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In 2010, I was in London as a visiting student at a major university, researching the influence of what we called the "green movement" on the selection of food suppliers by major European retailers for my master's dissertation. At that time, we understood that food retailers were in a privileged position to create a greener, healthier and fairer food system, through their influence on consumer behavior and decision-making in the supply chain.
I had the opportunity to interview representatives of Defra (UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Leaf (Linking Environment and Farming, an organization that promotes environmentally responsible farming) and expert researchers from the UK. With one of Brazil's biggest agribusiness enthusiasts as my master's advisor, I ended my dissertation with recommendations for Brazilian producers to make their businesses more sustainable, by means of a design green for the production cycle, and consequently more competitive to reach these markets.
New generation, new decision factors
Since then, 11 years have passed and we've experienced the democratization of access to new technologies, and consequently to information, which has increasingly put on the agenda not only environmental issues, but also social, political and cultural ones as criteria for purchasing decisions. In this context, we know a new generation of consumerswith enough strength and power of voice to influence habits and decisions in the most diverse aspects.
Although there is no consensus on the accuracy of the start and end years of birth, we know that the decision-making criteria vary widely between Baby Boomers (born in the post-WWII period), Generation X (early 60s to late 70s), the Millennials (or generation Y, born in the early 1980s to the mid-1990s) and among generation Z (or Zoomers(born in the mid-1990s to early 2000s), since each era brings a specific context, with an impact on cultural values and interpersonal relationships.
If meeting the consumer demands of Millennials already involved catering to a more creative generation, concerned with social causes and more willing to break standards imposed by society, catering to Generation Z, the youngest in the job market, means dialoguing with a generation that hasn't lived a year of its life without the internet and is willing to rethink the values and ideals of its predecessors.
A new perspective
Looking at the world through the lens of mobile devices, the Zoomers generation uses apps like TikTok for socializing, learns through gamification, and also defines its food shopping criteria right there in the digital environment. In this context, the generation that grew up with the new trendsIt is the same generation that learns about the agri-food production process through games and simulators, such as the Farming Simulator.
But what are the younger generations looking for when making food purchasing decisions? Used to having more optionsThe points commonly taken into account when making a decision are:
- Ethical aspects of the products consumed, such as animal welfare or social impact;
- Vegetarianism and veganism are often associated with the search for alternative sources of protein;
- Search for locally produced products;
- Searches for functional products, such as natural fermentation products (e.g. Kombucha);
- Aspects of connectivity and interactivity, such as QR codes with more product information, or even "instagrammable" products;
- Traceability and food origin;
- Use of organic products and products with health or natural appeals;
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