FoodStuff by Kevin Ryan
The protein trend is pivoting
Here is a link to my last newsletter, in case you missed it.
Here are the contents of this edition:
Protein Overload: Where is the protein trend going?
Adulting Snacks: Snacks are trying to grow up
Speeding up Adoption: The increased speed of innovation acceptance
Gut Reaction: My quick take on the best, worst, and questionable in new launches
Tidbits: The latest in food industry news, from the profound to the funny
Protein, Protein Everywhere
Chad & Barney’s Sturdy Sauce is introducing “the world’s first high protein pasta sauce.” The sauce has 20g of protein per serving (80 per jar), and is also gluten-free, keto friendly, and low in sugar. Available in marinara, garlic and herb, and sweet basil varieties on the company’s website.
Earlier this month, Protein Candy launched their product across North America. The chewy candies have 14g of protein per serving, along with 6 g of prebiotic fiber, and 4g sugar (“100 times more protein than any other candy on the market”). Varieties include Classic Fruit Sour, Classic Fruit, Berry Punch, and Tropical Fruit. Available in retail stores across Canada and online in the US.
Myna, the ‘feel good snack company,’ has launched Pizza Crackers. The crackers have 7g of protein per serving, along with being gluten free and made with all-natural ingredients. Available via the brand’s website.
Canadian brand Made with Local is launching a Nut Butter Protein Cookie with 16g protein per cookie. In keeping with the brand’s name, the ingredients are partially sourced from local communities. The cookies are ethically sourced and made from organic ingredients, including "nut butter, oats, plant-based protein, and local honey." Varieties include Double Chocolate and Peanut Butter Sea Salt. Available at retailers across Canada and online via the company’s website.
David protein bar is finally hitting the market after a lot of pre-launch buzz. Co-founded by RXBar’s Peter Rahal and Zach Ranen, founder of the online bakery Raize, the new line is named after Michelangelo’s statue, implying both its perfection (“ the most effective portable protein on this planet “) and its impact on the body ( “the optimal protein for your optimal form”). The bars are 150 calories, 28g protein, 0 sugar, and contain no artificial sugar. Available in four varieties, Blueberry Pie, Double Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Cake Batter (without a subscription, $3.25/bar).
So What? I went to buy a TV recently and I was comparing specs across models. Now, my last TV purchase was a large screen plasma, so I’m a bit rusty at the terminology. After about 20 minutes of comparing ‘quantum dots’ to ‘organic diodes,’ I quickly learned to discount any language that used the term ‘high definition.’ While HD and UHD meant something back in the halcyon days of flat screens, today it’s kind of an ante to the category.
In other words, the impact of the HD benefit has been diluted by ubiquity. I think we are entering a similar place with protein.
Years ago, a brand was able to shake up a category by offering a line or SKU with a significant amount of protein (especially if it was considered a low protein category). However, today, just about every category has either a high protein player or has enhanced the protein of their most basic offering. Protein callouts are now prevalent on most foods, to the point where their absence is more noticeable.
We’ve reached a saturation point in the protein trend where its commonality has potentially weakened its consumer benefit. That doesn’t mean protein is going away as a benefit, but brands will need to work harder to get attention with it. Going forward, to stand out, a brand will need to go beyond double-digit protein. I’m recommending to my clients that they reframe their protein benefit beyond the generic ‘good for you’ (e.g., muscle recovery, complete, etc.), layer benefits with protein (e.g., protein + fiber, protein+ probiotics, etc.) or discuss the protein’s origins in a unique and transparent way.
However, what about a category where protein IS the only story, i.e., protein bars? Here, I think the new David bars are approaching this in a very interesting way. They are using consumer frustration with the bewildering expanse of the category (i.e., too much choice) as their reason to be. The brand is saying, we understand how expensive and frustrating it is to find the perfect protein bar that hits on all your needs. Instead, David is claiming victory against ALL the existing protein bar shortcomings of taste, naturalness, performance efficacy, and value and presenting itself as the final evolution of the category. “Breakthrough” the David’s website claims, and “Your protein bar, idealized “and “We thank our predecessors in the protein industry. We’ll take it from here.”
Will it work for David? It will likely come down to whether they can deliver on those promises. However, I’ll have to give the brand credit for reading the consumer and the market so well at this exact moment in the protein hype cycle. Instead of adding one more protein bar into a crowded category, they’re trying to launch a new gold standard (maybe that explains the shiny wrapper?).
Snacking Grows Up
Hu, a Mondelez brand, is launching a snack-size version of their chocolate bars. Hu Simple Milk Chocolate and Hu Salty Dark Chocolate are 1oz bars marketed as “compact, convenient, completely indulgent.” Like all Hu products, the bars are fair trade, organic, non-GMO and made without ‘weird ingredients.’
In honor of National Peanut Day (Sept 13), Planters launched a Special Reserve, limited time only peanut product. Consisting simply of red-skinned peanuts (larger in size than those typically used) specially grown on 150 acres of land in Virginia, the peanuts are hand-cooked and available for a limited time via a special website for $19.06 (the year of Planter’s founding).
SunMaid has launched a line of Farmstand Reserve branded products. Available in boxes of five single-serve pouches, the snacks come in four varieties, Dried Mixed Berries, Sea Salt Chocolate Flavored Coated Banana Chips, Dried Whole Cranberries and Sea Salt Cocoa and Caramel Dusted Raisins.
TCHO chocolate, owned by the Japanese confectionary company Ezaki Glico, has launched Napa Noir in partnership with the Clif Family Winery. The chocolate (three 0.83oz bars to a box) consists of dark chocolate and Peruvian cacao nibs that are aged in Clif's red wine barrels for 8 months and sea salt infused with Clif’s Kit's Killer Cab wine.
So What? While snacking is increasingly how everyone eats today, we can trace its origin back to fun and playful treats. A generation ago, meals were the ‘adult way’ to gain nutrition, with snacks being an occasion indulgence given out mostly to kids.
While it’s easy to rationalize the ‘adultness’ of snacking on overtly healthy products like yogurt or veggies and hummus, eating traditional treats as a snack is a harder sell to consumers. Instead, brands are working to ‘age up’ snacks to make them an acceptable option for the 18+ crowd.
One way to do this is something I’ll call ‘simple sophistication.’ While kid-targeted snacks are often blasted with bold flavor options (and come in garishly colored packaging), ‘adult’ versions (like those above) are subdued, purposely simplistic (beyond for the sake of naturalness), and maturely flavored (e.g., red wine).
Today, we are starting to see these ‘adult snacks’ positioning themselves to steal consumers who are looking to satisfy their kid-snack craving in an adult snacking way. SunMaid is very blatant about this in their messaging on their website:
For snack bars, chocolates, and candies, the rush is on for establishing your brand as an adult way to snack.
Closing the Chasm
Startup company Dice Provisions is launching Coffee Ice Cubes. Made from premium, organic dark roast coffee, the cubes are meant to be added to iced coffee without diluting its strength. The brand also recommends the cubes as an addition to smoothies, cocktails and shakes. The cubes have zero sugar or carbs and less than 5 calories per serving. Currently available in a few retail stores in California.
Trendy olive oil company Graza has teamed up with trendy snack company Rind Snacks to create a new granola called Grazola. The new granola is made by first toasting oats in Graza Sizzle olive oil before combining it with salt and maple syrup. Available for a limited time.
Launching soon, The Butt Company was founded by New Zealand sisters in the US in search of butter like they grew up eating. Now they are sourcing grass-fed cream from New Zealand farms and selling butter in the States. Beyond typical flavors like Salted and Unsalted, the brand will sell Chilli Crisp Butter (aka ‘Hot Butt’).
So What? The unspoken truth about new product development in big CPG is that you can’t go too new if you want to be successful. The classic Adoption Curve tells us that for every innovation there is a small segment of the population (“Innovators”) that will buy something really new to the world and a slightly larger consumer base (“Early Adopters”) willing to try it after that. Both are passionate and adventurous, but not big enough to support a mainstream launch.
The issue has always been what’s called ‘the chasm,’ the lag in adoption between when an innovation moves from being accepted by a relatively small group of people to a much larger group (“Early Majority”). When (or if) this happens for specific innovations is the subject of much debate and study. In fact, whole companies and consultancies are built on predicting when and how this will happen so that a brand can capitalize on ‘the moment’ when niche becomes mainstream.
One observation I’ve had is that social media is playing a major role in ‘closing the chasm.’ For example, the savory+sweet mix of granola and olive oil might have previously been a hard sell to a mainstream audience, but TikTok has smoothed that path. The same goes for coffee ice cubes and flavored butter. In the past, these trends would have taken years to cross over, but now the Early Majority is being conditioned by TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube toward the normalcy of these innovations through sheer repetition and exposure.
Of course, all of this sounds great for big CPG, faster feedback loops, broader reach, more cost-effective marketing through social media channels, and more ‘pull’ to innovate. However, it’s also causing issues. There is a greater risk of commoditization as product lifecycles are shortened, consumers demand faster innovation to keep up with social media, and increased competition comes in to fill the gaps (often from retailer and small brands that are faster to market).
For CPG, there are numerous ways to live in this ‘smaller chasm’ world. However, one increasingly powerful way is to monitor social media for ‘platformable ideas’ and build from there. For example, if baking and snack cake brands are not considering a way to capitalize on the viral TikTok trend of air frying Twinkies, they need to be. The air fryer as a way to plus-up baked goods could be both an after-market marketing message but also worthy of products specifically designed for air fryer perfection.
Benchmark Expectations
Stouffers has moved beyond the freezer case with their new mac & cheese launch. For the first time, the brand has created a shelf-stable shells & cheese line with a liquid cheese pouch. The new products (available in Cheddar Cheese and Three Cheese) claim to offer “10% more cheese sauce” than the competition and be ready in 10 minutes from the stovetop (MSRP $3.99 per 12oz box)
Annie’s has launched two new extra-cheesy 'Shells & White Cheddar' and 'Shells & Real Aged Cheddar.' The launch comes as part of the brand “Promise for Better” campaign, that focuses on the quality of real ingredients and the emotional ties of the meal. (MSRP $2.59)
So What? My first job in CPG, I worked on Betty Crocker Potatoes (i.e., mashed, sliced, casserole, etc.). Years later, I went to a conference and struck up a conversation with someone from Frito-Lay and mentioned our mutual potato connection. At the time, Frito was launching an ‘Au Gratin Potato’ chip and my new friend let me in on the fact that they’d used the Betty Crocker boxed Au Gratin as the flavor benchmark. They had found that, so few people had had real (AKA scratch) au gratin potatoes that the Betty Crocker boxed was the flavor most people expected from the chip.
So much of product trial and repeat is based on consumer expectations. If you aren’t on the same page as your consumer when it comes to expectations, you can greatly disappoint, even with an outstanding product.
Looking in from the outside, it would be easy to think that these two new mac & cheese products are in the same battle, but I don’t think that is true. Expectations are pushing them apart.
Stouffer’s has generations of consumers that know the brand via its freezer mac & cheese product (a superior product to any boxed version). Therefore, these consumers are bound to carry an expectation that this boxed version will deliver a similar experience; an expectation that is going to be extremely difficult to meet.
In comparison, Kraft’s Velveeta (the liquid cheese brand to beat in the aisle) didn’t have such expectations when they entered the category. They had only to deliver on their name (i.e., gooey cheese), easily met with a liquid pouch (novel at the time). Honestly, Stouffer’s going up against Velveeta on cheese (i.e., saying “made with real cheese” and “10% more cheese sauce”) while also trying to reset expectations is going to be difficult. They are going to need to be willing to take price, do heavy couponing, AND support extended advertising to unseat Velveeta. A tough road ahead.
Annie’s, in contrast, just has to be cheesier than its existing boxed product (or Kraft blue box). A much easier threshold to meet, especially in the smaller category of natural/organic.
A good reminder any time you launch a new product: Always know your consumer’s expectations.
GUT REACTION
TIDBITS
Do you eat as much cheese as the average American?
The TikTok video that is causing cucumber shortages in Iceland
Altoid Sours are back! But they are only available in one unusual place (unless you want to try the competitive Retro Sours)
Hotels.com lists the most unusual room service requests, including a caviar hot dog and 4 lbs of bananas (not the same order, I don’t think)
The strategy behind how some grocery retailers see success with staying small and regional (e.g., H-E-B)
SEC hits Keurig with a $1.5M fine for overstating how recyclable their K-Cups are
In Japan, agencies are popping up that help you quit your job
How does Target drive more pet supply shopping? Hire ‘fur-fluencers’
The Campbell Soup Company is now just The Campbell’s Company (that’s right, the apostrophe is now official)
Walgreen’s is the worst performing stock on the S&P 500 this year
Data from payment system Toast says out of home lunch is getting more expensive
Oura acquires Finnish metabolism and sleep tech company Veri (are we getting closer to the ‘quantified self’ impacting eating?)
The CDC names the #1 healthiest vegetable
Sales of dog strollers in S. Korea now surpass the sales of human infant strollers
Are you middle class? Upper class? Calculate your standing with the Pew calculator
Chipotle launches robots in 2 stores—one that makes gauc (Autocado) and one that makes bowls/salads
Life cereal brings back Mikey
How do you know your soil is healthy? Try listening to it
Tupperware files for bankruptcy, looks for new owners (the dawn of ecoacoustics)
Scientists create new genetically engineered ‘Golden Lettuce’ with 30X more vitamins
To combat their listeria outbreak, Boar’s Head has shut down a factory and discontinued liverwurst
American’s feelings about supermarkets slides (but their feelings about farmers soar)
The medical opinion on whole milk and cheese is shifting
Darden (parent of Olive Garden) is partnering with Uber for a new delivery option (How do you get unlimited free breadsticks?)
Amazon is launching a ‘Shark Tank’-like show (“Buy It Now”) where startups pitch to company execs (and celebrities) to get launched on the platform
If you ever thought—hey, I’d like to live in a Costco—now is your chance
Sam’s Club and Walmart are merging their supply chain teams
Fashion over function? The new Evergreen wooden KitchenAid mixer is a showstopper (but don’t try mixing normal things in it, like eggs)
