by Jennifer Silverberg, Landmark Consulting, www.landmarkconsulting.com
I received a question in my email today that I think is post-worthy:
“I work for a snack food manufacturer, mostly salty snacks, and for us at least it has gotten to the point that we just can’t afford to ignore the wellness trend any longer. As you’ve noted in a post, the problem isn’t primarily that we’re losing consumers, but rather that we’re failing to replace the consumers we’re losing, because the younger generation is looking for something we’re not providing.
I know that you’re not here to give free advice, but I’m wondering whether you’d mind providing any guidelines for new product development to this brand manager who is going to have to pitch a very new idea to a very old company?”
Excellent question. Since I’ve spent 18 years primarily building brands, I’m a little hesitant to answer this without knowing more about your brand; is it one that could ever - or should ever - appeal to the wellness consumer? For example, Snickers can, but Sweetarts cannot. A lot depends on what you’ve been communicating about your brand up until now.
But for the sake of this post, let’s assume that you can.
A few fairly universal guidelines would include:
- If you are creating a food for the snack occasion, know that many consumers will not consider trading taste (at all) for nutrition for this usage.
- Go into product development with a very, very clear idea of who your target audience is going to be, and what need exactly you are filling for him/her. Know where, when, and how (and with what, and with whom, and so on) the product will be consumed. Some snacks are made to be consumed in front of other people, and others are made to be consumed alone. They’re different. So be very clear.
- Stay as close to nature as you can. While extruded foods have their place, wellness consumers are increasingly choosing foods whose origin is recognizable. This isn’t difficult: potato chips are beating out cheese puffs, and “granola bars” are beating traditional chewy-bars.
- Don’t limit your consumer testing to self-described wellness or nutrition junkies. A company like yours is going to expect results that will depend on appealing to the broader wellness consumer base: at least Concerned and Casuals (see earlier posts for segment definitions) as well at Core wellness consumers.
Well, I hope that gets you started. As always, if you’d like a more targeted conversation about how to translate wellness trends into profitability for your specific brand, I’m always available via email or phone. Thanks!
- Jennifer Silverberg, jennifer@thewellnessadvisory.com, 770-772-1532