Consumers gravitate towards salty-sweet combinations in traditional snacks
Implications - In a continuation of the flavor fusion movement, traditional snacks such as chips and popcorn are being updated with sweet, often luxurious flavors. This move not only caters to more experiential palettes, but also signals the proliferation of dessert flavors across multiple categories. Despite the focus on health and wellness, this ultimately hints at a consumer who is willing to indulge hedonistic impulses in day-to-day life.
Workshop Question - What's a product or service in your category (not your own) that your customers adore? How could you integrate it into your own offering?
Trend Themes
1. Salty-sweet Flavor Fusion - Combining salty and sweet flavors in snacks is a continuing flavor fusion trend, resulting in more experiential snack options for consumers.
2. Exotic Flavor Combinations - Creating experimental and unexpected flavor combinations is a trend driving consumer interest in unique snack products.
3. Healthier Snacking - Products that appeal to health-conscious consumers, by using organic, whole-grain or nutrient-rich ingredients, are trending in the snack industry.
Industry Implications
1. Food and Beverage - Trends in snack products reflect consumer preferences for novel tastes, greater diversity of ingredients and healthier snacking options. Food and beverage companies can use these trends to develop new product lines that cater to evolving consumer tastes.
2. Marketing and Advertising - Trends in the snack industry reflect the ever-changing tastes of consumers, creating new opportunities for marketing and advertising professionals to reach target audiences with innovative campaigns that promote new product categories and flavors.
3. Packaging - As companies create new snack products to appeal to evolving consumer tastes, packaging designers have an opportunity to create packaging that reflects the product's flavor profile, ingredients and brand identity, enhancing the overall consumer experience.
