NEW YORK -- Americans spent almost $27.7 billion on salty snacks in the year that ended Feb. 25, 2017. That's up 4.6% in dollar sales compared to the previous year. This growing opportunity is a big one for convenience stores and the manufacturers that are helping to stock those shelves.
As a result, consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers in the snack category are working to innovate their offering in more creative and flavorful ways. Nielsen's new Quick Screen tool is designed to help fast-moving CPG manufacturers test new product concept ideas overnight. Nielsen's research shows that almost half of the new products that brands test with consumers don’t address a real need. And because of that, many new items struggle to succeed, wasting money on production, distribution, marketing and advertising. Quick Screen is designed to test new-product ideas overnight and then evaluate the results based on consumer "need and uniqueness" to determine which ones have the most potential.
To test the tool's capabilities, Nielsen looked at an initial set of 25 flavor/concept ideas for snacks that scored high on consumers' minds around need/desire and uniqueness. The goal was to determine which resonated the most with consumers.
The following list of flavors represent the ones that drove the most need/desire and were considered the most unique, differentiated and innovative among consumers:
- Brown sugar and spicy BBQ potato chips
- Salsa flavored pita
- Garlic and lemon flavored pita
- Roasted cauliflower chips
- BBQ chicken chips
- Lamb feta chips
- Coconut chips
- Avocado and black bean chips
- Goat meat curry chips
- Pineapple habanero potato chips
Some of these flavors may seem a bit wild, but they represent a growing mulitcultural influence and incorporate popular flavor concepts from Mediterranean and Asian inspired cuisine, according to Nielsen.
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