Top ten trends and confectionery and snacks
04 Feb 2019 | Innova Market Insights
Consumers are on a big and broad journey of discovery. They are moving out of their comfort zone to explore bolder flavors and multi-sensory food experiences. Sixty-six percent of US consumers say they love to discover new flavors (Consumer Study 2018, Innova Market Insights). At ISM 2019 in Cologne Innova Market Insights presented the latest confectionery insights on product development from around the globe. Irene Kersbergen from the market research firm discusses how several of the top ten trends are shaping confectionery and snacks product development.
Is at the ISM in Cologne.
I'm here with Iraine Kersbergen from you Over Market Insights.
Iraine, one of the things you're highlighting here is some of the connection points between the top 10 trends for 2019 and how they correlate with what's happening within the sweets and snacks sector.
What, what are, what are some of the kind of the key takeouts?
Where, where do you see kind of opportunities?
For manufacturers in order to leverage some of these key trends that take it into product development.
Right, I think that's a good question because we've identified the top 10 trends for 2019, and I think the first trend, discovery, the adventurous consumer really fits with the snacks and confectionery industry.
Because we see that globalization, people travel more, people are online, and they see all these different cultures all over the world, how people eat and how they experience food and beverages, and they also want to try out these products.
So we see confectionery and snacks with bolder flavors, but also adding an element of surprise, and I think one of the most interesting examples.
Is the ruby chocolate that we have seen, because that's just something different.
Everyone wants to once discover this ruby chocolate and just try it out one more time.
Because that's very interesting, particularly because I guess when the Kit Kat was the first line to really use this and really playing off the word discovery on the front of the pack as , I guess that's something that we kind of see a little bit materializing and something really here at the on the trade floor.
Yeah, definitely, we think it's interesting because when we look into our database, Discovery, like literally the Discover claims on packaging, we see more and more.
So we see snacks that say Discover Bangkok flavor, but indeed like this ruby chocolate saying discovers a new chocolate experience.
So really targeting for these adventurous consumers.
What else is happening here?
We see a lot happening in snacks.
Also, one of the top 10 trends is called snacking the definitive occasion, and it shows that, snacking is no longer an optional extra.
It's really the fourth meal culture, we also say, it's a definitive occasion.
But we see that a lot of different consumers have multiple needs or different needs when it comes to millennials, for example, want to have more snacks on the go, while other generations are really looking for healthier snacking options.
So we see vegetable-based, bean-based, rice-based snacks, really the healthy options, growing into the market.
Because that's kind of interesting because at the end of the day, this is a very kind of developed sector.
It is the snacking sector.
At the end of the day, they have to kind of counterculture this.
How, how do they stay relevant when there's so many other kinds of snacks available?
There's still a lot of innovation.
We see, for example, mushroom-based snacks popping up, and I think that's a really interesting, interesting.
One, because it also relates to the I feel good trends about emotional -being because mushrooms do have something, more, , medicinal in a way, so you, you target these healthy consumers with mushroom-based snacks, but you also tap into the emotional -being trends.
So that's something really interesting that we see in the market now.
OK, and I guess finally one of the other trends that you really see is around kind of personalization and the sharing, sharing concept and also the how the rise of social media is, is influencing new product development within this space.
Social media is so is such a big team right now and digitalization, and we see that when it comes to personalization, there's also brands that you can go online and, put, for example, your name or your face on M&M's did something like that.
So you can really easily personalize your product, but also, when it comes to packaging, go online and maybe post a picture of your child that has his birthday, on the product packaging to really personalize this.
And, when it comes to social media as , there's, also this, voting campaigns we see more and more, M&M's did it and also Oreos that you can vote for your favorite flavor online, and then you get this excitement but also brands can easily engage with, with the consumers in that way.
