bit about, I know you well, but my listeners may not. So, tell us about yourself and what you do for a living?
Jo-Ann McArthur 03:44
Yeah, so what I do for a living is I'm President of Nourish. And I spent most of my career on, in on the client side in CPG great companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever. I spent some time with the retail giant Cadillac Fairview, and this all culminated in becoming a Divisional President of Molson Coors with a seat on the North American Management team. And I started in Nourish, as the sort of the kind of agency I always wanted as a client on the client side, but never got. So, we started Nourish 14 years ago, and we decided to specialize in food and beverage, because my background was strong there. And I like to say we know a lot about a little.
Michael LeBlanc 04:34
And when you say, I remember you telling me this, and describing it when you say the agency that didn't exist. Tell me, just to unpack that a little bit for, for me and the listeners. What's different and what, what did you find was missing from a, let's call it a traditional agency?
Jo-Ann McArthur 04:48
Well, I guess that's specialization for one thing, you know, an agency that brought insights to the table, right and also understood your category. So, there was a running start, and just that everybody who worked there was a specialist in your area, I'd also say, having all the different services under one roof, so, sort of that turnkey solution. So not, you know, when I was on the client side, we'd have a roster of, you know, literally 20-30 agencies who all specialize in different things. But I think when you look at marketing, you really need to look at integration, you need to be very agnostic in terms of the tools you use and those tools, of course, are constantly changing. And so, I think there's just a lot of efficiency as well, in having an agency that really understands your area.
Michael LeBlanc 05:42
Right. So, as opposed to having to stitch together a bunch of different agencies and capabilities, you bring it on a one, so to speak, a one-stop shop, so to speak with, with specialization, right?
Jo-Ann McArthur 05:52
And I will say that, you know, agencies are not agnostic in terms of tools, usually they specialize in certain things. So, I remember having this conversation every year when I was at Molson with the different agencies saying, like, don't come back with these big TV campaigns, when we're selling to young men in the summer, when they're not in front of a TV screen, right. And what would I keep getting would be those big campaigns?
Michael LeBlanc 06:18
That's what we're good at. We, we're, (crossover talk) a big campaign,
Jo-Ann McArthur 06:19
Yeah, and naturally makes our prof-, profit, right. It's the SUV of the ad agency. So, I think, you know, the agency world was really slow to adapt to digital as well. So yeah, that's kind of what we pride ourselves in being tool agnostic? And, and what, what type of clients do you have? A lot of CPG companies, obviously, in the food business, but you know, retailers too, and I just give me a, just so we get a good feel of, of who you work with on an ongoing basis.So, we work with clients across North America, the whole food ecosystem, so really, you know, field to fork. So, we have commodity groups, producers and processors, retailers, food service associations. So, yeah, and you know, the nice thing about Nourish is we also here, we've got, as I mentioned, all the services under one roof, but we also have, you know, you have what you'd expect the branding, packaging, advertising marketing, but we also have the test kitchen and video and photography studios.
Michael LeBlanc 07:23
Right on, right on. All right, well, we're here to talk about, well, we're here to talk about you. But we're also here to talk about your 2023 Trend Report. So, let's start with the tradecraft around the Trend Report. It's not your first one, tell us a bit about the background, how these reports come together. What kind of prognostication tools do you do, do you use? And, and just tell me how the report, a bit of the history, I guess, the origin story, and then we'll get into the report itself?
Jo-Ann McArthur 07:50
Yeah, so we started seven years ago. And because of our specialization and working across a whole food ecosystem, we were also often able to connect dots that others needed help seeing. So, we kind of consider this Trend Report, because we've put a lot of time into it, it really is our gift back to the industry. We also do industry specific Trend Reports as well to help clients develop, you know, their innovation pipelines and future proof their businesses, but we consult multiple databases, we conduct original research. And again, we, we learn from working across numerous categories. So, it really advises our gut feel. But obviously, we don't share any proprietary knowledge as, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 08:30
Right, right.
Jo-Ann McArthur 08:33
Part of that. Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 08:36
So, it kind of rolls up all the insights that you kind of pick up on the day-to-day basis kind of roll up and, you know, kind of sum up kind of thing. And, and when, as you look forward, I mean, there's always fun in, in predicting, you know, does it do you start with a long list of things or do you, I’m just (crossover talk) kind of (crossover talk).
Jo-Ann McArthur 08:54
Absolutely, yeah, (crossover talk) you build throughout the year. And the tough thing is because we talk about trends, not fads. So, you know, some of the trends that we talked about, you know, in 2018 are still in play, right?
Michael LeBlanc 09:11
Right.
Jo-Ann McArthur 09:12
So, these things are still so, so, it's a much harder process to try to see what's kind of happening. And we started a very, I'd say, macro view, in terms of what's just happening in terms of the world and country and (inaudible), then, you know, is manifesting itself down into food. Or could in the future,
Michael LeBlanc 08:55
Right, so this, this report, you just put out and I, by the way, I'll put a link in the show notes to your website, where you can go find the report and learn more about you as well. The Future is Transformative. This is the title of the new report. So, take us through a high-line overview of what, what you discovered as you said what your starting point was and then we'll go through the report in a bit more detail.
Jo-Ann McArthur 09:58
Yeah, so I think a lot of times we see sort of this gradual trajectory with trends. But when we step back, we really do think we are at a place where we're about to jump forward a decade, driven by some factors, but really similar to over the COVID period, I'd say, in a lot of areas, um, that accelerated us a decade forward in terms of online ordering, things like that.
Jo-Ann McArthur 10:43
But we do think that the overall rate of change driven by climate change is about to jump forward by a decade. And part of that is just, you know, consumers are seeing it every day. They're, they're, you know, experiencing climate change. But also, I think, if you look at the legislation that the US has passed, it's the most significant climate legislation in history called the Inflation Reduction Act, but it's really going to drive, you know, close to probably up to 42% reduction in emissions by 20, 2030. So, we think that that's really going to drive things ahead. And what happens in the US, obviously, is going to drive other countries as well.
Michael LeBlanc 11:14
Interesting. So, it's a bit of a tipping point, so to speak. I mean, I was just writing a report myself. And, of course, I guess on the retail side, it's fun to complain about the weather again, versus, you know, a planet killing virus. So, that's the upside but yeah, like, (crossover talk)
Jo-Ann McArthur 11:29
Those two may be linked though, right?
Michael LeBlanc 11:30
Well, they, yeah, they, they may, that's true. But let me tell you, you know, we're back to oh my God, it's hard to sell winter wear when you're on a patio outdoors in Toronto in November, right. Like, it's just, you know, as you say, you're experiencing this strangeness,
Jo-Ann McArthur 11:46
Yeah, and farmers are experiencing it firsthand.
Michael LeBlanc 11:49
Yeah, of course, they're closest to the land, right? They really, they really experience it firsthand. So, so that's, that's kind of your, your, your jumping off point. But well, let's, let's get into some of the first and let's say first, trends now that the rise of okay, I'm going to try and pronounce reduc-, (inaudible),
Jo-Ann McArthur 12:01
Reduction-, (inaudible) yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:07
Reduction-(inaudible) okay, there you go.
Jo-Ann McArthur 12:11
We're coining a new word. It's kind of fun.
Michael LeBlanc 12:13
I love that. Love that.
Jo-Ann McArthur 12:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:17
Reductionarianism, okay.
Jo-Ann McArthur 12:18
Yeah. So here, you know, we really think that this whole foo-, the full meat category is just a transition point. And we're really going to jump ahead there. For a couple of reasons, there's been, you know, consumers want, you know, less processed food. We're hearing this every day, I'm hearing some new study around pro-, ultra-processed food and how it's bad for us. And yet, if you look at these products, they kind of got a Get Out of Jail Free card there.
Michael LeBlanc 12:55
Yeah, (crossover talk).
Jo-Ann McArthur 12:57
Yeah, and so, you know, they may be better for planet health, but not really, for personal health. And so I think, you know, we, we’ve seen that category kind of falter a bit, we're now seeing the rise of, you know, cell based AG is, is getting the green light in the US, but I think we're going to see a, you know, we're going to move ahead to whole foods. And, you know, this whole concept of it's either or, it's either you're a vegetarian, or you're a meat eater. I don't, I don't think so. I think we're going to see people perhaps move down the protein scale for cost and climate reasons, you know, high inflation environments. But I do think that, you know, consumers are going to just eat a little bit differently. And, and look at more whole foods, you know, whether that's legumes or, you know, eating less, but better meat in terms of, you know, grass fed that sort of thing.
Michael LeBlanc 14:03
Interesting. So, quality over quantity would be another way to phrase that, I suppose, right.
Jo-Ann McArthur 14:13
Yeah, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 14:15
Although, I think your point is, it's not, you mean, there's some economics at play here, obviously, with you know, Sylvain's report now out is talking about another 7% increase in food prices. So, clearly, that's going to be, now that's more (inaudible). We hope that's more like you, as you said, you're not in the fads, you're into trends. So, you know, the prices could come down in two years. So, you're not really focused on price. customer behavior will,
Jo-Ann McArthur 14:32
Yeah, but consumer behavior has changed too, right, over that period. You know, it's you know, if you start cooking differently and eating differently over, over a high inflation environment, when prices come down, you know, that may become a splurge, but it probably won't make its way back into your normal way of eating.
Michael LeBlanc 14:52
Oh, I see. So, these patterns in the way we eat kind of stick is what you think.
Jo-Ann McArthur 14:57
Look at what happened over COVID in online ordering in terms of food delivery,
Michael LeBlanc 15:03
Yeah, a big, big leap forward. Okay, now then a second one Good Eats Better Sleep, I can tell you there's a good one. As in this household, we talked about sleep a lot, and how to, how to get a better, better sleep. So, is, is, is this where people start thinking about all these holistic things that affect the way they're, again, the quality of their sleep?
Jo-Ann McArthur 15:22
Yeah, so I think during COVID, the focus was on not getting sick. And now that we're coming out of that, you know, the focus is shi-, shifting to getting healthier. And consumers are understanding that sleep is the true foundation of health. Most of us don't get enough. But the other thing that's happening is most people now have some sort of, they're wearing a ring or a watch, some kind of wearable technology. So, they're actually now getting the view every morning of, you know, not just the quantity, but the quality of their sleep. So, that's really driving investment in sleep tech. So, we've seen huge increases of 66% In just one year. But again, we're not seeing it in other products like food and beverage. So, we think that, that there's a big opportunity there, because there's, there's, a big link between how well you sleep and the foods you eat.
Michael LeBlanc 16:19
Yeah, I know, I know, for myself, if I'm up late, and I don't get a good night. You know, like last night, I was up late. And I you know, I started raiding the fridge at four o'clock in the morning for a piece of slice cheese or something, you know.
Jo-Ann McArthur 16:29
Yeah, yeah. And there's things you know, there's, there's, nutrients that can help you with your sleep. Some foods naturally have it. And there's been a little bit in terms of the beverage side, but we just haven't seen much innovation. And considering how this is the foundation of health, you would expect more.
Michael LeBlanc 16:49
You'll have to send me an email to see if there's food for helping me edit podcasts, because that seems to keep me up late at night. So, maybe, maybe it's popcorn or something. I don't know. Yeah, another one, t one's for the ladies. So, female food, talk about that, what is, what's female food, this gender based idea of, of what's that?
Jo-Ann McArthur 17:08
Yeah. So, if I told you that there was an unaddressed market of over, over half the population, you would probably be interested, right?
Michael LeBlanc 17:15
Or skeptical? Like, how can, how can that be? How can, (crossover talk).
Jo-Ann McArthur 17:19
I will tell you, as a female, my favorite pair of shoes are the pair of Lululemon running shoes I got, because it's the first time that they just haven't been scaled down from the men's shoe,
Michael LeBlanc 17:24
Oh uh, I see, okay.
Jo-Ann McArthur 17:26
Right? So, we are not just smaller (inaudible). And yet everything in our lives tends to be designed that way. You know, there's a reason why women get into more car accidents, because they are designed for you know, cars are designed for men. Seat belts are designed for men. So, there hasn't been a lot. And even if you look at health studies, medical research, it's been very male focused. Now we're seeing a huge increase in research there, there's been a 9X increase in published research papers over the past decade. So, we think that's going to unlock more opportunities for food manufacturers. But if you think about it, you know, we have hormonal, hormonal differences, whether it's pregnancy, menstruation, menopause,
Michael LeBlanc 18:21
Sleep,
Jo-Ann McArthur 18:22
And when yeah, (inaudible) we're very different. And yet, the only time I see a female targeted product, is if I go into a health store, and you see like a PMS tea or something like that.
Michael LeBlanc 18:34
Yeah, yeah.
Jo-Ann McArthur 18:35
But there's some real food cravings that come out of this. And so, you know, we think that there are opportunities to develop products, we think for retailers, there's also an opportunity to have more of, you know, I would call it a solutions-focused section in their stores. So, like you've seen gluten free sections in stores, you know, you know, and you're starting to see maybe keto sections, but why not have something that's focused on sleep, focused on female food needs because they're different?
Michael LeBlanc 19:09
Do, do you worry and I'm sure you advise your clients quite clearly on this, what do they call the pink tax right for the same product for a little bit more? Because it's targeted at women? Do you worry that this is just a, you know, some might look at this as just a profit opportunity versus a real solution?
Jo-Ann McArthur 19:25
Well, if, if, if it solves a real need, I think there'll be a market for it. Um, you know, so I talked about, you know, lactation cookies that are out there doing well, in the UK, which often is, is much further ahead in terms of products. You know, there's, there's a chocolate company that, you know, targeted to different times, you know, of different life stages. So, yeah, absolutely. If you're just, if you're just putting pink on something and charging more, you're going to be called out (
Michael LeBlanc 20:00
Yeah.
Jo-Ann McArthur 20:01
There's, (inaudible) especially with social media and how active younger generations are in terms of researching and calling companies out. So, you know, but as long as there's a real benefit, I think, yeah, you're in, you're in a good place.
Michael LeBlanc 20:16
Well, you created a nice segue social media. I'm very torn about social media. On the one hand, I think it's the worst thing that was ever developed in our lives. And I think it's led to a lot of very bad things. And on the other hand, it has such great potential. I mean, I let's let's just talk about food. I mean, you know, food, TikTok, and all kinds of stuff. I'm, you know, I'm on YouTube myself with, with a cooking show. I couldn't do that 20 years ago. So, how do you, how do you see social media and food? What's, what's your prognostication around that?
Jo-Ann McArthur 20:45
Well, I think social media is always going to be with us, whether it's the metaverse or whatever the next tool is, because there will always be a next tool. But you know, it goes back to how we're, how we're wired as humans. So, anything that, any tool that makes us more social, is going to win, because we're just social beings. But I do think in terms of food, consumers are willing to give up some privacy concerns, if there's a benefit, right? If you know me, and what we're starting to see really is, you know, a couple of things here is just how social media is uniting us globally, we're allowed to shop, you know, and buy things online, you know, you see a recipe, you click it, and it automatically, you know, will send you the ingredients. And we're also seeing innovation in food taking a different path than it has historically taken, which is kind of interesting. So, it used to do in food, it used to go through fine dining down to QSRs, and then finally make its way onto retail shelves. But as you know, we're now all seeing these trends coming out of TikTok.
Michael LeBlanc 22:01
Yeah, yeah.
Jo-Ann McArthur 22:02
And they're kind of jumping restaurants and going right into, into re-, retail. So,
Michael LeBlanc 22:05
Yeah, yeah,
Jo-Ann McArthur 22:06
You know that's happening as well.
Michael LeBlanc 22:09
Yeah, it's really, it's an accelerant for sure. You know, the, the, the TikToks of the world of, you know, do an amazing job of finding the right things at the right place. But, you know, for me, it's, it's more an ideation than it is, you know, I don't click a button to go find those ingredients. But, you know, because I know where to get it.
Jo-Ann McArthur 22:29
The thing is, you can now, right. You know, if I see something I like on social media, there's a number of platforms now where, you know, I see the recipe, I like it, and I just hit a button and everything comes all integrated and delivered to my door. So, it kind of satisfies that immediate want, which we've gotten really used to, right delivery seems not, it never seems to be fast enough for some of us. So, I think it does provide that, that essential bridge for consumers.
Michael LeBlanc 23:04
I want to jump ahead a couple because, you know, we, we, we want to leave something on the table so to speak for the, for the viewers to go to dive in. I want to talk about your, your, your point about science fiction, the science farming, and you mentioned it earlier cellular protein that (inaudible) we've had a big, you know, Singapore, I think was first and now the US FDA is you know, lab grown, (crossover talk)?
Jo-Ann McArthur 23:25
Giving us the green light, yeah,
Michael LeBlanc 23:26
Yeah. Lab grown meat. I'm not sure everybody's aware of what, spend a few minutes on that. Because A) start with a definition because I think some people think it's artificial, but it's really fundamentally not. So, I'm not sure everyone who would be listening would understand what you're talking about. And then, and then what makes you think that people are going to start saying, Okay, I you know, I'll leap forward from plant-based meat to now grown in a lab. Do you think we've reached a tipping point on that. Talk about that for a bit?
Jo-Ann McArthur 23:55
Yeah, so I think it's going to need a good branding and marketing job for sure. Um, but it takes those cells, and it grows it, basically brews it or ferments it in a tank. And (crossover talk).
Michael LeBlanc 24:11
We could be talking about steak here. I mean, just to be clear, (crossover talk).
Jo-Ann McArthur 24:14
Yeah, absolutely. But it's already out there. In terms of some ingredients, we're seeing it in dairy. So, Perfect Day is a company out of the US. And they have come up with cellular meat proteins, or sorry, milk proteins. So, you know, we're seeing that there's an ice cream that you can now buy in the US called Brave Robot, which is made totally with that.
Michael LeBlanc 24:43
Brave, what did you call it Brave Robot.
Jo-Ann McArthur 24:45
Yeah, yeah. Brave Robot.
Michael LeBlanc 24:47
Okay. I'm not sure that's the branding that they'd be going for, but that's fine.
Jo-Ann McArthur 24:50
Probably not. I think they're using it as more of a proof of concept.
Michael LeBlanc 24:53
Yeah, yeah. Just don't call it, just don't call it Soylent Green, right? Just (crossover talk). Don't call it Soylent Green.
Jo-Ann McArthur 24:58
There will probably only be a cer-, a couple of generations would understand that. But you know, it, it, it really allows, you know, the reason why I do think consumers will go for it is, it's coming down in price, in a big way. But also, it gets over the whole guilt of animal welfare, as well as reduces carbon emissions, which is a huge issue on the agricultural side, I think they estimate AG, you know, contributes 35% of that. So, we're going to have to solve that. And this is a way to do that. And if taste, if mouthfeel is the same, I do think consumers will eventually at least younger consumers will eventually get over it. Everything I've seen is, you know, Gen, Gen Zed, millennials are very accepting of these kinds of products, they, you know, they're more accepting of GMOs. CRISPR technology. So, you know, science, science is good for that generation.
Michael LeBlanc 26:02
So, let's, last question for you. You know, we, of course, the audience on The Voice of Retail is certainly not limited to food, or grocers, or people who sell that. Any, any broader lessons, or a lesson that you could think of that would apply to all retail in general, I mean, I could, I could think of a few looking at your list, but what jumps out at you as a lesson for retail and some advice moving forward.
Jo-Ann McArthur 26:27
Think of shopper solutions, rather than categories. That's, that's been one that I've been banging for a while. I mean, you walk into any store, especially a grocery store, and they are set up exactly the same way that they were, like, 50 years ago, the same things, you know, you go down the shelves, and they're the same categories. But that's not how a consumer wants to shop. It's how they've been forced to shop. And so, I think, you know, being solutions first, is one way, also, you know, use your digital shelves as a way to try out some of these new trends. You know, we know that space in-store is very limited. But I would use my digital assortment as a way of, of you know, trying out some of these trends as well.
Michael LeBlanc 27:19
Interesting. Well, well, this has been a fascinating time. Great to have you back on the mic. If people want to get in touch with you to learn more and keep up with what you and Nourish does. Where, where should they go?
Jo-Ann McArthur 27:30
Yeah, absolutely. So, the website is nourish.marketing, no .ca or.com Just Nourish dot marketing. And you can download the full report as well as past reports. So, you can see what our track record is. (Inaudible) that you can sign up for a monthly newsletter as well, where we share more insight. And please LinkedIn with me, Jo-Ann MacArthur on LinkedIn
Michael LeBlanc 27:55
Well, fantastic. And I'll put a few of those links in the show notes as well, just in case anybody didn't have a pen handy, So, as they're walking their dog as they're listening. And Jo-Ann, thanks so much for joining me on The Voice of Retail. It was a real treat to, as always, a real treat to touch base. And I am looking forward to seeing you in the upcoming shows, probably at the Restaurant Canada show, SIAL, that's coming up as well. So, I look forward to seeing you in person real soon.
Jo-Ann McArthur 28:19
Yeah, great to get back to real life.
Michael LeBlanc 28:22
Thanks for tuning into this special episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, be sure and click on subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically twice a week. And check out my other retail industry media properties, the Remarkable Retail podcast, Conversations with CommerceNext podcast and The Food Professor podcast with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. Last but not least, if you're into barbecue, check out my all-new YouTube barbecue show Last Request Barbecue with new episodes each and every week. I'm your host, Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company and Maven Media. And if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co.
Have a safe week everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
food, retail, consumers, terms, agency, report, people, trends, podcast, bit, talk, clients, category, sleep, Jo-Ann, day, social media, prognostication, products, area