Your child’s imagination is beyond your imagination.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Foodaily daily food” (ID: foodaily), Author: Celeste.
Actually, the person who understands the child’s mind best, of course, has to be the child himself! In the eyes of adults, they sometimes disagree with their wild imagination, but this may be what they really want and like. Therefore, involving children in product design may help brands quickly get through the key link of “precise insight into consumer needs”!
As a product of the further segmentation of the casual snack market, the children’s snack market has become hot in the past year. Traditional snack brands incubate children’s snack sub-brands, and new start-up brands that directly target children’s snacks have continued to raise funds. In less than a year, this track is full of players, big and small, full of gunpowder. In the annual business hotspots of the food industry in 2021, Foodaily will take “Millennium parents admission, children’s food innovation from the inside to the outside” as one of the twelve major trends, and conduct a detailed dismantling.
According to the estimation of Huaying Capital, the market size of children’s snacks is expected to reach 21 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, or nearly 150 billion U.S. dollars. From the perspective of growth rate, children’s snacks are expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% in the next 5 years, which is higher than the 7.8% compound annual growth rate of casual snacks in the next 5 years.
Undoubtedly, as a blue ocean market, children’s zero food category is facing opportunities and numerous challenges. Whether it’s from parents’ increasing emphasis on children’s dietary nutrition and healthy growth, prompting them to put forward higher-order needs for the nutrition and health of children’s snacks, or as the generations of α children have a more diversified and independent spiritual world The characteristics enable them to have more independent choices about the snacks they want to eat. The changes in both have spawned innovations in the category of children’s snacks from the inside to the outside.
But there are so many kinds of snacks for children on the market, are they the ones that children like to eat? Do you really like the taste? Is the taste acceptable? Is it convenient to pack for consumption? ……Actually, the person who understands the child’s mind the best, of course, has to be the child himself! In the eyes of adults, they sometimes disagree with their wild imagination, but this may be what they really want and like.
Today, Foodaily will discuss with you, whether involving children in the product design of children’s snacks can really solve the key link of “precise insight into the needs of consumers” for the brand?
I don’t want you to think, I want me to think
As the children of millennial parents, the alpha generation has attracted much attention. Born after 2005, most of them are only children. They have enjoyed and witnessed the transformation of the entire social service system from the Internet to the infrastructure, as well as the changes in lifestyles and educational concepts brought about by the differences between the generations of parents and offspring of the millennials.
ThisThe people have not only a better material life, but also a more diversified and more independent spiritual world and values. They have their own unique preferences for food choices, including food design and always have their own ideas. .
From the continuous tracking and observation of overseas markets in the past, we found a wonderful phenomenon-many top casual snack brands, such as Calbee, Kellogg’s, etc., will go there when they develop and produce a children’s snack Try to “co-create” with children. These co-creations may include different aspects and links such as the confirmation of product concepts, the selection of main raw materials, visual packaging design, marketing preference insights, and so on. There are even some brands whose founder is a very young child. Out of the unique idea of the snacks they want to eat, and the “challenges” for existing products in the market, they have developed their own explosive products and rely on them. These products “make themselves” famous children’s entrepreneurs!
Indeed, children who advocate “I don’t want you to think, I want me to think” must have more jumping and innovative ideas, and they are also the people who understand themselves best and are closest to the inner ideas of children’s groups. Brands will work with them to let A product “from 0 to 1”, on the one hand, helps to make oneself more accurately cut into the children’s market, on the other hand, it also helps children express and realize their self-worth. It is a very meaningful marketing activity. The brand He Le Not for it?
Let the children’s imagination not only stay in their minds, but eat them!
Calbee attaches great importance to children’s whimsical ideas about snacks. Since 2011, the brand has held a snack concept competition every year to encourage children to express their unique ideas about snacks in the competition to stimulate the company’s R&D creativity.
In January of this year, a Coro Coro Vegetable made by elementary school students, with its interesting building block shape and natural, delicious and nutritious labels, participated in the “2019 “Healthy Snacks Containing Vegetable Ingredients” Theme” contest for more than 1,000 people. Out of these works, he won the highest award. This product is mainly made of small vegetable pieces such as corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, edamame, purple potatoes, etc., and then the small vegetable pieces are stacked together to form a larger “cube snack piece”.
After the product was born, Calbee spent more than a year to perfect the taste and formula of this product, and did more than 100 sensory tests to prepare for its commercialization. In the end, Calbee decided to put it as a souvenir for the 10th anniversary of the creative competition and put it on the online store in limited quantities.
Source: Calbee
In 2020, Kellogg’s launched the WK Kellogg by Kids series of children’s snacks for the first time in the UK, and called on more than 2,000 children and their parents to participate in the brainstorming of the new cereal bar series, to develop what children really like and that parents love. More assured healthy snacks.
In January 2021, the brand expanded its WK Kellogg by Kids series, launching two new healthy cereal snack bars made from natural fruits and vegetables, available in two flavors: orange & carrot and strawberry & raspberry & beet root. Each cereal bar has less than 100 calories. The product does not add extra sugar and artificial coloring, and is rich in fiber. It is a healthier choice for children’s snacks.
Source: Kellogg Company
The Kashi by Kids brand is a brand that values the creativity of children extremely. They believe that the true source of children’s snacks is the children themselves, and only children understand what children think. For this reason, Kashi formed a team of creative generation Z leaders between the ages of 12-17. These members are full of novel ideas for environmental protection, sustainable development and healthy eating.
This team uses simple organic plant ingredients to make a variety of nutritious and delicious children’s snacks for children, including berry cereal rings, chocolate cereal rings, and cinnamon-flavored super cereal cereal rings. In addition to simple organic plant ingredients, each product also contains superfood ingredients, such as purple corn, chickpeas, etc., which are considered to be a new choice for nutritional and high-quality breakfast.
Source: Kashi
Actually, in addition to the brand’sHelp and support, in addition to creating the children’s snacks you really want in the form of “co-creation”, you can also create your own brand, as the founder & principal, to create your own products and brands. We have also selected some inspiring and representative brands to share with you.
Look at these amazing child entrepreneurs
Alina Morse X Zolli Candy——I want to eat candy, I also want a healthy smile
Dad, why can’t I eat candy?
Alina Morse is the founder and CEO of Zolli Candy. She has been a child full of ideas since she was a child. She had the idea of becoming a CEO at the age of 3 and realized it at the age of 9. At the age of 15 this year, she founded Zolli Candy with one hand, becoming the fastest growing company in the sugar-free market segment, with a three-year growth rate of more than 600%, and has 25,000 stores worldwide…
The origin of all this happened in the experience of Alina going to the bank with her father when she was 7 years old. At that time, the teller gave her a lollipop, and her father refused to let her eat it because the lollipop would decay her teeth. She thought, it’s natural for children to eat sweets! How painful it is to suppress your own nature! Why can’t we invent a lollipop that does not cavities?
At that moment, the inspiration for Zollipops was born! After two years of plant ingredient testing and sensory testing, Alina worked with food scientists and dentists to develop lollipops that are good for teeth. After that, with the help of her father, Alina went to different food manufacturing plants to find qualified production equipment. In 2014, the brand’s first vegan, all-natural, sugar-free, gluten-free, and non-GMO Zollipops snacks were launched in supermarkets across the United States. Within a year and a half, Zollipops became profitable. In the following four years, sales have doubled every year. After entering the Amazon online market, the product quickly became the best-selling sugar-free lollipop.
Then why is Zollipops a sweet tooth that can really improve teeth? The secret lies in replacing sugar with natural sweeteners such as xylitol and erythritol. These sweeteners can neutralize acidic substances in the oral cavity, reduce dental plaque and oral bacteria, and can really protect teeth while eating sugar; not only add natural ingredients such as citric acid, stevia, beet juice and turmeric as pigments, but also Strictly exclude all possible allergenic ingredients, To be friendly to all potential consumers. After the great success of the first product, Zollipops, Alina used this technology to develop other products in the Zollipops series: Zolli Ball Popz, ZaffiTaffy, Zollidrops, Zolli Caramelz, etc.
Image source: Twitter
Alina is still a very visionary child. She is not limited to the candy field, and prefers to call Zollipops a sugar-free dental care product. Perhaps it is not obvious compared with the hundreds of traditional desserts on the candy track, but if it is put in the field of oral care, it may be an interesting cooperation.
In addition to having the potential to change the candy world, Alina also realizes that it can influence society through meaningful business activities. For example, the “Millions of Smiles” campaign was launched in 2015, giving free Zollipop to dentists and schools, and using 10% of Zolli Candy’s profits to provide schools with free oral health education; in addition, Zolli Candy also promised to donate 4 million Zolli in 2021 Pops, and hopes to increase this number to 22 million, so that 22 million children in the United States can get a Zolli Pops.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Alina ridiculed herself as a “supporter of young women”. This combination of children’s charm and child entrepreneurs created an unstoppable force that helped the company to become one of the leading brands in the confectionery field. In 2018, Alina became the youngest person to be on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine, and she even met the former first lady Michelle Obama. In 2021, Alina was selected by Business Insider as the most under 30One of the eight female entrepreneurs worthy of attention.
Tyla-Simone Crayton X Sienna Sauce——A child with lofty ideals for sauce
Tyla-Simone Crayton, in the impression of the media, she is a confident and ambitious child. Although he started from scratch, relying on its booming sauce business, he won US$25,000 in the Strahan and Sara contest of “Good Morning America”, and then began the road of brand establishment and expansion.
Crayton’s indissoluble bond with sauce occurred when she was 8 years old. She and her mother’s favorite restaurant closed down. She hoped that she could replicate the unique and delicious sauce recipe. In the end, although she did not succeed, she made a mistake. Hit by mistake made a more delicious sauce.
Image source: Voyage Houston
This sauce can be used as a dipping sauce, marinade or the finishing touch in any recipe. It perfectly combines sweetness and light flavor. It can be perfectly matched with chicken, pork, beef or seafood, whether it is oil Fried, smoked, roasted or grilled can highlight its taste.
After that, Crayton opened a restaurant in his home to sell sauces. The introduction of sauces helped them quickly open the local market. However, Crayton is unwilling to be satisfied with this. She hopes that through a large amount of social media exposure, she can quickly open her reputation and attract the attention of the world.
In the past few years, Crayton has participated in the Revolt Summit Pitch competition and won a prize of $10,000, won the Sauce-a-Holic Award and the first Young Entrepreneur Pinnacle Award of the Houston Black Chamber of Commerce; Beyonce even announced the release of his single “Black Parade” 》Part of the proceeds as an investment in Sienna Sauce; now, 17-year-old Crayton, the CEO of Sienna Sauce, has also become an advocate of youth entrepreneurship.
Truman Wilson X The Truman Factory-Let eating candy become a public welfare, full of charity attributes
At the beginning of the establishment of The Truman Factory, Truman Wilson’s vision was to create a company that fits the children’s lifestyle and hobbies, focusing on children’s favorite games, technology, dolls, collections and candies, and providing children with nothing An unparalleled experience. In Wilson’s view, children nowadays are not only pursuing fashion and fashion, but also very socially responsible, but to integrate them into a product and find points that can impress them, perhaps they have to ask the children themselves—— He thinks he is a child who understands children’s minds very well.
In the food field, the core product of The Truman Factory is a milk chocolate bar, Truman Bar. Each wrapping paper contains a lottery ticket with a special code. Children can enter the code online to win surprise prizes. These prizes are carefully selected by Wilson and believe that they will be liked by everyone. This gameplay discrimination is similar to today’s “blind box”, allowing children of the same age to fall in love with this brand by falling in love with the joy and excitement of eating snacks to win surprise prizes.
Image source: The Truman Factory
At the same time, Wilson has also established a partnership with Vogel Alcove to give back to the local community as a child, and use a portion of his profit to provide food, housing and education for homeless children.
Summary
Indeed, when we are researching and developing snacks for children, we often make too many decisions for children, presupposing that they will “what to eat” and “what needs to be eaten””But perhaps we have overlooked one point-the child who knows best what children love to eat is the children themselves. They are fully capable and entitled to give suggestions for their choices.
But from the analysis of these brands and product cases, we found that as long as we give enough space, these children will give us unexpected joy, and may become a high-quality inspiration library for children’s snack innovation.
The market is like an esoteric book, and children are the authors of this book “Children’s Snacks”. Who knows better than the author what he wants? Perhaps on this track, we should be more tolerant of these new forces, encourage them to realize their novel ideas, and inject more vitality into this subdivision field.