Frozen Solid
Between flat sales and a more promising future, the frozen food industry comes together to bolster sales and emphasize the freshness factor.
After some time in a steady thaw, frozen foods may be cool again. As consumers look for convenient, affordable and flavorful solutions across all dayparts, manufacturers are widening their offerings, with many frozen food companies looking at new ways to deliver on taste and quality.
While the appeal of fresh food has propelled the store perimeter to a focal point in recent years, grocers and manufacturers have been working to make the center of the store — including the frozen food section — more of a center of attention or, at least, better trafficked. Those efforts include innovative products, look-at-me packaging, more aggressive merchandising and a new industry-wide campaign.
To that end, in 2013, the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) launched a multimillion-dollar, multiyear effort to promote frozen foods. As part of the initiative, manufacturers teamed up to form a new Frozen Foods Roundtable, which includes leaders from major brands like ConAgra, General Mills, Kellogg and Heinz.
From the roundtable, a campaign emerged that is set to kick off this spring. “This is a first-of- its-kind category promotion. Frozen food manufacturers haven’t come together before in this way or on this size of a campaign,” declares Corey Henry, VP of communications for McLean, Va.-based AFFI.
According to Henry, AFFI is in the process of finalizing materials for the campaign, which will officially launch during National Frozen Food Month in March. Among other attributes, the campaign will focus on the quality of frozen foods in an effort to educate consumers who might not be aware of how such products are made. “We have done extensive consumer insight research, and found that when you make the basic case that freezing is really just pausing freshly cooked foods, it really resonates with people. We find that the light bulb goes off, that they see freezing is ‘nature’s pause button,’” Henry explains. “We want to have a dialogue that frozen is how fresh stays fresh.”
Those who assess and track the retail industry have attested to the potential of the collaborative move to warm up sales of frozen foods. Mike Paglia, director of retail insights for Boston-based Kantar Retail, says that while broad macroeconomic trends have continued to impact, and in numerous cases suppress, growth in many retail categories, frozen food companies can break through with innovation across different levels. “There are some opportunities in frozen foods to highlight the benefits beyond price, to provide some sense of differentiation or differential advantage to show shoppers they are getting something else besides a meal, like emphasizing the time-saving component, or reduced frustration from making something yourself,” he says.
Paglia adds that the industry’s move to focus on the freshness of preparation is a strategy that can be effective. “Frozen foods can be quite fresh and high-quality,” he says. “I think it would take a bit of work to educate the shopper of that and cut through preconceived notions, but it’s absolutely possible.”
In addition to packaging, promotional and product innovations, Paglia says that other merchandising techniques, from co-branding with familiar brand names to building more excitement in center store, are all tools to thwart any further coldness in the category at a time when growth is pivotal.
“As the landscape changes, not only from a competitive viewpoint, but from a demographic perspective, it will put pressure on certain suppliers and categories, and create opportunities,” he says. “Staying open to those will be important to maximizing sales.”
“When you make the basic case that freezing is really just pausing freshly cooked foods, it really resonates with people.”
—Corey Henry, American Frozen Food Institute