Taste of the Future: What Generation Z Has in Store for Food

“A girl belonging to Gen Z browsing through an aisle of food section of a mall, picks up a packet of noodle turns it and read the label carefully, and puts it back. Then moves on to another brand and reads the label noticed that the price is more than the other brand, still puts the packet in her cart.” This incident pretty much sums up how genz purchases food what are the trends going to be in the future.

Gen Z­- the generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 is the first generation, hadd modern technologies like smart phones and internet available to them before any other generation. The availability of internet and connectivity has shaped how genz spends their money specially on food. While Millennials were divided on the based on simpler segments like part of population which focuses more on the saving money while others focused on consuming natural and healthy products. Genz are different they want more, analysis of food consuming trends of genz has uncovered that this generation wants a product that adds value for their money, not only taste good and should look good but also healthy. Genz embraces innovation and loves to prefer those brands which dare to go byound traditional and provide something new. This habit separates genz from any other group of cinsumers and makes them an interesting market to crack.

What goes into the cart of genz

Although genz may appear a complex market to crack, but it is not that hard to understand how they buy food. And companies which embraces their mind set and willing to adapt, can stive and make lots profits.

Some of the trends that genzs follow are:

Sustainability as a core value

Moreover, Sustainability has now become one of the fundamental principles by which the younger generations conduct their purchasing behavior. In simpler terms, this is not a passing notion - it had become a part of their lifestyle. Nowadays, purchasing decisions have a stronger focus on environmental and ethical considerations concerning what today's buyers are purchasing. People are interested in understanding how the product is being sourced, produced, and what impact it generally has on the environment through the brands they associate themselves with. More than 70% of genz consumers are aware about the issues like climate change and sustainability and more than 40% purchase food accordingly. many companies like Nestlé, Unilever, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Wendy’s, Danone, General Mills, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz, are adopting sustainability as a core value and practice will not only attract attention but also connect deeper to this demographic. To a brand, sustainability now becomes an imperative condition for making and securing long-term business success.

Brands can create a competitive edge by including sustainability value to their core values and agenda. Brands can follow practices like packaging innovation, being transparent in sourcing, collaboration with NGOs and organizations which are directly related to sustainability practices. including these values with their brands and advertising and marketing them using social media platforms will help to become relevant between genz consumers.

Health and Convenience

Indeed, it is quite the fast-paced world and young consumers today think no less on just being convenient but without being at the expense of health. The demand for meal solutions that are fast, healthy, and easy to prepare is peaking at unprecedented rates now. Be it fast cooking at less than twenty minutes or having healthy portable snacking, this generation talks about products that adapt to their busy lives. Convenient and at the same time healthy - this is the kind of combination attractive to this very picky consumer base. Surveys suggests that more than one third (40%) of genz prefer healthy food.

Brands can take advantage of this trend by:

• Developing complete meal packs: brands can grab large portion of market by developing a ready to use meal kit, with simple goal of proving a proper meal that have all the nutritional values and does not take much of an effort. With proper marketing innovation like that can go long way.

• Developing healthier snack alternatives:  snacks that offers high nutrient value

Innovation

Gen Z has been known to be more curious and can sometimes be more adventurous than any of the other generations. Young consumers are drawn to foodstuffs classified under innovative, daring, and different from the mundane products at the stores. From all new flavors, textures, or ways to serve meals, brands that are brave enough to step out in forms are more likely to win the attention. For many, food is not just a "need" but "almost" a hobby. About 32% of the consumers in this generation prefers to try something new.

Brand can capture attention of a large portion of market by offering unique and innovative products. Brands can follow following practices:

• Product innovation: brands can experiment by launching new and bold flavors, collaborating with international brands and products. This will not only provide valuable insight about what consumers would like to eat and what they avoid, but also increase their reach across different regions.
• Collaboration with social media influencers: memes and trends has become a culture in genz and the brands that can become part of memes and trends can stay relevant in this complex market.

Understanding Demand

The decisions made by Generation Z respondents have always taken some emotional or physical dimensions such as needing quick energy, wanting a quick snack, or looking for "healthy" treat. This understanding of "demand moments" becomes very important for the brands as they seek to meet the customers' expectations. A knowledge of when, why, and how consumers select what to eat would give a company an opportunity to align offerings more closely with this audience's lifestyle, thus enhancing relevance and increasing engagement with the brand.

Challenges

Genz being the most interesting generation, posses unique and hard to comprehend challenges to companies and brands. From being one of the most loyal consumer bases to cancelling and boycotting brands (for instance Aunt Jemima's a famous syrup brand). The expectation of a product that has made ethically and transparently, healthy and cost effective, puts brands in a weird situation. Some of such challenges are discussed below:

1.The Anticipated Truthfulness and Openness

Gen Z has become increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising and often requires transparency of messaging and action from brands. In particular, their idea of authenticity is so strong that they can instantly identify cases where a brand is disingenuous or "greenwashing" their sustainability efforts, not to mention calling out those brands that do not live the same values as those that they profess. What is also interesting about this generation is that they are always quick to call out and boycott or cancel the brands whose values do not align with their actions. Therefore, it becomes crucial for the companies to be both honest and consistent.

• Genuine commitment to the causes they promotes-sustainability, diversity, social responsibility-should be assured by brands.
• Essential is transparency in sourcing of products, manufacturing processes, and business practices. Gen Z expects to see real proof of those values rather than just listening to meaningless claims.

2. Short Attention Spans

Gen Z has grown within a digital world of information overload, never stopping clatter and advertising brought forth by social media. Thus, they have shorter attention spans. They crave electronic content that is entertaining, easy, attractive, and mostly to-the-point. It becomes harder for the brands to stand out from this cluttered setting and attract their attention.

• 65% of genz uses social media to explore new food products, trends and brands. Using short-form but visually compelling contents that quickly convey the messages e.g TikTok video, Instagram story can help a lot.
• Engaging them in authentic interactive ways: polls, challenges, UGCs.
• Collaborations influencers that match the brand's values and have genuine ties with their followers can help brands to increase their reach.

3.Balancing Innovation with Brand Identity

Gen Z enjoys new experiences, loves innovation and this challenge is mostly tied to the inability of the brands to remain consistent while changing its products or even its services. Generally, the constant innovation may alienate loyal customers or dilute the core identity of the brand.

There are ways brands can introduce new products or new initiatives in the organization that will align with the core brand values and identity. Innovate in ways that seem to flow organically rather than in forced fashion; Gen Z appreciates an element of congruity in the evolution of a brand. Another strategy will be to limit-edition or season-specific items as a way to bring new ideas into the brand without making it an indefinite change.

4.Balancing Affordability and Sustainability

Most of the genz are thrifty because of realities such as money constraints and low disposable income. Such has increased tension among marketers dealing with the ethical production of the affordable products.

Cheap cost methods of making the entire lifecycle of the product-from sourcing to packaging-green, without adding a lot to the costs. Creating an affordable option while considering tiered pricing or value packs to allow sustainable options to a large array of consumers.

5. Staying Relevant to the Multiple Subcultures

Gen Z is a diverse entity, and thus, an individual could possess very differing interests, values, and subcultures. Focusing on one trend or community will alienate the rest. Thus, there exists a fine line where brands will have to appeal to the broadest spectrum of Gen Z interests while being true to their identity and values.

• Mailing marketing to different parts of Gen Z through the insight driven by data about the evidence collected on their preferences.
• Working with relevant influencers and content creators on the diversity concerning different areas of Gen Z.
• Always listening to the new trends and changing values among the generation and be quick to adapt to these changes related to the cultural context.

6. Overcoming the Dismal Factors from Advertising

This generation does not trust traditional advertising for anything that looks too flashy or unattached from real life. They trust organic, relatable brands. The task for marketers is to build the trust and credibility where it would be without traditional ad forms that appear to fail when directed at this audience.

• Linking it to authentic storytelling raw and relatable user-generated content, insights into the life behind the scenes, and partnerships with influencers.
• Use of sites TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where the communication is more personal, intimate, and less commercial.
• Being Not just about pushing your product but about meaningful engagement. developing the kind of environment that would help to create genuine relationships and a community for that environment to exist in public.

7. Managing Excessive Expectations of Brand Loyalty

Gen Z is undoubtedly the most loyal generation in terms of aligning with exactly those brands that share their values; but this can be easily lost through false promises or irrelevant evolution of product and service features. Thus, restore customer loyalty is a continuous exercise.

• Engaging in two-way communication with the customers through social engagement, feedback surveys, and community building to check that you are meeting their expectations.
• Rewarding loyalty through exclusivity, discounts, or early products reward programs give such benefits.
• Dynamic and adaptive feedback, continually and progressively changing the personality of the brand as it aligns with the shifting value and preferences of the Gen Z.

8: Adaptation to Global Trends and Local Sensitivities

Gen Z is a very global generation, impacted by worldwide cultural trends and movements, but they also care deeply about local issues and sensitivities. The right mix in targeting any broad-based audience has to rely on making global trends relevant within local cultural contexts.

• Localize your campaigns yet incorporate all those subtle nuances that define culture, all while making every advertisement consistent with global brand identity.
• Know and articulate the global issues dear to Gen Z (e.g., climate change, social justice) while paying attention to adapting the message to resonate with specific regional concerns and values.
• Global and local alliances or partnerships with organizations of relevance to Gen Z across regions also benefit from global and small-scale engagements.