VOLUME
29
Feature Story
Kids
Tweens
Teens
Moms and Families
Feature
Story Food,
Glorious Food
Have
you ever been in your local supermarket and just stood in awe
of how many new products always seem to be available? No
matter how often you go, something new always seems to pop up.
It's like you're Christopher Columbus, navigating your shopping
cart and exploring the intricate aisles as you discover new product
after new product. There's a reason for that. The
overall number of products offered in an average-size supermarket
stands at around 22,000. Last year, there were over 21,000
new products introduced. An eye-popping
1,500 actually made it into stores, the highest number in years.
This
trend shows no signs of slowing. Already this year, Coke
® and Pepsi ® have
both launched their mid-calorie colas made with Splenda ®
. Just Strawberries ® , a
strawberry juice drink that has 60 percent less carbs than orange
juice and only 80 calories in a 12 oz. serving, was launched in
March. Also in the drink aisle, with bottled water sales
flat, manufacturers are expected to increase offerings of flavored
water as they bet on the fastest-growing segment of all beverages
to help stimulate profits. Of course, the new products don't
stop with beverages. Debuting in the produce department
are Waterbabies ® , which are sweet and seedless
personal-size watermelons. In September, Hershey's ®
plans to launch the first “fortified” chocolate syrup
with Calcium, Vitamin E, Biotin, Vitamin B5 and Zinc. On
the candy front, M&M Mars ® has introduced
M*Azing ® , a chocolate bar packed with colorful
mini M&M's, in peanut butter and crunchy varieties.
From pancake sandwiches to shrimp burgers, the new products just
keep coming.
As
store size remains relatively constant, shelf space is at a premium.
To gain distribution, a new product has to be attractive enough
to make a retailer want to oust another product. New products
must be based on real consumer insight and be refined for effective
positioning and introduction. Brands have to ensure that
a new product is relevant and won't just be a “fad” or one-time
purchase. Then, to get retailer buy-in and to hang on to
that shelf space, a new product must perform and keep up with
consumers' tastes. With many new product introductions carrying
a price tag in excess of $10 million (before advertising or coupons),
brands can't afford to take new product development lightly.
WonderGroup's
team of product development experts understands what it takes
to create winning concepts for all industries, not just food.
WonderGroup's proprietary WonderWorks™ process uses a variety
of innovative research techniques to develop insight platforms
and engages highly creative consumers (kids and moms) for concept
generation. Throughout the process, senior consultants and
senior management work closely with the client to create polished
concepts built on a foundation of solid insight platforms.
The result is a tried-and-true process with an established track
record for helping brands achieve lasting success with new product
development.
If
you would like to learn more about WonderWorks or how WonderGroup
can help your brand with product development and positioning,
please contact Greg Livingston at 513.357.2950 or
glivingston@wondergroup.com .
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Kids
New Nick ®
Web Sites
The
online division of Nickelodeon ® launched
two new Web sites as part of the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency
Act of 2002. The two new sites are
www.nick.kids.us and
www.nickjr.kids.us . Both Web sites feature
Nickelodeon ® -property-themed games such
as SpongeBob's™ Jellyfish Shuffleboard, The Fairly OddParents'™
Big Superhero Wish Game, Dora's™ Super-Silly Costume Maker, Blue's™
Matching Game and more. The Dot Kids Act created the kids.us
domain to serve as the first child-friendly Internet space for
kids under 13 to play, learn about and surf the Web. The
kids.us Internet address is open to all consumers, businesses,
educators and government agencies and organizations in the U.S.
or with a U.S. presence to register Internet addresses and create
websites. Besides Nickelodeon, many other entities have
created kids.us sites including PBS ® , The
Smithsonian ® , and the U.S. government.
WonderGroup's
Perspective
Nickelodeon
is often the trendsetter when it comes to things in the kids world.
Look for others to follow suit and create kids.us Web sites.
It's doubtful whether
www.nick.kids.us is any safer for kids or more
assuring to parents because nick.com is already recognized as
a safe site. Most kids (and parents) will still probably
go to nick.com and nickjr.com over their kids.us counterparts
because kids.us is still a relatively unknown domain. Still,
it is nice for Nickelodeon to step up and take the lead on this.
Maybe they can spur the development and expansion of the kids.us
domain. One day, there may be enough kids.us sites to keep
kids entertained so that there will be no need for them to visit
potentially objectionable sites on other domains. Then,
whether a site has a kids.us domain or not would serve as a sufficient
guideline for parents and kids to use when determining which Web
sites are appropriate to visit. This would be especially
helpful for lesser-known sites. Instead of parents having
to check out every unfamiliar site their kids want to go on, they
would know that as long as it's a kids.us site, it's okay.
Computer features could even be developed to allow parents to
block out all non-kids.us sites when a child is online.
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Tweens
Sophisticated Palates
Tweens
have an open mind and are adventurous when it comes to their food
choices. A study done with 10-to-13 year olds by the Center
for Culinary Development ®
reveals that “American” ranks a lowly fifth on
the list of tweens' favorite foods. Chinese is the number
one choice of ethnic cuisines for 39 percent of tweens.
Mexican comes in second with 21 percent, followed by Japanese
and Italian. The study also shows that quesadillas are becoming
the new grilled cheese with 87 percent awareness among these tweens,
and a vast majority saying they have tried them, liked them and
would eat them again. 86 percent of tweens are aware of
sushi and of those who have tried it, 65 percent liked it.
Even the Indian street food, samosas, garnered a 16 percent awareness
level among these tweens.
WonderGroup's
Perspective
Tweens'
growing affection for different kinds of food can be attributed
to the fact that they have much greater exposure to them.
Ethnic foods are everywhere. Families continue to eat out
more often, increasing demand for more restaurants and different
dining choices. Answering the call, new restaurants featuring
ethnic cuisines are popping up everywhere and ethnic chains continue
to expand. Ethnic cuisine is also beginning to influence
new dishes appearing at traditional “American” eateries.
Whether visiting a fast-food joint or a white-linen establishment,
it's nearly impossible not to find some sort of ethnic cuisine
on the menu. For those families who still enjoy an occasional
meal at home, ethnic foods are becoming more prevalent in grocery
stores as well. Stores are increasing the size of their
ethnic aisles and ethnic-inspired flavors are beginning to enter
snack and other food categories. Tweens are even exposed
to these foods at school as cafeterias regularly serve tacos,
quesadillas, lasagna and other ethnic lunches. As
the population becomes more diverse, tweens are also exposed to
different foods through their friends. All of this adds
up to tons of exposure and lots of opportunity to sample these
foods. Since tweens see ethnic food everywhere, they view
it as “normal” and are unafraid to try it. Expect ethnic
cuisine to expand to new areas and become even more mainstream.
As popular ethnic cuisine becomes blasé, look for culinary
trendsetters and restaurateurs to turn to less-familiar ethnicities
to derive inspiration in their quest to bring something new and
different to the table.
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Teens
Back-to-School Blues
Riddle:
What's something retailers look forward to, but kids and teens
dread? Back-to-school time, of course. According to
the National Retail Federation ®
, families with school-aged children will spend
an average of $483 on back-to-school items this year. That's
up from $450 in 2003. Back-to-school may be big business
for retailers, but it means big stress for teens. According
to a national survey conducted by Insight Express ®
, 42 percent of kids aged 13-17 believe that selecting
the right outfit for the first day of school is more stressful
than homework (29 percent), being called on in class (19 percent)
or extracurricular activities (10 percent). While it's true that
parents may look forward to the day their teen(s) gets back to
class, back-to-school season means stress for them as well.
Besides dishing out all that money, moms are key players in doing
the actual shopping for 75 percent of these teens.
WonderGroup's
Perspective
As
school officials continue to have trouble battling students over
what defines appropriate school attire and as kids become more
stressed out over what to wear, expect to see the adoption of
stricter dress codes, and even uniforms, by many school systems.
As dress codes become stricter, clothing manufacturers will have
to respond and reach a perfect balance between remaining “cool”
and offering clothes that teens will actually be allowed to wear
to school. On the retail side, just like the holiday season,
retailers will continue pushing for the very profitable back-to-school
shopping season to start earlier and earlier.
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Moms and Families What's
With Coupons?
We've
all been in focus groups or casual conversations with moms trying
to figure out what it will take to get them to buy a certain product.
One mother invariably responds, “I won't buy something like that
unless it's on sale or I have a coupon.” Immediately following
that statement, a loud “mmh hmm” fills the room as most of the
other moms agree in unison. Then, when you're talking to
kids and asking them what would make a product they seem to love
even better, without fail, one of the little angels always pipes
up, “Put it on sale or give out a big coupon so my mom will buy
it.” Okay, I get sales, but what is with all this coupon
talk? I mean, they take so much time to clip and they offer
only a few pennies off of stuff you don't really want or need
anyway, right? Well, not exactly. While the face value
of the average coupon is 85 cents, they can add up to big savings.
In fact, American consumers saved nearly $3 billion last year
by using coupons. According to Carolina Manufacturer's Service
® , consumers
threw away $267 billion in potential savings. The average
coupon user spends about 20 minutes of clipping and planning and
saves about $12 a week. That's 10-12 percent off the average
shopping bill. Savings become even more significant when
clippers combine coupons with double savings programs and supermarkets'
loyalty-card memberships.
WonderGroup's
Perspective
Expect
to see coupon usage remain strong. Coupons and clear, meaningful
communication in Free Standing Inserts will continue to provide
a powerful means to manage and influence demand for products.
Plus, look for more consumers to start “clicking” their coupons
rather than “clipping” them. The continued proliferation
of electronic coupons will bring increased coupon usage as it
becomes easier for consumers to find targeted savings every single
day and easily forward those savings on to friends. However,
despite the power of coupons, a top-notch product, paired with
just the right positioning, will still consistently beat out discounts
for sales and profits.
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Drop Us a Line
Thanks
for reading! If you have any questions or comments or would like
to submit a possible idea for an article in an upcoming issue
of Youth University , please email Adam Siegel at asiegel@wondergroup.com
.
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New Product Development, Research and Promotions. You
can learn more about WonderGroup by clicking the wondergroup.com
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