There’s a phenomenon that came out of spending most months indoors last week: home celebrations. Instead of going out to eat or traveling or renting a venue for grand weddings and celebrations, people are ordering food trays and having intimate celebrations at home. As restaurants, caterers, and professional chefs pivot to this new demand, food entrepreneurs find themselves at the cusp of discovery.
The new and emerging market is that of home celebrants and their families.
Is It a Trend or Is It Here to Stay?
Home celebrations are not new. People have been doing those for decades. But the threat of the pandemic and the risks involved in dining out are too much for many families to bear. To celebrate milestones, birthdays, and anniversaries, they turned to home celebrations, which means decorating their own living rooms and dining rooms, either cooking the meals themselves or ordering their favorite dishes from their favorite restaurants.
The question now for everybody, especially for those in the food business, is: will the home celebration be a part of the market or will it end once society put the pandemic behind it? The convenience of home celebrations will make this a permanent part of the market for years to come. It just remains to be seen if it will dominate the food and beverages industry the way it is doing now.
What Kind of Products Are Fast-sellers for Home Celebrations?
Restaurants have to pivot during the pandemic because they are losing customers by the second. When the government restricted dine-ins, takeouts and deliveries are not enough to keep restaurants afloat. What they did is to offer their dishes in large food trays for the whole family. Instead of friends and families celebrating in the restaurants, they did so in the comforts of their own homes with the food that they usually order anyway.
You might have noticed some trending food products in the past year. One of the most popular is the charcuterie or grazing boxes. This is one way to make a celebration look more elegant. Found on the idea of Spanish tapas and pica-pica, the grazing board business boomed during the course of the pandemic. Today, big and small food businesses are offering this. Food entrepreneurs operating from their homes specifically find it easy to manage a graze-box business because there’s no cooking involved.
Intricately designed cakes are also a big deal in home celebrations. Since kids are mostly stuck at home, their parents try their best to grant their wishes, which are mostly themed cakes such as superheroes, Barbies, flamingos, unicorns, and whatever the kids fancy at the moment. The kids don’t have guests anyway, so they usually just need a small celebration cake to complement the party’s theme.
Home party kits are also a big hit. These kits will include either deflated or inflated balloons, buntings, ribbons, party hats, and many more. The purpose of these home party kits is for the celebrants not to have to worry about decorating their homes and preparing the meals. That’s why these kits were some of the faster-moving products amid the pandemic.
How to Sell to This New Market?
To persuade this market, entrepreneurs have to reiterate the prevailing message of the pandemic: avoiding crowded places and staying at home will reduce the chances of anyone getting the virus. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that your customers should twiddle their thumbs and do nothing. Every day now is a reason for a celebration. People do not need a reason to celebrate. Waking up in the morning alone is reason enough to seize the day and pamper yourself.
That is the main selling point of home celebrations. Another is the convenience that your business can provide to your target market. The idea of celebrating occasions at home is often a cause for worry because that means cleaning the house, cooking the food, washing the dishes, and cleaning up afterward. But give homeowners and celebrants a way not to do all these things anymore, and they’ll grab the opportunity.
That’s why businesses that cater to home celebrants are such a huge hit even today when people are already attending events, dining in restaurants, and meeting family and friends again.
Trends come and go, but it looks like the trends that came about because of the pandemic will stay for a long time. This is why it is worth considering what new market emerged from the pandemic and whether these markets will impact the industries in the short or long term. But as for home celebrants, this will be part of the new norm—people will want to avoid crowded places and focus on their families and close friends who they’re comfortable enough to invite into their homes.
