Culture Matters
Brands Aren't Ready for the Coming Consumer Skepticism (and how poop emojis help)
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Retasting Wonder
For the first launch in their Planet Partnership joint venture, Beyond Meat and PepsiCo have launched Beyond Jerky. Made of mung bean and pea proteins, the product also contains oat bran and fiber along with a mix of savory spices. Available online and in-stores. Varieties include Original, Hot & Spicy, and Teriyaki.
Amazon Fresh has launched a new sub-line of plant-based items across several categories. Of the 15 products currently in the plant-based line-up, there are several new items (e.g., plant-based meatballs, nuggets, ground meat alternatives and patties) as well as several products that previously were under the company’s Happy Belly brand (e.g., almond milks).
Shark Tank alum Brazi Bites has launched a new line of Pizza Bites. Available in three varieties (Supreme, Cheese & Uncured Pepperoni and Four Cheese), the new products are made with the brand’s signature gluten and grain free cheese bread, with 8g of protein per serving has no artificial ingredients.
BFY snack maker HighKey has launched Chocolaty Stix and Caramel-Filled Bars. Each “are coated in rich, creamy milk chocolate-style coating and are low sugar, low carb, gluten-free, grain-free, and made with clean ingredients.” The Caramel-Filled Bars have 2 grams of sugar and 2 net carbs per serving and the Chocolaty Stix have 9g of fiber and 1g of sugar. Available on the brand’s website and via Amazon.
Mars has launched new M&M Munchums. Currently listed as a limited-edition item, the new product is advertised as a better-for-you chocolate snack. A smooth chocolate center is surrounded by a crunchy baked shell. Compared to regular M&M’s, the candies have 40% less sugar, made with natural flavors and are gluten free. Available as Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel.
Wicked Kitchen debuted their new line of legume-based ice creams at Expo West. The new sweet frozen treats, made using lupini beans, will be available as ice cream (Chocolate, Vanilla, Cookie Dough, and Mint Chocolate Chip), as well as bars (Chocolate & Almond and Berry White). The new treats will hit Kroger stores next month.
So What? When you were a little kid, every day was filled with new experiences. Every song was a song you’d never heard before, every meal could have new tastes, and every walk had a high probability of new sights; novelty was the norm, and the joy of discovery was constant. However, the older you got, the harder it became to find anything truly new. You’d heard most popular songs, tasted most foods and seen so many things. The joy of discovery became rare.
How much would you give to change that, to get back some of that fresh perspective? Well, in the case of movies, we pay quite a lot. Between reboots, remakes and remixes, consumers spend billions to watch the same movie in a new way. If we look at the top box office for 2019 (the last ‘normal’ theater year) we see the following:
(1) Avengers: Endgame
(2) The Lion King
(3) Toy Story 4
(4) Frozen II
(5) Captain Marvel
Either continuations of franchises or, in the case of Lion King, a literal shot-for-shot version of the same movie. In fact, when Hollywood isn’t making sequels and remakes, they are making movies that feel so much like popular films that they might as well be remakes. Take, for example, the new Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum romcom The Lost City. If you watch the trailer and don’t get intense Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone vibes, it means you are either very young or you need a major crash course in pop culture. However, as much as we might complain about sequels and prequels, we love them (to be honest, I’ll probably be in line to see The Lost City). Why? My guess is that it has something to do with the desire to recapturing the awe we felt with the original experience.
Plant-based and ‘cleaned up’ products (like those above) are like film remakes and sequels, much-loved stories we want to watch again to recapture the awe. While health, sustainability and ethical benefits are substantial and real, I would contend that main driver for trial on most of these products is the desire for reexperience. Sure, most people approach these products with affair bit of skepticism, but also heightened awareness of the product’s characteristics. We are judging it, does it live up to that amazing burger you had on vacation at that one bar? How does it compare to the creamy sweet taste of that candy moment you had as a kid? By tasting these new versions, we are experiencing just a little of the anticipation, the innocent wonder and original novelty that we had the very first time.
All of which begs the question: can plant-based and ‘clean’ products move beyond mimicry? If part of their power is allowing us to re-experience the awe of the original, what happens when the product is totally new and doesn’t have a foil? Optimistically, I’d say yes. Original films are possible, so why not original foods. The problem will be, just like with the film industry, bankrolling them. The known is always an easier sell. Will companies ever invest in new to the world foods?
Asynchronous Adaptable Indulgence
General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch has partnered with B&G Foods to launch a new CTC Spread. This spread comes on the heels of the success of CinnaDust, another General Mills/B&G launch that consisted of a shaker of the iconic cinnamon sugar topping. The new spread is advertised as a great spread for bread or apples, a swirl for smoothies or a drizzle for ice cream.
Challenge Butter has released (at least regionally) a series of Dessert Spreads made from their butter. Available via Instacart, there is a Chocolate and Vanilla Fudge. No word yet on widespread availability.
Coconut product producer Nutiva introduced a new line of spreads at Expo West this month. The new coconut spreads are all organic and made with coconut oil and contain 5g of sugar less per serving. Flavors include Almond Coconut, Chocolate Coconut and Vanilla Coconut.
So What? It wasn’t that long ago that, if you wanted to watch a TV show, play a board game, or talk to your friends, you needed to get in sync with the world. To watch Seinfeld, you had to wait until Thursday night, Monopoly required convincing someone to sit with you for hours and chatting on the phone meant catching them at home.
Today, our world is increasingly becoming asynchronous. TV is mostly ‘on-demand,’ ready when you to download and enjoy. Games with others can be paused and played when time allows and ‘conversations’ happen when people respond to your text or tweet.
Why shouldn’t food be any different?
On a macro level, snacks are the asynchronization of meals. Instead of waiting to join others around a table and timing our hunger to meet theirs, we’ve individually portioned and packaged smaller versions of these foods for ourselves. As our world has fallen out of time with one another, snacking has increased.
So that brings us to sweet spreads, which I see as a new evolution of asynchronous snacking. Not only do spreads allow you to enjoy a sweet by yourself (just like a cupcake or cookie) but it also allows you transform other foods into a sweet snack. Bread, crackers, chips, apples, etc.—they are all instantly converted into an indulgence when the need arises. This adaptability gives even more power to the snacker.
Nutrition Skepticism and Poop Emojis
There are some topics that might not seem compatible at first but when combined end up making more sense than they should. Middle-aged men and My Little Pony. An odd combination, but Bronies are/were real. Medieval instruments and modern rock/pop covers---seems strange but Bardcore is kind of cool (check out ‘Bad Romance’ on the harpsicord and ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ in Middle English).
So perhaps we shouldn’t dismiss the unusual pairing of cryptocurrency fans and dieting. In fact, maybe it speaks to a larger trend.
If you go on the sub-Reddit ‘Bitcoin’ (~4 million followers) or crypto websites (e.g., CoinDesk) you see a lot of what you’d expect, conversations comparing Ethereum and Cardano, discussions about the blockchain and brags about investment gains. However, you’ll also see that followers of this alternative currency were early adopters of particular diets such as the all-meat diet (aka Crypto Carnivores) and intermittent fasting. Now it appears they, and their influencers, have focused on a new dietary issue: eliminating seed oils. Which means a growing number are coming out against such a variety of processed foods (from non-dairy creamers to meat products) because they contain oils like canola (i.e., rapeseed), soybean, sesame, etc. They believe these oils and their chemical makeup are causing everything from heart disease to asthma via a process of inflammation in the body.
While at first this all seems arbitrary, there is an underling logic. People who are really into crypto tend to be against fiat currencies (i.e., currency backed by the word of the government, not a metal like gold). Which today are most currencies. Crypto fans are skeptical and distrustful of the government’s true motives, so fiat currencies (which are built on trust), don’t sit right with them. They’d rather invest in a currency (crypto) that cannot be manipulated for nefarious reasons. By a similar logic, they reject the diet that governments and industry endorse, assuming that these were put in place for greedy financial (not benevolent nutritional) reasons. In other words, the food pyramid is the fiat food guide.
The reason why it’s important to pay attention to the beliefs of so called ‘ Bitcoin Bros’ is because the contrarian feelings that they have about food and nutrition are quickly becoming mainstream reality. A study last year found that more than half of Americans feel that food labels are misleading (in fact, 82% said they felt ‘tricked’ by food labels). Another poll found that 38% of Americans were only somewhat trusting of the FDA and 24% didn’t trust the organization at all.
Perhaps that explains why the top diet today (keto) also ranks the worst among cardiologists and dieticians. Compared to the 1980’s, when the food industry fell all over themselves to get the American Heart Association seal on their packages, today controversial diets like Keto, Paleo and intermittent fasting don’t need government approval to gain followers. In fact, their anti-establishment leanings might be part of their popularity.
So where do we go from here? Personally, I’ll be keeping my eye on groups (like Bitcoiners) that might be the proverbial canaries in the coal mine when it comes to spotting early trends in food concerns. However, one piece of advice that I’m giving my own clients with products that appeal to keto, paleo and similar diets is to consider mirroring your consumers’ contrarian attitudes in your messaging.
An example of how to do that comes from the book publishing world. You may have noticed lately that a lot of book titles contain profanity:
Many of these books deal with self-help and self-care. Part of the reason for this use of taboo language is that it (#1) it gets people’s attention, but more importantly, (#2) it attracts people who may have previously dismissed self-care as quackery. Such basic language identifies the author as a ‘straight shooter,’ not some academic or corporate shill.
You don’t have to look far to see this already being used in food advertisement. This new commercial for Burger King Brazil introduces their new line of ‘clean’ desserts by offering up a ‘poop emoji’ ice cream to showcase how they’ve removed the sh*t:
In other words, get in front of the skepticism of big food and government by being just as contrarian as they are.
New Hope for Veggie Snacks
Eat the Change, founded by Seth Goldman (co-founder of Honest Tea and Chair of the Board of Beyond Meat) launched Cosmic Carrot Chews at Expo West. Touted as a first of its kind vegetable snack for kids, the chews contain organic carrots and fruit and are available in three varieties: Sour Cherry Berry Blast Off, Orange Mango Moonbeam, and Apple Cinnamon Asteroid.
Mondelez SnackFutures’ brand Dirt Kitchen has launched a new line of pressed bars containing vegetables. These products contain ‘no binders, no added sugars and nothing artificial.’ Each bar is a mix of dried fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Varieties include Apricot+Beet+Pumpkin Seeds, Almond+Raisin+Carrot, Tomato+Raisin+Black Pepper and Apple+Cinnamon+Carrot.
Pickle producer Rick’s Picks has launched a line of Snacking Veggies. Individually pouched, crispy pickled vegetables for eating on the go. Varieties include Zesty Carrots Sticks, Savory Cauliflower Florets, and Spicy Sriracha Pickle Spears.
Banana and plantain snack company Barnana is launching Crunchy Plantain Nuggets, cubes of the savory vegetable fried in “non-inflammatory” coconut oil and coated in seasoning. Varieties include Pink Salt, Ranch, Chili Lime, and BBQ.
So What? With plant-based on trend and most consumers agreeing that they need to eat more veggies, you’d think that veggie snacks would be an easy win. However, snack makers have tried repeatedly to insert vegetables into bars and bites without success (e.g., KIND’s Sweet and Spicy bars or Kashi’s Savory Bars). What’s different this time around?
Compared to five years ago (when KIND and Kashi first launched) consumers have a much stronger anti-sugar sentiment. Which means they may be ready for a replacement to standard snack bars. As consumers have looked to cut sweetness, they may be acquiring a taste for more savory snacks and flavors (e.g., sour). Relatedly, vegetables are often more compatible with today’s top diets, many of which have propelled other savory snacks higher (e.g., jerky). Finally, I see savory vegetable snacks fitting in with the mini-meal phenomena. Not just a dessert at the end of a mini-meal, but playing the part as a balanced component.
That’s not to say that veggie snacks are a sure win this time around, but it seems like we are getting closer to matching the trends with the products.