There Is No Average Food & Beverage Shopper; New Research Explains Why That's Costing Brands

Social, traditional television, and streaming video reach food and beverage buyers differently. Schaefer's research shows how brands are misallocating across all three.

LAS VEGAS, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CPG and food and beverage brands are a quarter into their 2026 media plans and finding that they are wrong in three different ways all at once: overspending on linear TV where their audience is leaving, underspending on streaming where their audience has already arrived, and measuring social advertising on click-to-purchase metrics when the actual conversion is a store trip that happens days later.

Today, Schaefer — a paid media agency working exclusively in food and beverage — released three simultaneous research reports profiling the social-first, TV-first, and streaming-first food and beverage buyers. The reports were released together because their interaction is the story: read any one in isolation and you get a useful buyer profile. Read all three and the pricing argument becomes visible.

"These three categories of buyers are not a spectrum. They are three structurally different advertising problems, each one requiring a different channel strategy, a different creative approach, and a different measurement framework," said Sidnee Schaefer, CEO at Schaefer. "Most 2026 F&B media plans treat them like one."

THE REPORTS

Report 01: The Social-First F&B Shopper
The social-first F&B shopper discovers products through feeds, follows, and viral moments. They are impulse-driven, highly receptive to UGC-style creative, and have the shortest path from discovery to purchase of any segment. The problem most brands get wrong: measuring this buyer on ROAS instead of in-store lift, which systematically understates the channel's value and leads to chronic underspending.

reports.schaefer.co/socialmedia

Report 02: The Traditional TV-First F&B Shopper
The TV-first F&B shopper is shaped by decades of broadcast advertising. They respond to brand familiarity, consistent messaging, and the authority signals that come from mass-market presence. This is the audience most big brands are still over-indexed on, even as the segment shrinks and ages out of peak grocery spend.

reports.schaefer.co/traditionaltv

Report 03: The Streaming-First F&B Shopper
The streaming-first F&B shopper sits between social and linear. They have opted out of broadcast television but have not fully shifted to social-driven discovery. They are increasingly reachable through connected TV and streaming ads, and represent a growing share of premium F&B buyers that most media plans are systematically underfunding.

reports.schaefer.co/streamingvideo

"The streaming-first shopper represents the most underfunded opportunity in F&B media right now. Brands know CTV is growing. Most still haven't moved budget to match." — Seth Waite, Chief Strategist, at Schaefer.

WHY NOW
F&B brands are making channel allocation decisions based on a mental model of the "average" grocery buyer that does not hold up under scrutiny. The three reports were released simultaneously as a deliberate editorial choice. The argument only becomes visible when all three buyer profiles are read together.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The reports were produced by Schaefer's in-house research team — the same team that runs buyer interviews and surveys for every client engagement. They cover U.S. F&B shoppers and are published free with no email gate. The reports are interactive and self-guided, available at schaefer.co/reports.

ABOUT SCHAEFER
Schaefer is a paid media agency working exclusively in food and beverage. Every engagement starts with consumer research using the same methodology behind these public reports, applied to a brand's specific category and customer. Schaefer works with CPG brands, restaurant groups, and DTC food and beverage companies on campaign strategy, paid media execution, and research-led creative.

schaefer.co

MEDIA CONTACT
Schaefer Research Team
schaefer.co/contact
Reports: schaefer.co/reports
Email: [email protected] 

SOURCE Schaefer