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ACNielsen Insight
Snacking – What does the future hold?
Written by Jack Roberts - Business Development Manager & Neil Macfarlane - Homescan Consultant

Snacking or Convenience is one of the recent marketing “buzz” words.  Every company is looking at their portfolio and trying to understand if their brands are already part of the snack market or what new packaging techniques they can use to position their brands as “Snacking”.

In this article I will examine the following evidence to try to understand if there are any clues from the wider context information that might help you to identify opportunities for your brands.

1. Understand Traditional view of snacking
2. Consumers changing lifestyles.
3. Attitudinal Factors of your consumers.
4. Components of Snacking

1. Traditional View of Snacking

If we use the traditional view that Snacking encompasses Confectionary and Crisps and Snacks, the market is currently worth over £ 5.2bn and is growing at 1.5 per cent in the latest year seeing deflation in the market with Volume outperforming Value.

2. Consumer Behaviour

We all know that consumers are working more diverse hours, have more leisure time on their hands, are Cash rich and time poor and are eating more often then ever before.

How can we structure this to explain what is happening in the market?

Health Concerns motivating shift to non-sweet products

• Cereal Bars, Organic bars - fortified with vitamins and calcium
• Energy Bars
• Snack a Jacks
• Benecol Snack Bar - reducing cholesterol
• Go Ahead, Crinklins, Fat Free Pringles

Planned Snacking Out of Home and desire for taste sensation

• Encouraged by broader range of savoury snacks e.g. Wraps, Tortillas, baguettes, bagels, ciabattas, pittas
• Bread itself is no longer just brown or white but olive, onion etc
• Microwaves in office
• New channels e.g. Soup Kitchens, Prêt a Manger

Decline in pocket money spent on confectionery

• Mobile phones
• Toys e.g. Pokemon cards

Snacking is no longer about satisfying hunger.  The opportunity for brands over the next few years is meant to be on the high street, yet, for traditional snacking brands the diversification of the high street to convenience formats has its own set of perils.

If you were on your way home five years ago and were hungry you probably had the choice of a chocolate bar or a packet of crisps, now the make up of the range has changed beyond all recognition.

It is now the expectation that you will be able to buy ready meals, hot pastries, sandwiches and the traditional confectionary and crisps.  This offers the threat of increased competition for space as well as a greater repertoire of choice for your consumer.

The traditional snacking brands need to beware of Marketing Myopia, look at the wider marketplace and start being adventurous with how they can transfer their brand into new formats and markets.

3. Understanding the attitudes of your customers

At ACNielsen we are constantly looking to gain a stronger understanding of the consumer.  Through this segmentation work we have discovered 7 distinct groups of the population by collecting their attitudes to cooking and eating using Homescan’s quarterly survey.  Please see below the “Food Focus” groups and details of their main attitudinal factors that effect their decisions.

Once you have identified the attitudes that are driving the consumers, you need to examine the propensity of consumers to buy several categories and how these are interlinked with the Food Focus segments.

From these sectors we are able to try to identify a hierarchy of needs for snacking which gives us some clues into what a segmentation of snacking would look like.

Where are you positioned on this map?  Where is your NPD going next?

4. Components of Snacking

Another part of the Snacking that shouldn’t be understated is designing products that meet with Consumer needs, Occasions for which products are consumed, the characteristics people are looking for and the locations they will consume the product.

Below are the main areas I have identified but the list is not exhaustive but does highlight the fragmentation of our marketplace, even within your own market are all these needs being served or, are their still opportunities available?.

Conclusions

Traditional Snacking manufacturers could be limiting their opportunities for growth.  The opportunities within Snacking is to focus on increasing spend per household through offering premium products.

Traditional snacking appears to be a thing of the past, no longer a quick hunger fix or an indulgent treat.  Consumers are looking for their products to offer greater substance or functionality.

Availability to a wider repertoire of products in areas previously supplied by vending machines and confectionery only e.g. Forecourts, CTN’s, train stations, etc.

Understanding the point of consumption, what formats of products are consumers seeking in different locations.

Constantly reviewing your segmentation is vital to ensure you don’t suffer from marketing myopia.  When did you last review the segmentation of your market?

For further details contact Kim Dunkason at ACNielsen on Tel. 01865 732 275 or Email: kim.dunkason@acnielsen.co.uk

www.acnielsen.co.uk

Date article published: 15/05/2002