School of Trends
Quick & actionable inspiration for future-ready food Innovation
Discover the trends driving the future of your category
What is the School of Trends
The School of Trends combines detailed research into food megatrends with our international network of trendspotters. We deliver actionable insights and inspiring examples to fuel your innovation pipeline and help you stay ahead in your category.
This provides you with:
- Dozens of inspiring examples of food trends, innovations, and best practices tailored to your category
- Strategic trends insights that fast-track innovation and concept development
- Forward-looking inspiration to anticipate and respond to future consumer needs
For an example of an outcome in the ambient foods category, click here.
Why
Having an overview of emerging trends enables you to be ahead of the game. It will give you ideas of what consumer needs are not yet met and understand where there is room for innovation.
While you cannot predict the future, with the right knowledge you can be prepared for future developments that will have a crucial impact on the future of your category.
Our success stories
-
Transforming Ambient Foods: Premiumization in Action
We explored what’s happening in the ambient foods category, also known as ‘canned goods’. One of the trends we found was ‘premiumization’, something not usually associated with this category. We found many worldwide examples of high-quality innovative products are transforming canned food perceptions. This trend focuses on gourmet ingredients and sustainability, offering consumers unique and tasty options.
- Premiumization: High-end canned products like gourmet smoked salmon caterd to consumers seeking exclusivity
- Sustainabilty: sourcing, such as family-farmed salmon, appeals to eco-conscious buyers
- Unique Flavors: Innovative flavor combinations, like Sichuan chili crisp with tinned salmon, attracts adventurous tastes.
-
Exploring mushrooms’ potential to drive future growth
Scelta Mushrooms is one of the biggest mushrooms processing companies worldwide. They wanted to understand emerging trends in the mushroom category across multiple markets. Our trained trend spotters set out to find out what is going on in this enormously divers market.
- 142 innovations: A wide variety of mushroom innovations were found and categorised into 8 different areas, each representing a potential jumping board for innovations.
- Megatrend Framework: We applied our megatrends framework to be able to understand which areas are the most future-proof.
- Consumer Insights: We complemented the project with an extensive international qualitative and quantitative consumer study.
How
- We have a dedicated team of trained trendspotters
- They find compelling examples of food innovations in your category. Check out some examples here, here, and here.
- Their findings are curated and reviewed for relevance. We then link their findings to the known megatrends.
- We combine their findings with an established megatrends framework by Euromonitor
- In an engaging and inspirational workshop with your team, we translate all the findings to tangible business opportunities.
*Are you an innovative and creative person looking to be a part of our School of Trends? Follow this link to find out how to sign-up.
Have questions? Let’s connect!
We’re here to help. Contact us to learn more or fill out the form at the bottom of the page to get started.
Other thing we do:
Scelta Mushrooms asked us to identify innovation opportunities in the world of mushrooms. This is what they had to say about our work:
Future of Food Institute has provided us with a 3D picture of what’s happening in the mushroom category. Their School of Trends discovered nearly 150mushrooms innovations worldwide, many of which we had never heard of before. Combining this with their trend framework and thorough qualitative and quantitative consumer research has given us an abundance of innovation ideas, that are both inspirational and backed-up by solid research. The research enabled us to map international similarities and differences in consumer attitudes towards the category.
Download Our Brochure For More Insights
We believe that understanding consumers is key to making the food system more sustainable. Successful innovation and impactful communication require a solid foundation of consumer insight.
We are the insights partner of choice for food companies and non-profits that aim to have a positive impact on society and our planet. Together we empower consumers to make food choices that are good for them as well as for the planet.
