McCormick: Pinterest offers brands ‘more authentic and compelling’ ways to engage with consumers

Speaking on a conference call with analysts last week to discuss the firm’s third quarter results, McCormick chief executive Alan Wilson said: “​We’re ​adapting to reach consumers where they're spending their time, which is increasingly on the Internet.​

“In addition to our Facebook fans for brands like Grill Mates, Zatarain’s and Old Bay, we are excited about our presence on Instagram and Pinterest to support our gourmet consumers.”​

Pinterest et al allow​ consumers to become engaged with brands in ‘more authentic and compelling ways’​

He added: “Pinterest is now the third-largest social media site after Facebook and Twitter and provides an opportunity for consumers to become engaged with our brands in more authentic and compelling ways.​

“We're working to connect with consumers at every stage of what we call the flavor of life cycle, from inspiration with a recipe idea to getting our product in the shopping list and helping with meal preparation and, finally, sharing success with family and friends.”​

‘We are aggressively shifting our marketing mix to non-traditional vehicles’​

Meanwhile, more resources are being allocated to digital marketing, which is expected to account for 12% of total brand marketing support in 2012 versus 4% in 2010, said Wilson.

At the Global Growth Investor Conference in April, Wilson also revealed colleagues are working on a ’flavor print’ service​ with MyWebGrocer that will replicate Amazon’s recommendation capabilities in the world of flavor, delivering personalized recipes to consumers using McCormick ingredients.  

He added: “We are aggressively shifting our marketing mix to non-traditional vehicles, which includes interactive, shopper marketing and public relations – all powerfully effective tools to drive consumer engagement.”​

‘Our customers are focused on bigger, fewer new products’​

Asked by an analyst about customers’ new product development plans, Wilson said food manufacturers are increasingly focusing R&D resources on fewer, bigger new products.

He added: “What we're seeing from a new product activity standpoint is that our customers are focused on bigger, fewer new products as opposed to a steady stream of the base hits.”​

Meanwhile, volumes in the US are starting to recover as pricing moderates, he added, echoing comments from bosses at ConAgra​ and General Mills​ in recent weeks: “I think the general consensus that we're hearing is that people are seeing some recovery in volumes and some moderation of cost increases.”​

Consumers were ‘living out of their pantries’​

And consumers, he said, are feeling slightly more confident: “Commodity inflation is not as high as it was, and so we expect that we should see the ability for consumers to buy a little more and not have that sticker shock.​

“I think what we saw early in the year was a little bit of the sticker shock, people living out of their pantries. And I think kind of the general impression is that things are improving a bit.”​

Q3 2012 results breakdown​

McCormick posted a 12.5% rise in operating income to $144m on sales up 6% to $977.7m in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 (three months to August 31).

In the consumer products business, sales rose 9% to $568.3m, while industrial sales of seasonings and spices to food manufacturers and foodservice companies rose 3% to $409.4m.