14 Mar 2026 Is FMCG sleepwalking through a consumer reset?

Recent research across multiple categories is revealing big shifts in what people want from everyday products. Are we taking these changes seriously enough, asks Andrew Wardlaw, Chief Ideas Officer at MMR Group.

You may have seen Matt Shumer’s recent essay warning us that AI may reshape society at a pace that makes COVID feel like a tremor before the earthquake.

That may prove true. But while business leaders debate the future, something equally disruptive is unfolding in the present: growing evidence that consumer behaviour is shifting faster than most brands are adapting.

Over the six months, I’ve conducted in-depth assessments of the goings-on in areas such as consumer health, alcohol, homecare and beauty. Different categories. Different needs. Different usage occasions. And yet, the same pattern appears everywhere.

The assumptions on which consumer goods companies have thrived for decades are eroding in real time and much of the industry is behaving as if a reformulation here and a pack refresh there will be enough. It won’t.

The exhausted consumer

Without question, people are tired. Not in a fleeting, post-workweek way, but in a structural, cultural sense.

In China, ‘lying flat’ has become shorthand for rejecting relentless striving. In the West, ‘quiet quitting’ reflects rising resistance to burnout culture. An eye-popping illustration of this comes from a Robert Walters survey which found that 69% of UK based Gen Z professionals are reluctant to take middle-management roles because of the stress and limited upside.

Younger generations are redefining success around wellbeing, autonomy and emotional stability rather than status and accumulation. And these are the people who are incidentally taking charge over the destiny of CPG manufacturers.

This is not a trend cycle. It is a redefinition of what a good life looks like. And it is filtering directly into consumption. People are not simply buying differently. They are living differently.

Everyday choices are becoming acts of self-protection

In food and beverage, the era of mindless consumption is ending. Consumers are making increasingly intentional decisions about what they eat and drink – not through dramatic lifestyle overhauls, but through small, repeatable choices that promise longevity, metabolic stability and cognitive clarity – and so much more.

This helps explain why fibre claims are rising in appeal alongside protein, why gut health has moved mainstream, and why everyday snacks are being repositioned around satiety and functional benefit.

PepsiCo’s decision to rebalance its snacking portfolio toward permissible, functional and portion-controlled options feels very much like a catch-up manoeuvre. The impulse aisle is no longer just about pleasure. It has become a site of micro-wellness decisions. In one of its boldest moves, PepsiCo rebranded its mainstream Sun Bites as fibre-rich. Be in no doubt, functionality is now mainstream everywhere.

Alcohol in an anti-social era

For further evidence of monumental shifts, we can look to the alcohol category. Its struggles are often framed around rising health concerns and economic pressure. But those explanations miss a deeper behavioural shift: people are spending their time and their social energy very differently.

Gaming has become one of the dominant social environments on the planet. Streaming culture has normalised staying in. Social media delivers connection without physical proximity. Asahi Group Holdings has publicly acknowledged gaming as its number one competitor – an extraordinary admission for a global brewer.

The growth of RTDs, mid-strength options and ‘mini pleasures’ reflects an industry adapting to moderation and new occasions. But the deeper challenge remains unresolved: how do brands foster connection in a world where algorithms increasingly shape social life? Can alcohol establish itself as an antidote to algorithmic isolation at a time when many of us are consciously pulling back from our phones?

What is emerging is not simply moderation, but social re-engineering. Younger consumers are curating their social energy more carefully, protecting their time, sleep and mental bandwidth. Nights out now compete not only with wellness goals and budgets, but with frictionless digital companionship and on-demand entertainment that asks less and gives immediate reward.

In this context, alcohol’s historic role as a social lubricant is no longer guaranteed…..

MMR Research: Read the full article here