Jeff Hilton, partner and chief marketing officer at US-based brand promotional company Brandhive, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the UK’s functional food market was slow compared with the US’s. But it could go into overdrive if 18–34 year-olds – who are referred to as millennials – were targeted correctly, he claimed.
“The US [functional food] market is much more mature than in the UK, based on a couple of things,” said Hilton. “The offering in the UK isn’t as broad, there’s not as much R&D [research and development] and that’s outweighed by high consumer demand.”
‘Slow output’
Alongside slow output of new and exciting products aimed at millennials, manufacturers weren’t marketing their products at them correctly either, he added.
“The millennial market globally is huge and growing,” said Hilton. “In the US there’s over 100M consumers with a $5bn spend.
“The interesting thing about millennials is that they don’t think about marketing in the same way as the [baby] boomers do and are much more open to it.”
Millennials also didn’t want to age in the same way as their parents and had different views about wellness, as well as how they wanted to maintain their health and how they wanted to do it, he added.
‘Something niche’
“Brands are important, but not big brands and millennials want something niche that they can own through the likes of social media,” said Hilton. “They like user-generated content (UGC) to hear what other people have to say about products – why it works and why it doesn’t work. They love the internet and your website should rich in UGC.
“You have got to engage them and tell them a story they can share on social media, because they are in that world. They want to ‘like’ to participate in the brand and learn about it online too.”
Manufacturers should also ensure their websites were enabled for use on mobile devices, such as phones and tablet computers, because that’s where the millennials used the internet now. “If your website is not mobile enabled, you’re making a huge mistake,” he warned.
Hilton’s top five tips for millennial engagement
- They view life as tough and want health and wellness on their terms, so give it to them
- They don’t think proactively about health and wellness, so inspire them
- They are open to the words ‘natural’, but don’t want words like ‘nostalgic’ on packaging
- Words like ‘energy’, ‘performance’ and ‘fulfilment’ fit their core needs
- They are the most open generation to functional foods, so use that to your advantage