PPB November 2021

Kitchen Products This spice holder is hand-crafted of New Zealand pine and is customized with laser engraving. It holds five distinctive spices: amchur, aji panca, Fleur de Sel, sumac and turmeric. Each spice is served in a 38-gram portion size, attractively packaged in a glass test tube with a cork lid. Your client’s brand is also featured on the lids and laser-engraved on the wooden spice holder. LeTourdeSpice, Inc. / PPAI 762815, S1 www.letourdespice.com people were eager to share their made- with-love recipes on social media. More so than any other room in the house, kitchens quickly reflect changing trends, improved technologies and shifting values. Today, the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house. In a home, everybody uses the kitchen. Many families transform their fridge into a family bulletin board, using magnets to post calendars, lists and reminders, and report cards and pictures. Homeowners are once again using their kitchens as a multifunctional space, adding more storage cabinets and larger flat surface areas, and creating more workspaces to meet the needs of their modern-day family. Contemporary kitchens are now larger with comfortable areas to sit and focus on work, homework and other projects, like breakfast nooks and bar seating. Consumers are now investing more money in their kitchen than in any other room. Harvard University reported that Americans spent nearly $420 billion on home improvements like do-it-yourself projects in 2020, a record-breaking year. Based on a recent survey of more than 70,000 U.S. respondents, home renovation platform Houzz found that kitchen projects were the most popular among renovating homeowners. Compared to recent years, the median investment on major remodels of large kitchens increased 14 percent in 2020, growing to $40,000. For homeowners looking to sell, even a small kitchen remodel can boost a home’s value. According to a report from Remodeling magazine, small kitchen projects earn a return on investment of more than 83 percent. For every $100 spent on the upgrade, the value of a home increases by $83, on average; a much better return compared to other home improvement projects. Post-pandemic, most U.S. consumers still plan on eating at home. According to a survey frommarketing firm Acosta, 92 percent of families plan to continue eating together at home at least as often, or more often, than they do now. Almost two-thirds of shoppers polled reported that since the pandemic started, they cook at home more and eat “far more” meals at home all the time; a trend that spanned all meals. Instead of picking up breakfast or lunch on the way to and from work, people are relying on smaller appliances to make their familiar favorites. In 2020, one million more coffee and espresso makers and over half a million more electric grills and griddles were sold in the 13-week period ending June 27 than the same period in 2019, according to the NPD Group. Food is intertwined with lifestyles, religions and cultures. Whether vegan or gluten-free, people identify with the food they eat. In a recent Michigan Promotional Professionals Association (MiPPA) seminar called “Now We’re Cooking,” Roni Wright, MAS, vice president of The Book Company, says, “There isn’t a vertical market that can’t benefit from what’s happening in the kitchen.” The session focused on the fact that client messaging can become a part of everyday life with kitchen promo. According to PPAI research, once a branded item is in the kitchen, the average retention rate is four years. Simple tools, like pizza cutters and ice cream scoopers, are common favorites that can deliver extended brand exposure. As consumers focus more on what they feed their families, kitchen promos can help both clients and end users find a sweet spot. | NOVEMBER 2021 | 51 GROW