The Levercliff team works with category data on a daily basis and know that volume in many categories have been in decline leading into 2024, but is now starting to recover leading into the latter part of the year. This is an exciting time for food and drink producers as the market looks to be returning to normal after several years of challenging market conditions. The trend of continued wage growth and potential drops in interest rates should improve consumer confidence highlighting an opportunity for growth in food and drink volume sales and a renewed focus on premium products.
Our Insight Director Duncan believes this is an optimum time for producers to take stock with a view to finalising their growth plans for 2025 and beyond.
So what can producers do?
At Levercliff, we always advocate research and taking a 360° approach to inform your strategy for growth. These are the things that we would consider:
Category
Sense-check your position within the category vs your competition. How are you performing? Do you have a strong base from which to grow your sales? If not, you will need to review your brand position and make changes to your marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion).
Consumer
Understand clearly what your consumers want and whether the market meets their needs. As brands have shifted positions and consumer needs have evolved, opportunities will arise to identify gaps in the market for new product development.
Commercial
Engage with the right promotions for your brand strategy, certain promotions may not work for you despite their popularity in the category. Select the right marketing activity e.g. advertising, or retail media, so that your brand will stand out and that you receive a good return for your investment.
Conclusion
In my experience, bringing all this together takes resources, time, the right skills and experience. Whilst it can be done internally by the business itself (if it has the resources and skills), there is usually never enough time to do it properly usually due to the day job taking priority.
This is why Levercliff exists.
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Written by Duncan Macaskill, Insight Director
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