Back-To-School 2015 Infographic: Millennial Moms Choose Nutrition Over Price and Convenience For Their Child(ren)'s Lunch Boxes

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - August 12, 2015) - With Back-to-School season in full force, parents are scrambling to get their kids ready for the new semester. Millennial mothers are no different - they are getting in on the action as many more of them are now sending their children off on school buses for the first time.

Influenster, a product discovery and reviews destination with 1.5MM+ socially-savvy members, conducted an online survey with their Millennial Mom group to better understand how they plan on preparing lunches for their little ones this Fall. In addition, primary data from its reviews platform was aggregated to reveal the top reviewed healthy food products.

The infographic shines light on what millennial mothers prioritize in a lunchbox, how they pack lunches differently from their parents of the baby boomer generation, what food products they consider as healthy additions to lunch boxes, and how they go about making these purchase decisions.

Nutrition trumps convenience and price; gluten-free food surprisingly doesn't matter as much to millennial moms.
9 out of 10 millennial moms prepare healthy lunch boxes for their child(ren). Of this group of mothers, they prioritize nutrition (88%) as their main concern, when shopping for food to include in lunch boxes, above the more obvious price and convenience. Interestingly, given the gluten-free phenomenon that has swept our nation in recent years, these mothers ranked gluten-free considerations for their kid's lunch boxes as the lowest priority (8%). Other important factors include: Well-balanced (74%), Freshness (72%), Tastiness (69%), Price (65%), Convenience (52%), Low sugar (43%), Organic (29%), Low fat (19%) and Allergy-friendly (12%).

6 out of 10 millennial moms pack their child(ren)'s lunch boxes differently from how their mothers packed theirs.
Nutrition triumphs again amongst this new generation of moms. 75% of these mothers say that their lunch boxes are more nutritious than their mothers', followed by 71% who choose different food products, and 48% who go with different food brands. 37% of these moms, intriguingly, say that their lunch boxes are more organic than their mothers' -- this reveals that even though organic food products aren't on the top of their minds when planning their child(ren)'s meals, these millennial moms still think of their packed lunch boxes as more organic than their mothers'.

Millennial moms still prefer shopping in stores more than online.
The most digitally connected generation of mothers to date, millennial mothers still choose to shop for their food the old-school way -- pushing carts down shopping aisles. Here are their retail categories of choice: Supermarket (88%), Big-box retailer (81%), Farmer's market (42%), Local deli (23%) and Convenience store (13%). In contrast, only 7% opt to do their grocery shopping online (while this is a small percentage, it has grown significantly compared to previous years). Further poll questions reveal that most of these women are online researchers and then offline shoppers -- 57% of them do all their researching on the internet before they hit stores to buy the products.

Word of mouth has the most sway in affecting purchase decisions.
Given the proliferation of content in this information age, word of mouth (79%) is still the top influencer to help millennial moms make their shopping decisions. That is followed by online reviews (59%), social media (57%), brand websites (43%), television (37%), news websites (16%) and newspapers (15%).

Dairy ranks amongst the top healthy food products to include in lunch boxes.
When polled, millennial moms ranked the following packaged foods as healthy lunch box inclusions: 1. Yogurt (87%) 2. Cheese (82%) 3. Cereal/Granola (72%) 4. Juice boxes (70%) 5. Peanut butter (67%) 6. Dried fruits (54%) 7. Milk (51%) 8. Nuts (49%). When pulled from Influenster.com*, these are the top food products that millennial moms view as healthy:

• 1) Kraft Mozzarella String Cheese
• 2) Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts
• 3) SkinnyPop Popcorn
• 4) Blue Diamond Almonds Whole Natural
• 5) Pepperidge Farm Goldfish 100-Calorie Cheddar Snack Cracker Pouches
• 6) Ocean Spray Craisins Blueberry
• 7) Bear Naked All Natural Whole Grain Granola
• 8) Eden Foods Dry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
• 9) Del Monte No Sugar Added Mandarin Oranges in Artificially Sweetened Water
• 10) belVita Breakfast Biscuits 5 Pack Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits

These are some of the key findings from an Influenster survey conducted from July 28 - August 3, 2015 with a total of 5,771 completes. With a sample of 4,997 female users across ages (18-24: 15%; 25-29: 34%; 30-34: 32%; 35+: 19%) with heavy social media usage (On 2+ social media channels: 99%). Average age of respondent: 30. Minority reach: 36%. The survey was conducted online in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is +/- 1.32 percentage points for 95% confidence interval.

*Source: Influenster.com (Aggregated based on product ratings, user activity -- such as number of reviews, questions, shares and lists made including the product -- and the commonly-used phrase "healthy" applied to snack- and food-related products, from reviews made by women born from 1978 - 1994 who live with children.)

About Influenster
Influenster is a product discovery platform and reviews site that enables consumers to find new products and get advice to make informed purchases. Members use Influenster to explore the latest products, gain fresh insight, pick up new tips, and share their opinions with others. We help our members compare products and guide them on how products can be integrated into their lives. We inspire a love for products and encourage discovery, conversations and reviews.

The Influenster community of 1.5 million+ members is still rapidly growing. These product mavens with a heavy social media presence use their influence to spread the word about the products they know. Ever since the launch of Influenster.com less than two years ago, over 4 million reviews have been created on nearly 1 million products.

Headquartered in New York City, Influenster was founded by Elizabeth Scherle and Aydin Acar in 2011. For more information or to become an Influenster visit: www.influenster.com.

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