“The crazier, the better”: Hybrid NPD is ripe for innovation

08 Apr 2020 --- Today’s adventurous consumers are seeking exploration through eating experiences. In line with Innova Market Insights’ number seven trend for 2020, “Hello Hybrids,” highlights that they are highly receptive to hybrid products. There is ample opportunity for blending specific ingredients and category fusions, creating innovative food and beverages as the demand for genuine novelty continues to grow. Getting “the best of both worlds” through exciting hybrid products has manufacturers looking for new ways to blur boundaries and cross categories to develop products that appeal to consumers who want to explore bolder flavors, novel color combinations and multisensory food experiences.

No limits to creativity
There’s a rich tapestry of ingredients that can be used to upgrade or reinvent any product in any category – and there are no limits or restrictions to what creative food innovators can come up with. Millennials and Gen-Z consumers in particular, are tempted by crazy, novel, experimental and extraordinary products. 

“The good news is, that there are no boundaries for this trend,” Natalia Golshan, Team Manager Marketing at Bösch Boden Spies, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “It’s a big chance for industry to reinvent itself and its product portfolio. The trend is towards products that at first glance do not belong together. This is particularly pronounced in the beverage market, where the wildest combinations can be found. But developers in other areas of the food industry are also becoming bolder and combining where, when and what they can.”

Prune Cola drink by Bosch Boden Spies.

“These companies will increasingly search for co-packers with production facilities and machinery they don't cover themselves. There will be a market for co-operations of former competitors in order to cover the need for specific production or packaging processes such as cereal balls, shot bottles or sterile bag packing. The more complex the product, the higher the machinery investment,” Golshan explains. 

Initially, hybrids were seen as an experimental part of a brand’s journey, but now they have firmly taken root in mainstream F&B NPD. Category blurring is a predominant theme across industry, as large and established players quickly move into what was once considered a playing field for small businesses and new entrants.

For instance, earlier this year Coca-Cola revealed its plans to tap into disruptive categories with a new focus on “breakthrough beverages.” Hybrids, fusions and blurring of boundaries is expected to feature heavily in the soft drinks giants’ new initiative, which promises the likes of kombuchas with less sugar, cultured ciders, keto-friendly smoothies and cold-brew coffees. 

Coca-Cola’s Transformational Innovation Team is joining forces with brands and business units to take new drinks in unfamiliar spaces to commercialization very quickly. 

A rotating group of R&D and regulatory specialists is helping the company “navigate uncharted territory” by challenging existing approaches to innovation – from sourcing and seeking approval on new ingredients, to producing beverages in emerging categories, to bringing new brands to market – through an “agile, test-and-learn launch model.” 

Hybrid innovation is ripe in the beverage category
Hybrid innovation within beverage was again evidenced in January when agricultural cooperative Ocean Spray launched Ocean Spray Brew, a “first-of-its-kind” hybrid drink made with real fruit juice and cold brew coffee. Ocean Spray Brew was an example of Ocean Spray’s commitment to accelerate innovation and sharpen its focus on building a health and wellness portfolio. Moreover, it demonstrates how a hybrid innovation is particularly appealing because it provides an option to reap other health benefits – the hybrid drink contains antioxidant vitamin C, vitamin B and real fruit juice, with no added sugar, no preservatives and no artificial flavors or colors – while consumers enjoy their caffeine. 

Just last month, beer with a splash of seltzer hit the shelves in the US under the Leinenkugel beer brand by Molson Coors. “Spritzen” has an effervescent beer-forward taste with the clean finish and subtle fruit flavors and the hybrid comes when hard seltzers are enjoying a burst in NPD. 

Innova Market Insights also highlights potential that lies within the healthier alcoholic beverage segment with “Hard” or “Spiked” Seltzers notably on the rise.

Speaking with FoodIngredientsFirst, Erica Franco, Regional Marketing Manager, Natural Colors EMEA for Chr. Hansen, explains how initially playing with hybrid foods was something that brands did as part of their evolution journey, but today launching something hybrid is a response of what is needed to succeed in a very competitive market. 

Bösch Boden Spies' snack mix Crunchy Cranberry and Chickpeas. “It’s represented as an opportunity to create new markets, blue oceans (unexplored territory) for food and beverage brands,” she says. “Consumers are in for the ride; connecting to our adventurous consumers particularly, the ones who are looking for new flavors, textures and colors to surprise and enchant them.” 

“The hybrid trend is an evolution of those trends that we have previously seen like “eat with your eyes, and “Instagrammable food.” It’s all about excitement and exploration.

Colors play a major role in hybrid foods, Franco further notes. “As we start to create products that are developed by mixing two or three categories, the right color can help set the scene in consumers’ minds and make that product recognizable, even if it is something new to the market. We all have expectations on what juices and carbonated soft drinks should look like, and color can help create this vision,” she says. 

“At the same time, color can play a role in being the element that differentiates the hybrids from its “mother” categories, takes the hybrid to the next level; making it even more appealing and iconic. The explosion of colors can be seen in ice cream-yogurt and gin-beer hybrids. Either way, the right color can make the difference, especially if it is a natural color.”

Answering unmet needs
Golshan at Bösch Boden Spies highlights some of the trends within the hybrid space. “Coffee and coke. Animal protein in snacks. Cheese, fruit and meat as a snack. Vegetable yogurt. The list goes on and on. Millennials are the main drivers as they are constantly looking for new products with uncommon combinations, taste and texture sensations,” she affirms. 

“New and unknown textures in known or new products are appealing and provide surprising moments of pleasure for the consumer. On the other hand, texturizers such as nuts or seeds, provide visual highlights and healthy ingredients and thus appeal to a young, health-oriented and Instagram-influenced target group.”

The main drivers behind hybrids are based on their ability to answer consumers unmet needs, continues Franco, as “super convenient hybrids” give consumers the chance to balance busy lifestyles with hybrids that “have added nutritional benefits or even hybrids that are meant to be entertaining or for indulgent moments.”

Baking innovation: Plant Protein Cookies.Meat and plant-based hybrids
The ever-increasing plant-based category is another space where the opportunities for hybrid are plentiful. The recent shift to plant-based meat is undeniable – underscored by key players moving and making their mark in the space. 

Hybrid products are seen as a compromise between the fully meat-based and fully plant-based categories – a kind of middle ground and “best of both worlds.”

Experts in this meat and plant-based hybrid space are noting that consumers do not need to go 100 percent plant-based to consume products that are seen as healthier and more sustainable. Therefore, a potential exists for hybrid foods, which contain both animal and plant-based proteins. And now, there is a growing number of consumers, who still want to eat meat, do not want to fully commit to a meat-free diet, but want to reduce the volume of meat that they eat.

Hydrosol Product Manager, Florian Bark, has previously told FoodIngredientsFirst that hybrid foods open up new possibilities in the reformulation of plant- and animal-based products. “Consumer choices are driven by health, environmental and animal welfare concerns more than ever before. A growing emphasis on plant-based diets and concerns over sustainability have stimulated the gravitation towards hybrid foods,” he said. 

Netherlands-based Meatless is another supplier tapping into hybrid trends. It supplies fibers for the plant-based industry, as well as for fish and meat producers who want to create hybrid products with reduced meat content. CEO Jos Hugense believes that while the vegan and vegetarian market is growing, it is still small. “Regardless, much higher volumes can come from the hybrid space,” he assures.

By Gaynor Selby