Fresh, organic and convenience food markets could all benefit from the birth of the first child in a young family, claim market analysts Datamonitor. According to a new report, the opposing forces of both increasing time pressure and health concerns are leading to a boost in spending on organics and convenience foods.
"There has been a great deal of research into marketing to children and theneeds of parents but very little is known about how consumers react to thetransition to parenthood. With only a little experience, consumers must dealwith entirely new demands and significantly altered means.
"The birth ofone's first child represents a massive life change. There are new practicalissues, such as the need to select and buy baby products, and the necessityof conducting normal housekeeping chores under increased time-pressure.There are also changing attitudes, such as an increasing focus on safety andhealth issues," commented Neil Broome, Datamonitor consumer markets analyst and author of the report.
The young family group, defined as those with only a single child under theage of two, is one of the most important transitional groups of consumersand has significantly different needs to parents in general.
There were approximately 15.6 million parents of only one child under the age of two in 2001across Europe. The young family group is forecast to decline by an averageof 0.4 per cent per annum between 2001 and 2006 - due to falling fertility rates anda sharp decline in the 20-25 year old population.
Datamonitor examined the shopping habits across low, medium, and high incomeyoung families.
It reported that consumers with high incomes are most likely to use Internet shopping services and to demand greater convenience. They also show the greatest concern about health. Low income consumers do not spend as much on healthproducts as their expenditure is limited. They do, however, spend more onconvenience food after the birth of their first child.
Across all income groups, the largest change in expenditure is on restaurantmeals and drinks in bars and pubs, showing an overall decline of 26 per cent and 28 per cent respectively. Survey results also revealed an overall increase in freshfruit and vegetables and organic food and drinks of 18 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. Chilled ready meals and frozen convenience food showed little significant overall change, but a sharp increase among low incomefamilies. Likewise, an increase in takeaway food consumption by mediumincome consumers was offset by a decrease in consumption by low incomeconsumers.
Neil Broome concluded: "Young families cannot be treated by marketers and manufacturers in the sameway as families in general. Likewise, they cannot be treated as an homogenousgroup.
The period of adjustment and learning of a new lifestyle presentsopportunities for manufacturers and retailers to provide for the specificneeds for products (such as high quality, healthy convenience foods) andservices (such as assisted shopping or e-commerce) these consumers have, andtake advantage of this group's higher propensity to brand and retailerloyalty.
A successful strategy targeting new young families will not onlyreap rewards in terms of direct sales to this group, but will also havepositive effects on the ability to target these consumers through theiryears of parenthood."