Snack foods incorporate novelty flavors to appeal to curious consumers
Trend - Brands are tapping into unexpected flavor combinations for snack products to create distinct novelty items. These products are often limited-edition and specific to a holiday or event, generating even more urgency and intrigue around their debut.
Insight - Many consumers today are using food as a medium for experimentation and novelty, driven by curiosity and a desire to discover the next little-known flavor. This has led to an unprecedented openness to new and unexpected flavor combinations.
Insight - Many consumers today are using food as a medium for experimentation and novelty, driven by curiosity and a desire to discover the next little-known flavor. This has led to an unprecedented openness to new and unexpected flavor combinations.
Workshop Question - How could your brand surprise its customer with an unexpected added element to its product/service?
Trend Themes
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New and Unexpected Flavor Combinations — Snack brands are experimenting with different flavor combinations to appeal to curious consumers, offering limited edition products for novelty, intrigue and urgency around their debut.
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Inspired by Artisan and Street Food Feasts — Consumer preferences for artisan and street-inspired foods have inspired variety of flavors of snack options, with vegetarian friendly and festive holiday-themed options.
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Collaboration-driven Flavors and Infusions — Collaborative flavors and infusions have driven unique snack options, bringing popular herbs and spices usually associated with dressings into chips and popcorns.
Industry Implications
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Food and Beverage — From classic holiday or seasonal flavors to inspired street food-inspired varieties, food and beverage industries as well as snack companies have endless possibilities for launching novel flavors to meet unique customer preferences.
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Marketing and Advertising — The rich packaging and branding design of new snack products can help them stand out amongst other options in the snack aisle, with more direct and through-the-line marketing campaigns that include digital, TV and even in-store activations.
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Technology and Collaboration — Mutual collaboration between snack companies and diverse suppliers of ingredients such as herbs, oils and sauces as well as reliable technological platforms can create disruptive innovation opportunities to experiment with unique and unexpected flavor combinations.
