We All Need To Pay Attention To Consumer-Driven Trends

Rather like podcasts, apps are something I’ve come to embrace after resisting for longer than is sensible or practical! I felt for a long time like my phone screen was one place I could maintain order and minimalism. But no longer…

So two features this week in newspapers piqued my interest – first this one, about a food and nutrition guidance app with the unfortunate (to me) name Yuka. Second, this one, in which a consumer tries different approaches to family mealtime, including using apps. 

As the owner of a Thermomix which I bought about 12 years ago after trying it for a feature (yes, we hacks do part with money if we love a product!), I was fascinated by the new-gen product with its own app. 

This has all made me think more carefully about my own prejudices and that promoting apps as a way to interact with a product, person or place is now helpful at the least; essential probably. But treading carefully is also essential: the downfall of Matches Fashion (which I read about in The Times yesterday) gave me pause for thought – the detail that stood out was that consumers don’t want products curated for them, they want to go direct to the source (in the case of clothes, at least).

Is that what’s coming for food? Are we looking towards a marketplace in which shoppers no longer use i.e.: Waitrose but instead order direct (via apps) from i.e.: Charlie Bigham or Brooklyn Brewery? 

It’s fascinating, if possibly frightening. But we all need to pay attention to consumer-driven trends.