OPTIMIZING CENTER STORE MEAL SHOPPING: A CASE STUDY ON SHOPPERS AND CONVENIENCE MEALS, Bob Samples of Hormel Foods

Hormel Foods, long famous for canned meats and stews, believes that "Convenience is King." 68% of consumers feel the same way, but only 35% said they knew where to look in the store to find convenience lunch items. They also said that they were confused by what they described as "too many products out there." Thus the challenge became "Improve the Shopping Experience" by making the search for convenience food items more intuitive for shoppers AND more profitable for retailers.

Because research indicated that consumers shop by need state, Hormel advocated creating a Convenience Food Aisle which would contain all convenience meal occasion items in the same place, instead of having them scattered throughout the store. Working in partnership with several major retailers such as Family Fare, Food Lion, Spartan Stores and Winn/Dixie to create this Convenience Aisle, anchored by microwaveable soups adjacent to ultra convenient products (meals that can be prepared in five minutes or less).

The results were impressive. Bob Samples told attendees at the Shopper Insights Conference that this solution works because ultimately it is for an aisle, ot just for Hormel Food Products. And retailers that implemented the Convenience Food Aisle outpaced competitors in their market by 19% in this category.