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As tariffs, inflation aftershocks and volatile trade policies reshape the food and beverage industry, protecting consumer trust has never been more critical. In this piece, Sogyel Lhungay, vice president of insights at Yogi, unpacks how real-time feedback and smarter pricing strategies can help brands stay resilient in an unpredictable marketplace.

As of mid-2025, persistent trade and pricing volatility are creating new complexities for food and beverage brands already navigating a highly sensitive consumer market.

Tariffs on a wide range of imported goods and ingredients have left manufacturers facing a difficult choice: absorb rising costs or pass them along to consumers. Neither option is without risk.

Increasing prices directly threaten consumers’ perceptions of value, while reducing product size or quality – commonly known as shrinkflation – can erode brand trust and loyalty. At the same time, consumers remain price-conscious in the wake of the 2022 inflationary peak, with purchasing power still recovering.

In this environment, tracking topline sales and market share is no longer sufficient. The brands that will outperform in today’s volatile market are those that continuously monitor, analyse and act on real-time shifts in consumer price-to-value perception, treating these insights not as a retrospective measure but as a tool to guide pricing, product and messaging decisions before consumer sentiment deteriorates.

F&B’s distinct vulnerability to tariff shocks

While every consumer goods category feels the ripple effects of trade volatility, F&B brands are in a distinctly tough spot. It comes down to one unavoidable fact: the global nature of ingredient sourcing.

From cocoa and coffee to palm oil, spices and speciality produce, a large percentage of everyday food products depend on internationally sourced inputs. Even brands manufacturing in the US aren’t exempt, as most still rely on imported commodities vulnerable to price spikes and supply disruptions.

This structural reliance leaves food products especially sensitive to shifts in how consumers perceive value. And we are already seeing those effects take shape.

According to our internal analysis of over 263,000 consumer feedback records across 1,300 food snacking products – think chips, candy, pretzels and chocolate – mentions of price and value concerns jumped 11.3% in April 2025 compared to April 2024. That is the highest year-over-year increase among all the categories we track, outpacing sectors like personal care and household electronics.

But you don’t need to comb through data to spot the trend. Just look at how shoppers are behaving. Consumers are increasingly trading down to private label and budget-friendly brands. They are shopping around more aggressively, toggling between discount retailers, online deals and in-store promotions to stretch their grocery dollars.

The inflationary shock of 2022 also didn’t fade quietly – it reshaped spending habits in lasting ways. Tariffs and pricing volatility are now piling onto those hard-earned behaviours, slowing discretionary purchases and forcing shoppers to scrutinise even the essentials.

For food and beverage brands, this isn’t a temporary inconvenience. It is the new baseline.

Detecting earlier signs of price-to-value strain

The encouraging news for brands is that consumers rarely stay silent about pricing frustrations – the warning signs often surface well before those frustrations show up in sales reports. The challenge is knowing where to look and how to separate meaningful signals from everyday noise.

In customer feedback, early indicators of price-to-value strain tend to follow consistent patterns. Rising mentions of terms like 'not worth it,' 'too expensive' or 'used to be better' are reliable markers. These comments often precede measurable declines in purchase frequency or brand loyalty, giving brands a valuable window to course-correct before consumer dissatisfaction sets in.

Another key signal is language suggesting purchase hesitancy or brand-switching intent. Phrases such as 'might look for something cheaper,' 'waiting for a sale' or 'thinking about switching' indicate that consumers are actively reconsidering their loyalty, especially in categories where comparable alternatives exist.

It is also important to monitor sentiment volatility – the shift in tone or polarity of feedback following a price increase, package adjustment or product reformulation. Even if overall star ratings remain stable, increased polarisation in comments can signal growing tension around perceived value.

The critical mistake many brands make is treating these signals as isolated grievances rather than early indicators of a broader shift in consumer sentiment. A single comment about a price hike may be anecdotal, but a sustained increase in price-related feedback within a product category or portfolio points to mounting consumer pressure.

The most effective brands deploy real-time feedback analytics to identify these trends early, quantify their scale and isolate them by product line, region or retailer. With that visibility, determining the appropriate pricing, packaging or communication response becomes a far more manageable decision.

How to respond: Data-driven pricing and messaging adjustments

Once early signals of price-to-value strain are identified, the next step is translating those insights into practical strategies. The strongest brands don’t rely on instinct or blanket tactics. They use data to inform precisely where and how to adjust pricing, product and messaging decisions to preserve consumer trust while protecting margins.

For pricing decisions, real-time consumer feedback can help pinpoint which products or segments are most vulnerable to pushback and which have enough brand equity or category insulation to tolerate modest increases. Not every product requires the same approach.

For example, essential items or highly commoditised categories tend to have lower tolerance thresholds, while specialty or indulgent products may offer more pricing flexibility if positioned correctly.

Feedback data also informs the messaging strategy. If consumers express frustration about pricing, clear, well-timed messaging can help ease consumer frustration. Highlighting domestic sourcing, product quality or functional benefits – especially in categories where supply chain costs are unavoidable – helps reinforce perceived value. Brands emphasising 'Made in the US' or spotlighting sustainable sourcing practices have seen this tactic pay dividends during past pricing cycles.

In some cases, data may reveal that a price increase isn’t worth the risk in certain regions, channels or consumer segments. Here, alternative tactics like limited-time promotions, multipack pricing or value bundling can ease perception without resorting to discounting that could erode long-term brand value.

The goal isn’t to avoid price changes – it’s to make smarter, more informed decisions about when and where to take them. By understanding where the real pressure points are and how consumers are reacting in the moment, brands can adjust with precision.

Those that move decisively on these insights will be better positioned to protect both their pricing power and their relationships with consumers in a volatile market.

To stay ahead, commercial and insights teams should build tighter feedback loops between consumer sentiment tracking, pricing strategy and retail execution. This means moving beyond quarterly reviews to real-time dashboards and rapid-response protocols when value perception risks emerge.

The pricing environment for food and beverage brands remains anything but stable. With trade volatility, inflation aftershocks and increasingly value-conscious consumers, market conditions will stay unpredictable. In this landscape, waiting for sales declines to act is a losing strategy.

The brands that lead will be those using real-time consumer feedback as an essential, forward-looking tool – spotting emerging pressure points early, adjusting pricing and messaging decisively and protecting trust in a market where consumer loyalty is harder than ever to secure.