A willingness to discover unfamiliar and new experiences generally is a enjoyable and thrilling idea for a lot of. However Canada is probably much less adventurous than its neighbor to the south; Canadians are much less eager (client-only hyperlink) to attempt new experiences than our American counterparts. Does this imply that Canadians are much less adventurous general? Not essentially. That mentioned, this does translate into one key distinction inside dwelling kitchens: Canadian dwelling cooks are much less possible than People to be searching for new meals and flavors to attempt. With Canadians being extra prone to cook dinner at dwelling and make meals from scratch on a weekly foundation, speaking to Canadian dwelling cooks about recipes and elements that really feel acquainted and cozy will resonate a lot once they’re desirous about what to make for dinner/meals.
It’s a broadly identified reality that folks gravitate to comforting issues in unsure or hectic instances. As customers navigate post-pandemic life amongst information of social and environmental occurrences, baseline stress ranges proceed to be elevated. Moreover, rising costs on the grocery retailer will quiet down the will to experiment within the kitchen as customers are doing their greatest to not waste meals or cash.
3 methods to lean into consolation
1. Improve the enjoyment of the expertise
Cooking is one thing that Canadians take pleasure in – 57% of Canadians say they like or love cooking, and an extra 30% say they don’t thoughts the duty. Partnerships between meals producers and ingredient firms with digital leisure can be an efficient method to improve the expertise. For instance, Barilla’s partnership with Spotify resulted in a sequence of playlist timers designed to play for the precise period of time it takes a particular pasta form to cook dinner (e.g. the ten minutes it takes to cook dinner linguine). This initiative brings a enjoyable sensory expertise to an in any other case mundane activity. Extra not too long ago, Spotify has introduced an identical audio expertise to the duty of laundry by the launch of its Spin Cycle playlist in partnership with the OUAI Melrose Place detergent and DedCool perfume firm.
Customers are tech-focused and infrequently have their units close by. As such, combining dwelling duties with leisure is one thing that Canadians are already doing as almost 8 in 10 customers watch/hearken to content material whereas caring for duties. The Mintel Development Sense of the Intense notes that bodily and sensory experiences like this will help create a extra grounded, conscious second, thereby giving manufacturers and merchandise deeper that means. Making the cooking expertise extra enjoyable will put customers in a extra constructive mindset within the kitchen. That positivity will be leveraged to make them extra curious and adventurous about new methods to make their meals – moderately than robotically getting ready the identical few recipes from week to week.
2. Play video games, win offers
It’s clear that Canadians are feeling the pinch of excessive meals inflation and discovering meals or ingredient offers is now a core issue in the case of dwelling cooking; 4 out of 5 dwelling cooks say that the rising price of elements impacts what meals they plan or cook dinner. On the similar time, Canadians are savvy savers and know the best way to discover a whole lot. The chance is to make these offers enjoyable to search out. Customers count on leisure time at dwelling to be stress-free and media is on the coronary heart of it. Integrating the hunt for offers with downtime at dwelling may very well be a great way for grocery retailers and meals/ingredient producers to deepen their affiliation of meals and cooking with consolation.
In Brazil, an ideal instance of blending shopper habits of multi-screening with gamifying reductions was seen in Could 2023 when Mercado Libre (an Argentine-based on-line market devoted to e-commerce and on-line auctions) collaborated with an area actuality present to supply particular reductions to its web site Descontos Camuflados. To discover a low cost, customers wanted to entry the microsite and scan the TV or laptop display on which the truth present was being broadcast. As customers’ smartphone cameras learn contestants’ faces, discounted merchandise appeared on their screens. Every actuality present participant was related to a unique discounted merchandise. From a shopper expertise, this hits all the appropriate excessive notes – it’s enjoyable, it helps get monetary savings, and finally, it makes downtime productive.
3. Nourish and nudge by nostalgia
Foods and drinks manufacturers are properly positioned to place merchandise that deliver pleasure as requirements in robust instances, opening the door to develop on the notion of ‘consolation meals’ in accordance with Mintel’s 2023 World Meals and Drink Development Unguilty Pleasures. Discovering consolation in childhood recollections is an idea that has all the time held true. In instances of uncertainty, evoking joyful experiences of the previous counts much more. Nostalgia is a extra dynamic idea than ever earlier than within the present market. Reasonably than the romanticizing of childhood recollections from many years in the past, it’s now an idea the place folks assume fondly again to pre-pandemic instances and even nearer to their latest previous, in accordance with Mintel Development Throwback. With nostalgia being extra of a mind-set than a static idea, legacy manufacturers and even smaller manufacturers that had a powerful presence throughout/previous to the pandemic maintain the benefit of evoking good recollections and extra importantly, the reassurance of belief and high quality. This belief in well-known manufacturers opens up the chance for manufacturers to develop into the unknown like line extensions that faucet into trending flavors or new codecs will attraction to these looking for one thing barely new however not seeking to stray too removed from what they already know. This belief additionally opens up the chance for manufacturers to embrace variety of their line of merchandise. Because the inhabitants is changing into ever extra various, embracing meals of various cultures and ethnicities may even change into extra necessary.

What we expect
Serving to Canadians embrace a way of consolation within the kitchen doesn’t must imply choices strictly inside the kitchen. Associations with different areas that deliver pleasure like listening to music or including a component of productiveness to 1’s leisure time or embracing the evolving idea of nostalgia will all work to allure and luxury Canadian dwelling cooks.
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