“Staying in is the new ‘night out’ and we see this trend continue to play out with the Super Bowl,” said Nick Lake, vice president, group client director, Beverage Alcohol at Nielsen. “Consumers continue to rein in spending and while this ‘new normal’ provides challenges for restaurant and bar owners, it presents opportunities for consumer packaged goods (CPG) retailers and manufacturers.”

Nielsen’s survey of more than 28,000 U.S. households also shows that 86 percent of Super Bowl viewers plan to spend the same amount or less on food and beverages for the Super Bowl this year, while only five percent plan to spend more.

Beer and The Big Game
While beer and football are popular American pastimes, the Super Bowl, somewhat surprisingly, is not the most popular beer holiday. Nielsen’s research shows that the Super Bowl ranks relatively low among holiday beer sales, after the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Halloween.

“We see the lowest amount of beer sales during the first quarter of the year leading up to a peak in the summer,” said Lake. “However, the Super Bowl continues to be a bigger and bigger event where consumers drink billions of servings of beer servings at home. Beer marketers are taking advantage of that opportunity to drive sales during what is typically a slower period for beer purchases.”

Grocery the Big Winner
Nielsen’s analysis shows that with the exception of late March, grocery retailers experienced the biggest weeks for Q1 beer sales during the two weeks surrounding Super Bowl 2009, with nearly 17 million cases sold.

“At-home viewing of the Super Bowl is predominantly more of an opportunity for grocery stores, rather than other CPG retailers,” said Lake.  “Today’s consumers want value but also want convenience.  While picking up snacks and soda, they’re adding beer to their grocery baskets.  In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, look for heavy promotions at grocery stores, encouraging consumers to take advantage of the one-stop-shop for their Super Bowl party needs.”

No Kickoff Without Snacks
Super Bowl viewers across the country stock their at-home parties with snacks, nearly 166 million pounds of snacks, especially salty snacks.  Potato chips reign, with more than 44 million pounds of snacks sold while tortilla chips and pretzels also rank high for Super Bowl sales.  The Super Bowl snack with the greatest growth?  Popped popcorn!

Private Label Snacks Gaining Ground
Consumers in the ‘”new normal” are trying private label or store brand items more than ever before and this trend holds true for snack items with private label snacks gaining ground.  For example, during the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl in 2007, private label snacks held a dollar share of 6.8 and an equivalized share of 10.4.  During the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl in 2009, this jumped to a dollar share of 8.1 and an equivalized share of 12.5.   Similar trends are evident for private label crackers, nuts and frozen pizza.

In Frito-Lay’s case, NeuroFocus was enlisted by the ad agency charged with re-defining calorie-conscious snacks such as Baked Lays and 100-calorie packages to make them appeal to women.  To learn more about NeuroFocus’s work on this campaign, read the New York Times article here.

Nielsen made a strategic investment in NeuroFocus in February 2008.

Limited-portion snacks accounted for only $74 million of the $11.3 billion snacks business.  According to Nielsen, food, drug and mass merchandiser stores (excluding Walmart) over the past five years mostly show that this category’s share accounts for 2 percent or less of sales. 

Despite being a relatively miniscule part of overall snack sales, some types of limited-portion packs showed growth in 2008.  Potato chips and tortilla chips grew by 62.1 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.  That impressive growth, however, generated sales of only $17.2 million and $12.2 million.

Sales of limited portion cookies and crackers lost steam in 2008, down 6.8 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively, even though both categories showed modest overall growth.

This information was published in the January issue of Facts, Figures & the Future, a monthly e-publication focused on delivering the latest consumer data and trend information to members of the Food Marketing Institute and clients of Nielsen. Facts, Figures & the Future is published by The Lempert Report/Consumer Insight, Inc. and is sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen.

It’s official: Americans love their carbs.  The Bread and Baked Goods category ranked number one for 2008 — both in terms of consumer purchases and retail sales.  According to Nielsen, 99% of U.S. homes purchased bread/baked goods at least once during the 52 weeks ending June 28, 2008.  The Bread/Baked Goods category raked in $18.3 billion in sales through November 1.  Other popular CPG categories include paper products, snacks, and carbonated beverages.

Scarborough Research, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron, also reported on the top U.S.  markets for online shopping.  Washington, D.C. and San Francisco ranked first and second, respectively, with 39% and 35% of adults spending $500 or more online in the past year.  Nationwide, 25% of adults reported spending $500 or more online in the past year.

Top 10 Consumer Packaged Goods Purchased by U.S. Homes

Top 10 Consumer Packaged Goods Sold in U.S. Retail Stores

Top U.S. Markets For Adults Who Spent More Than $500+ Online Last Year

View the press release.

Relive the greatest hits of 2008 — stay tuned on Nielsen Wire for more Tops In 2008 coverage.

Look ahead to the new year with Nielsen Wire’s 2009 Industry Outlook series.

Although they represent only 18.7% of U.S. households, high-income households represented 39.6% of wine dollar sales during the time period. 

Other categories skewing to households with high incomes include diet aids, liquor, and floral/gardening supplies.

Nielsen’s Marketing Tip:
Retailers targeting high-income households may want to promote these categories with feature ads, displays, and product assortments.  Manufacturers should consider cross-promoting and cross-couponing items in these categories.

Nielsen’s Dollar Volume Index identifies demographic groups that account for above or below average dollar volume purchases for a given product category.

Data for the index was collected via Nielsen’s Homescan consumer panel, a nationally representative sample of U.S. households that provides a stratified, proportionate, non-biased representation of the U.S. population.  Homescan panelists scan all of their UPC coded purchases after every shopping trip, allowing Nielsen to capture their complete shopping and buying behavior.