While many retailers are focusing their attention on reducing prices to attract customers battling inflation, M&M Food Market is highlighting the emotional, psychological, and convenience benefits of its products with the new Homemade-ish campaign.
A new Ipsos survey reveals the troubling and unrealistic pressures modern families face:
- 91% feel stress balancing cooking homemade meals with other responsibilities (with 65% experiencing moderate to extreme stress)
- 72% of mothers feel judged by others if they don’t meet traditional expectations, such as cooking meals from scratch or flawlessly handling household duties
- Judgment around cooking homemade meals is common, with 52% frequently or always feeling judged when they don’t prepare meals from scratch
Modern families are busy, expectations are high, and making dinner today isn’t always about spending hours crafting a homemade meal from scratch, it’s about showing up.
Homemade-ish reframes M&M Food Market’s frozen food from simply a convenient meal alternative into a way for time-starved Canadians to create “real” meals for their families without the stress of cooking from scratch.
Joining forces with Canadian comedian and busy mom, Jessi Cruickshank as the face of the Homemade-ish campaign, M&M Food Market aims to reach and relate to families juggling hectic schedules, celebrating the small wins of a busy family life, such as putting real food on the table in a smarter way without sacrificing quality or care.
Cruickshank kicked off the campaign recently by handing out M&M Food Market Homemade-ish meals to busy parents on their evening commute through Toronto’s Union Station to bring much-needed relief to families as they dove back into the weekday routine.
“Between hectic schedules, picky appetites, and the relentless pressure to get mealtime right, we recognize the heavy burden facing families every day. Our Homemade-ish campaign celebrates authenticity and offers a gentle reminder to families that while cooking from scratch isn’t always possible, you can still put real, delicious meals on the table that you can be proud of, and that’s a win every family deserves,” said Tammy Sadinsky, VP Marketing & Retail Innovation, for M&M.
Founded in 1980, M&M Food Market is Canada’s leading retailer of frozen foods, offering high-quality, easy-to-prepare meals across virtually every food category. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, M&M Food Market operates in all 10 provinces and Yukon.
“Homemade-ish is a modern, contemporary take on describing our value proposition as a business. This effort is around reintroducing the brand to another generation of consumers—young Gen Xer families, busy millennial families. It’s about introducing or reintroducing the brand to them and finding a relatable, contemporary way to describe our offering,” explained Sadinsky.
“It’s anchored in the consumer. It starts with the consumer pain point we’re trying to solve and how that meets our business strategy. The time pressure and mental load of today’s consumer make meal planning overwhelming. Frozen prepared foods are such a life hack. If people knew about M&M’s Homemade-ish offerings—homemade being the utopia, but we help give them a head start—it helps solve the week’s chaotic nights for consumers.
“We’re targeting young Gen Xers—like me, an old Gen Xer, parent of two teenage boys. Nobody marketed M&M as a life hack solution for me. Then there’s Gen Y relevance with millennials juggling dual incomes, parenting, sports activities, different timelines at night—the day’s never done.
“Families don’t want to compromise on what they’re feeding their kids. They shouldn’t have to. Our food uses all real ingredients; no artificial anything. That de-stigmatized frozen foods for me and gave another option for meal prep.”
M&M has more than 300 stores and more than 1,000 express locations.
“With any retail business, bricks-and-mortar or e-comm presence is important. That’s where consumers close the loop—their point of truth. We have a strong national presence, infilled with multiple doors of frozen M&M products. We over-index on e-comm sales with a user-friendly site, easy fulfillment, delivery, or pickup. Lots of accessibility points for consumers to get M&M meals,” said Sadinsky.
“Jessie’s messaging and mantra align with who we are and what we represent. She’s not into perfection; she finds smart ways to solve real-life problems, delivering it in a comedic, fresh, fun, and modern way. Being part of culture is important to reach our target audience. Between who she is, who she reaches, and what she believes, it felt very aligned with our business and messaging.”
Sadinsky said the brand also has a dedicated campaign in Quebec.
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