The CQ: Plant-Based Has Lost Meaning & Millennials 'Carpooling for Homes'
The Forerunner Team's Top Read of the Week
The CQ is Forerunner’s weekly newsletter rounding up the most pressing consumer news and analysis, plus some bonus musings from our investment team. Subscribe now to get the latest edition in your inbox every Saturday.
By Forerunner
What We’re Talking About on Slack:
Technically ‘plant-based’ refers to vegan or vegetarian foods, but when everything from shampoo to KitKats and Kraft singles is plastered with the label, ‘plant-based’ has lost all meaning, says The Atlantic. “The label’s vagueness has been a marketer’s dream, creating an enormous opportunity to capitalize on the perceived virtuousness and healthiness of eating plant-based food. Brands use the ‘plant-based’ label to ‘draw people’s attention to the aggregate goodness of a particular product’ and simultaneously ‘deflect attention’ from any less appealing attributes.” A 2023 study suggests that people are skeptical of what the label means and are less likely to choose foods described as plant based (or vegan) compared to those called healthy or sustainable, perhaps because of the negative connotations with meat alternatives which are considered artificial and highly processed.
In other food news, The New York Times asks, in the Ozempic age, has ‘craveable’ lost its selling power? Some experts think the weight loss drug will impact the industry known for promoting “imagery of oozing cheese and the sound of the crunch,” but many food marketers and food companies aren’t too concerned. In Mintel’s latest report on the food and beverage industry, the market research company found that consumer demand for minimally processed food will grow and suggested tactics for selling products with no redeeming nutritional value include stressing the upsides of food processing, such as extending freshness or promoting food safety, and to focus on the comfort and joy that people get from these foods. Besides, unlike health-conscious millennials, Gen Z is driven by nostalgia and loves “candy and Taco Bell and TikTok-y foods.”
There are too many chatbots, reports Vox. The launch of OpenAI’s new chatbot store will likely make it easier to find chatbots among the more than 3 million that have been created since November and undoubtedly much more to come. “What is still unclear, despite the funding frenzy, is whether any of these chatbots or any of those coming to OpenAI’s new custom GPT Store will attract users. It’s even less clear if they’ll ultimately make money. Most chatbots currently have a freemium model that allows casual users to use a basic version of the product while charging between $10 and $20 a month to unlock advanced features.” What may make a chatbot successful is how easy it will be to act as a personal assistant—and that might be easier to pull off for large companies like Google who have access to much of your stuff to link it together.
The Verge explains how the internet has reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms so now all websites look the same. While Google says the best way to succeed at Search is to make great content for people, the industry that’s popped up solely based on SEO and appeasing Google Search suggests differently. Everything from site performance, page design, article structure to what content actually gets produced becomes dictated by Google, and even misinformation can be promoted simply because someone has figured out how to game the SEO. “You’ve seen it before: the awkward subheadings and text that repeats the same phrases a dozen times, the articles that say nothing but which are sprayed with links that in turn direct you to other meaningless pages. Much of the information we find on the web — and much of what’s produced for the web in the first place — is designed to get Google’s attention.” And now with Google’s introduction of Search Generative Experience (SGE), those AI-generated answers are placed above organic search results, which will potentially derail publishers’ and content creators’ traffic—even if factually incorrect.
Millennials are ‘carpooling for homes’—meaning, they’re pooling their resources with a non-romantic partner as a hack to buy a house in a tough housing market. A recent report found that 15% of Americans have co-purchased a home with a person other than their romantic partner—and another 48% would consider it. “Millennials are often the ones looking for alternative strategies for funding a home and are really leading the charge for redefining traditional homeownership.” Though it’s important to note that this type of arrangement could complicate things in the event that there’s a falling out between the co-owners, one wants to move, loses a job, or even dies.
The New York Times examines the rise of group chats and how they have quietly become spaces to share jokes, grief, and practically everything else. “Types of communication that were once limited by the human capacity for having actual conversations now flow at unprecedented speed, in many directions at once; we are strangely perma-linked to specific subsets of our friends and family, ceaselessly co-processing everything that happens. We feel as if we are endlessly whispering in our friends’ ears at a distance. We can pick up the conversation at any time, from anywhere.”
The sleep tourism market is booming—it’s estimated to be valued at over $400 billion between 2023 and 2028. And hotels around the world are stepping up their offerings to cater to the growing set of consumers interested in ‘slow travel’ with the goal of relaxing and resetting wellness habits. Just a few of the sleep-inducing amenities are temperature-adjusting mattresses, AI-powered smart beds to adjust mattress pressure points, soundproof rooms without a TV, and pillow menus. At one Bali Hilton, guests can partake in a 60-minute sleep therapy session suspended in cocoon hammocks, while at Six Senses locations, sleep meditations, a sleep tracker, and guidance from in-house sleep doctors are included in the stay.
The creator economy is ready for a workers’ movement. “On Instagram, I’ll have a video hit 900,000 views and make six dollars. It’s insulting,” says a creator with 3 million followers. Creators’ livelihoods are also affected by platforms’ unexpected algorithm changes, updates, or disciplinary actions. And since there’s no standardized rates for brand deals and partnerships, compensation can range wildly from well over $2,000 to a T-shirt. While there have been a few attempts at unionizing creators—including the Creators Guild of America which launched in August and SAG-AFTRA which opened membership to creators—none have been able to attract a large enough group of members. “If we look at it from the perspective of SAG and studios, studios for creators are social media platforms. They’re the people that host our content. We make them money.”
Startups are converting captured carbon dioxide into something useful—from perfume and soap to biodegradable plastics, jet fuel, and concrete blocks. It’s even being used to replace petroleum-based polyester in select garments and shoes sold at Lululemon, Zara, H+M, and On running. In order to get anywhere close to bringing CO2 emissions to zero, the world would need to start capturing billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which requires pipelines to transport the gas to then store it underground—that’s just one of the challenges. “To grow the emerging sector, global venture capitalists in 2022 poured nearly $500 million into carbon utilization businesses, according to the IEA. That’s in stark contrast to 2015, when barely any venture money went to technologies that utilize CO2.” Increasing regulations and incentives, like the Inflation Reduction Act, are providing a boost.
Shoppers prefer staying outdoors. That’s more trouble for malls. Retailers including Bath & Body Works, Foot Locker, and Signet Jewelers (which owns Kay Jewelers, Zales, and Jared) are closing stores in malls and opening ones at outdoor strip malls and grocery-anchored shopping centers, which consumers find more convenient for quick shopping trips and returning items. Not only is there less overhead for retailers at these outdoor properties, but shoppers have been frequenting them more often since the pandemic with foot traffic in malls down 12% since 2019.
Portfolio Highlights:
WWD interviews Oura CEO Tom Hale on how the brand got its start and what’s in store for the future.
Glossy interviews Ritual founder and CEO Katerina Schneider on navigating what’s ahead for the brand.
Along with several other CEOs, Prose co-founder and CEO Arnaud Plas speaks to Fortune about how his company intends to use AI in 2024.
Curology’s launch on Amazon is covered by RetailDive and New York Post.
Forbes includes Chime in its list of five best upcoming IPOs to watch in 2024.
Investopedia reviews Arrived, which won their ‘best for rental properties’ category in their round-up of best real estate crowdfunding platforms.
AdAge lists Away’s spoof of the Calvin Klein campaign as one of its top five creative ads.
Sika Health and Hims & Hers’ acquisition of Apostrophe are mentioned in Glossy’s article about skin care being the next opportunity for tax-free FSA shopping.