While inflation has steadied, consumers are still heading into 2025 with an eye on their spending. With this in mind, CPG marketers will be looking at ways to express value, health and wellness benefits and cultural connections to attract savvy shoppers in the new year.
“The concept of value for money is something we’re very much focused on and how do we make sure that we continue to deliver against consumers expectations for what a premium brand like KIND should deliver and what it should cost relative to other options,” says KIND’s chief marketing officer Osher Hoberman.
“2025 will be all about innovation,” says Jess Spaulding, CMO, PepsiCo Foods Canada. Who sees the “insurgence of even more value…through a broad spectrum from price, quality/superiority, premiumization, and customization.”
Linda Bethea, chief marketing officer at Danone foresees “continued interest in health and wellness, with consumers increasingly seeking out nutritional and functional benefits in food and beverages.”
“Our mission is to deliver health through food to as many people as possible so we are constantly looking for ways to improve the health benefits of our portfolio and drive far-reaching awareness of those benefits,” she says. “For instance, this year the FDA released its first-ever qualified health claim for yogurt, stating that regular yogurt consumption may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. This announcement was in response to a petition submitted by Danone North America, giving us an opportunity to share the scientific benefits of yogurt in a newly credible and compelling way.”
2024 saw many unlikely brands forming collaborations as a way to get attention in culture. Being a part of the culture will likely remain at the forefront next year.
“It has never been more important for brands to embrace culture, but it’s also never been as complex to do so successfully,” says Gail Hollander, chief marketing officer at the J.M. Smucker Company. “To get it right, we need to understand the cultural truth, the consumer truth and then the brand truth so that the way you engage is rooted in understanding and authenticity. As the consumer experience continues to become more and more integrated, the brands that win will be those that recognize the opportunity to deepen connections and focus their strategy around it.”
Nostalgia is a big trend in pop culture these days and it is seeping through to the CPG space. According to research from Nestle, 71% of US consumers say that they enjoy things that remind them of their past (i.e. childhood) and 84% of Americans say that nostalgic memories remind them of what’s important in life.
Mike Van Houten, Head of Consumer & Marketplace Insights at Nestlé USA, predicts the “rise of New-stalgia” in 2025. “Nostalgia is back, and what’s old is new again — but in a cooler, more modern way,” he says. “As consumers seek opportunities to escape through culture and reflect on “simpler times” with fondness, new brands are teaming up with legacy brands and using familiar flavors, comforting classics and childhood favorites to reinvent the “old” with a fun and fresh twist.”
Claudine Patel, chief marketing officer at Sanofi, sees something similar when it comes to media buys. “In 2025, it will be all about bringing back the classics with a fresh spin…think of it as ‘old-school meets new tech,’” she says. “We’ll see brands revisiting TV ads, but this time with data-driven precision—like merging classic TV’s wide reach with the targeting power of digital.“Oh! And in-store advertising will get a glow-up too, with digital displays delivering real-time, personalized messages right at the shelf. It’s all about finding new ways to make the tried-and-true feel brand new.”
Gen Z is influencing how CPG marketers communicate, driving the importance of social media in 2025. “Social media will connect brands to captive consumers,” says Phyllis Rothschild, chief marketing officer, Pete & Gerry’s. “As Gen Z claims more purchasing power, it’s becoming more important for brands to connect with younger audiences and lean into social media trends in an authentic way. With the virality of social media and instantaneous trends, brands must successfully identify moments in time that fit their cultural narrative while remaining authentic to their brand voice and organizational values — all while being relevant to trending topics.”
Over the last two years, CPG brands have increased their digital media spend and investments in retail media networks. eMarketer predicts CPG brands will continue to invest in these channels but at a slower rate.
“We continue to see consumer pathways as very fragmented,” says Hoberman. “The consumer journey is less linear than it was even a year ago and it requires us to have much more connected solutions for how we reach the consumer and the synergy between the different media options.”
“Additionally, our retail partners are much savvier than ever,” he adds. “They’re very sophisticated with how they use data. A lot of the conversations we are having with our retail partners start with what are the insights that we’re getting from the shopper data which is requiring us as a supplier to continue to build new capabilities around CRM and category management. We’ll continue to invest in that in the next quarter.”
