City Growth Engines in Foodservice - Thematic Intelligence

City Growth Engines in Foodservice - Thematic Intelligence

Summary

Over half of the global population now live in urban environments, with this projected to reach almost 70% by 2050. Moving to the city has effects on consumer attitudes and habits, requiring societies to adapt to new demographics and behaviors. Young generations’ digital nativism, diversity, and multiculturalism will also affect societal change. Additionally, the emergence of COVID-19 impacted urban societies significantly, forcing change in urban and extra-urban consumer behavior, the legacy of which is likely to last well into the ‘new normal’ of the post-pandemic.

Smartphone ubiquity means consumers are almost always connected to the internet. Within the context of evolving cities, that digital ecosystem provides a powerful source of data and analytical understanding with which to inform the foodservice industry’s operational decision-making and consumer targeting efforts. It has been noted that ‘big data’ has a role to play in ‘city intelligence’ because it acts as a vital resource behind the gathering of data around population change, demographics, and economic performance. Likewise, artificial intelligence (AI) deployed to interpret this data offers increasingly sophisticated insights and predictive capabilities for companies to base their actions on. At a consumer-focused level, such a change in data tracking can be cross-referenced with the parallel evolution of consumer trends-trends that have obvious consequences for foodservice in terms of menu preferences, locations and footfall, and demand for digital service provision, etc. In general, aside from the intelligence aspects of data analytics in the urban foodservice context, companies must deploy digital consumer-facing technologies to offer customers the tailored experiences and convenience they now desire, whether that be on-premises or to serve the pandemic-boosted home delivery market.

Scope

• The foodservice industry must adapt to an environment where historical comfort zones of operation are being replaced with more digitally driven, convenient, and geographically decentralized demand.
• Digital technologies have enabled companies to deploy city-level targeting in their product launches. This method offers brands the opportunity to closely target the proposition and marketing messages according to the trends within that location.
• The combination of location-based services with city demographics and smart city analytics enables both local businesses and city authorities to precisely target their initiatives and be alert to the most urgent needs of an urban community.

• Understand the City Growth Engines theme in the foodservice marketplace.
• Highlight key trends within the theme's present and future evolution.
• Identify key players/competitors actively engaging with the theme, and track their performance against it.
• Learn valuable lessons on advantages and pitfalls of harnessing associated technological solutions to maximize urban foodservice opportunities.