"Latest Trends and Key Consumer Groups in Global Snacking and Impulse Foods" Published

Sept. 30, 2012 - PRLog -- This report offers a completely fresh look at consumer's Snacking and Impulse food habits, allowing marketers to understand people's consumption patterns like never before. This offers unique opportunities to effectively target new consumer groups, behaviors, and trends based on actual empirical data in Snacking and Impulse Foods consumption across 10 core countries.

Introduction and Landscape
Why was the report written?
With all Snacking and Impulse Food markets set to grow faster in the future, it is paramount to understand the key consumer groups and consumer trends driving these markets in order for products to realize their full potential.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?
Analysis of consumer trends indicates that three types of snacking behavior exist: Pure Indulgence, Everyday Treating, and Non-Indulgence. Each of these types of behavior requires a clear set of product positioning and messages, targeted at the right consumer groups, in order for total market potential to be realized.

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Full Report Details at
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What are the key drivers behind recent market changes?
Young Adult Women and Older Men worldwide, and boys under 16 in Non-BRIC markets, are the key consumer groups driving Snacking and Impulse Food markets worldwide. Two consumer trends are vital to reaching these consumers: Indulgence, and Personal Space and Time.

What makes this report unique and essential to read?
The analysis provided is unique in the market as it tracks snacking behavior through to its actual impact on a product market. This provides readers with a unique analysis of the market, driven by survey-based data on consumer trends and groups, which is integrated with market data. This allows marketing tactics and strategy to be updated in line with the very latest consumer behaviors.

Key Features and Benefits
Unique integration of survey and market data provides market sizing consumption by key consumer groups, both by age and by gender, quantifying the value of key consumer groups by country.

Concise case studies identify best practice on how to align marketing practices to effectively target consumer trends, and shows how targeting multiple trends can be a highly effective proposition.

The impact of consumer trends is quantified by market and country to show where hotspots to target exist and exactly which trends are most important to target.

Key Market Issues
The Indulgence consumer trend drives a significantly larger volume share of women's Snacking markets than men, though Indulgence still drives a very significant part of men's consumption. Marketers should beware taking stereotypical approaches to targeting women's indulgent snacking: rather than offering to alleviate guilt, at the moment of consumption women want products than provide Indulgence, Personal Space and Time, and Fun and Enjoyment.

Quality Seeking is the most important trend in the BRIC region. Products targeting expansion in BRIC countries must be able to communicate their high quality at all touch points with the consumer. Snacking products based around quality ingredients, hand craftsmanship, and authenticity will be particularly well placed.

Adults may feel they are increasingly attempting to fit in more activities into the same amount of time in a day, but it's actually children whose consumption habits are most affected by this trend. What's convenient for parents is what is convenient for their children. As such, products targeting parents need to communicate how they will make things easier for their children as much as the adults.

Consumers use snacks to create a space where they are free from the constant flow of things to do. This isn't an escape from time pressures, rather the ability to get away from the burdens consumers face in their day to day lives by taking a moment out for themselves.

Advances in communication and production technology means marketers can produce personalized products at mass market costs. Small snack producers, previously targeting a niche market limited by geographical area, can now reach consumers hundreds of miles away. Though still small, this consumer trend may hit the mainstream in the next five years.

Key Highlights
Three types of snacking behavior exist: Pure Indulgence, Everyday Treating, and Non-Indulgence. Each of these types of behavior requires a clear set of product positioning and messages, targeted at the right consumer groups, in order for total market potential to be realized.

Trends are key to meeting consumer's Snacking needs and wants, but in the Snacking and Impulse market at present, targeting of trends needs to come after a clear understanding of the consumer groups driving market growth and shaping demand has been derived. This is because Snack consumption rates vary significantly by age group, and this variance has the biggest effect on the market.

While a market division exists between countries in the "hotspot" BRIC region and in the "cash cow" Non-BRIC region, markets in both are largely driven by the same consumer groups: female young adults and older men. Boys under the age of 16 are additionally an important consumer group in Non-BRIC markets.

Marketers must beware over-estimating the importance of the Health trend: a healthy snack won't have mass market appeal unless it also targets other consumer needs and wants. Indeed, the positioning is likely to be best as "great tasting" first and healthy (or "less bad for you") second.

Consumers may well intend to consume products which meet specific needs and wants, but at the point of consumption or product selection, often fail to act on these intentions. This gives rise to attitude-behavior gaps, where a consumer's intent, or what they think affects them, doesn't actually flow through to final consumption behavior.

Companies Mentioned in this Report: Ben and Jerry's, Cadbury, Carte D'Or, Cheestrings, Danone, Del Monte, Galaxy, Kit Kat, Kraft Foods, Maltesers, Nature Valley, Orville Redenbacher, TCHO, YouBar

About Canadean

Canadean Consulting provides specialist support on commercial, strategic and marketing issues to the international beverage, packaging and liquid food industries.  Significant investment has transformed all Canadean's beverage databases into interactive market analysis tools, geared to clients' annual and strategic business planning cycles.