n ew n utrition business · n ew n utrition business volume 15 number 3 –nutrition.com december...

N E W N U T R I T I O N

B U S I N E S Swww.new–nutrition.com DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010 ISSN 1464-3308VOLUME 15 NUMBER 3

T H E J O U R N A L F O R H E A L T H Y E A T I N G , F U N C T I O N A L F O O D S & N U T R A C E U T I C A L S

Pages 41-54Page 24-27 Page 38-40

Seven Micro Trends: from protein power

to cholesterol-lowering

Each year at this time we publish our annual review of the Ten Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health. These are the important trends which we believe will shape the business of food and health not only in the next 12 months but for many years beyond – trends which we believe every company must take into account in developing a food and nutrition strategy.

We focus not on short-term fads but on the underlying key drivers for our industry. There’s a big difference between a trend and a fad. Many of the forecasts made for functional foods and beverages in recent years have proven to be wrong – such as the booming market for beauty foods that we were promised, or claims that eye health would be big. Both have turned out to be no-go areas and are likely to stay that way for a long time to come.

What have emerged instead are some consistent, long-term trends, each of which presents opportunities for companies to carve out a place for themselves. The 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health for 2010 are:

1. Digestive health2. Natural health 3. A benefit the consumer can feel4. Energy5. Fruit: the future of functional foods6. Antioxidants7. Weight management8. Snacking9. Packaging and premiumisation10. Bones and movement

We also include Seven Micro-Trends. These cover secondary opportunities and challenges, address changes which are taking place which are not yet significant or, as in the case of ‘beauty foods’, look at why something widely hyped is in fact going to stay niche. Many so-called trends can become blind alleys for product developers, while some small areas that are overlooked can sometimes show stirrings of potential.

The Micro-Trends are:1. Protein power2. Kids’ nutrition3. New life for heart health and cholesterol-

lowering4. Probiotics’ new prospects5. Immunity6. Omega-37. Skin and beauty

We do not overlook the uncertainties that most companies in Europe face with what are now the world’s most restrictive health claim regulations coming into force – and being implemented in a way that seems both muddled and capricious, with even independent scientific researchers describing the European regulators’ decisions as “ill-informed and badly-researched”.

Hence on page 55 we summarise which trends we think can be pursued in Europe and why. And in fact every trend analysis in this report briefly addresses the restrictions and opportunities for European companies – one of the most dramatic, for example, may be the

disappearance of the word “antioxidant” from product labels and advertising as Europe’s regulator decides that it doesn’t like the science behind antioxidants.

Last year we predicted that the effect of the economic downturn would be to reinforce the core nutrition business trends and sweep away the fads, and we added that the brands and ingredients which would benefit most would be those that give a benefit that the consumer can quickly see or feel (see Key Trend 3).

Thus products for digestive health and for energy would remain strong – and so it has proved. While consumers are willing to cut back in many areas – consumer electronics, cars and luxuries – they see products that provide a benefit they can feel as good value-for-money, even when they are sold at super-premium prices:

• Many well-supported digestive health brands that deliver a clear benefi t have recorded growth rates of 20% or more during the economic recession (see Key Trend 1). It is also worth noting that the most successful digestive health brands have succeeded despite being sold at premium prices (see Key Trend 9).

• Energy drink sales (see Key Trend 4) also continued to increase by double-digits in many markets – by 29% in one country – while “daily dose” energy drinks or “shots” have seen their sales soar in the recessionary US and the UK, with the US market alone growing at least 100% to $600 million (€660 million) during

10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2010

Continued on page 3

Key Trend 5: Fruit and superfruit –

the future of food and health

Key Trend 10: Bones and movement

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5-hour Energy ...........................................21,23

All Market ......................................................17

Animal Parade Tooth Fairy ...........................47

Anlene ........................................18,19,37,38,39

Annie’s ............................................................44

Ardmona ...................................................24,25

Benecol ......................................................45,51

BLIS ...............................................................47

Blue Diamond ................................................16

Bravo Friscus ..................................................49

Calcifort .........................................................38

Calpis Fibe-Mini ...........................................6,7

Campbell’s Chunky ........................................41

Clesa Activ Ossia ......................................38,39

Coca-Cola .................................................17,21

Compal Essencial ............................26,27,34,36

Dairy Queen ....................................................3

Dan Active ................................................10,48

Danimals ........................................................36

Dannon ..........................................................36

Danone Actimel ........................................19,48

Danone Activia .......5,6,7,10,12,18,19,36,37,46

Danone Danacol ............................................45

Danone Densia ..............................................39

Danone Essensis .........................19,28,52,53,54

Danone Vitalinea Satifaccion ...................32,42

Danone ......................................3,7,10,47,48,49

DSM Fabuless ................................................32

Elations ......................................................19,40

Emmi .........................................................22,23

Emminent .................................................22,23

Flat Earth .......................................................34

Flora pro.activ ................................................45

Fonterra .....................................................37,39

Friesland Campina Calcifort ..........................38

Friesland Campina Optimel Control .............32

Full Throttle ...................................................21

General Mills Fiber One ...............5,6,8,9,11,18

General Mills Green Giant ............................48

Glanbia Nutritionals ......................................41

GoodBelly Big Shot .......................................46

GoodBelly ...................................................7,35

Hero Fruit2Day ....................................24,34,36

Innocent Veg Pots ...........................13,14,15,16

John West .......................................................51

Kagome Labre .................................................7

Kellogg .......................................12,43,44,48,49

Kellogg’s Fiber Plus ................................9,11,12

Kellogg’s Special K ..........19,31,32,37,41,42,43

Kraft .................................................................8

Live Active ......................................................8

Living Essentials .............................................21

McDonalds .....................................................17

MiniCol ..........................................................45

Minute Maid .......................................21,22,29

Monster ..........................................................20

Mother Earth .................................................14

Müller .............................................................50

Muscle Milk ...................................................43

Nescafé ...........................................................28

Nestlé Glowelle ..............................................54

Nestlé Juicy Juice .......................................44,48

NOS ...............................................................21

Numico...........................................................48

Ocean Spray Cranergy ..................................22

Ocean Spray .............................................26,28

Old Orchard ....................................................3

Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Oronamin C ..........23

Paramount Farms...........................................17

PepsiCo ..........................................................17

Pom Wonderful .....................25,28,29,30,36,37

PomX ...................................................25,30,37

Progresso High Fiber ..................................9,12

ProViva .....................................6,7,12,18,26,36

Puleva .............................................................50

Quorn.............................................................41

Red Bull ............................................3,20,21,23

Relentless ........................................................20

Selena ........................................................16,29

Shark ...........................................................3,20

Sipahh Unistraw ...........................................7,8

Sirco ...............................................................45

Skåne Dairy ...........................................6,48,49

Snack a Jacks ..................................................33

Sunsweet Ones ..........................................33,34

Tip Top Up ....................................................51

Unilever SlimFast ...........................................32

Vita Coco ..................................................17,36

Yakult ............................................3,5,6,7,18,47

Young’s ...........................................................50

EDITORIAL: 10 KEY TRENDS IN FOOD, NUTRITION & HEALTH 2010

1,3 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2010

4 Chart 1: The nutritional product life cycle – where the trends sit

5-12 Key Trend 1: Digestive health – a mega- trend moves beyond the tipping point

13-17 Key Trend 2: An intrinsic health benefit that’s also convenient

18-19 Key Trend 3: Feel the benefit – the most powerful marketing message

20-23 Key Trend 4: Energy – a world of untapped opportunities

24-27 Key Trend 5: Fruit and superfruit – the future of food and health

28-30 Key Trend 6: Antioxidants: Big in America, dead in Europe?

31-32 Key Trend 7: Weight management

33-34 Key Trend 8: Healthy snacking

35-37 Key Trend 9: Packaging and premiumisation

38 -40 Key Trend 10: Bones and movement

41-43 Micro-Trend 1: Protein power

44 Micro-Trend 2: Kids nutrition

45 Micro-Trend 3: New life for cholesterol- lowering

46-47 Micro-Trend 4: Probiotics’ new prospects

48-49 Micro-Trend 5: Immunity – a great claim that’s hard to use

50-51 Micro-Trend 6: Fresh start for omega-3?

52-54 Micro-Trend 7: Beauty an ultra-niche opportunity

TRENDS AND REGULATION

55 The future for Europe

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56-58 Functional & healthy-eating new product launches

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E D I T O R I A L : 1 0 K E Y T R E N D S

2009. Again, this has been achieved at premium prices (see Key Trend 9).

Both markets still have huge areas of unfulfilled potential and a wealth of possibilities for product developers to introduce new products and create new market segments.

THE FUTURE IS ASIA

Our trends don’t neglect Asia – Europe may be losing its leading position in innovation in food and health, but Asia is set to become even more important and that’s reflected in the fact that more and more Western companies are investing in R&D facilities there. Already Asian trends and innovations have strongly influenced the nutritional business in the West more than most people appreciate. Asia – and particularly Japan – is the origin of most of the successful functional concepts; energy drinks have been around in Japan since the 1960s, Red Bull originated in Thailand in 1973 and Red Bull worldwide is still 50% owned by Thailand’s biggest brewing family. The world’s number two energy drink brand – Shark – is also Thai-owned. Energy shots, a concept suddenly getting attention in the West, have been around in Asia for 30 years.

Companies such as Yakult continue to benefi t from their Asian focus. Asia, excluding Japan, already accounts for 45% of Yakult’s worldwide business and in most of Asia Yakult’s digestive health drinks enjoy growth rates of 20%-30% a year. Yakult has also entered India in a 50/50 joint venture with Danone. India is a market that is likely to

become, in a short space of time, as important as China, Japan or the US and it can only be a matter of time before Indian health brands make a mark in the West just as Japanese and Thais ones have.

FREE-FROM MOVES FROM TREND TO INDUSTRY STANDARD

Since 2000 we have highlighted the growing consumer interest in terms such as “free-from artificial additives and preservatives” and “all-natural” and “natural ingredients”. They have become key terms of reassurance for consumers in most countries. Today the use of such a message has become a basic requirement for the label of any brand, even those without an overt health position. Likewise any company that can use as many “natural ingredients’ as possible has to do so (even if its products aren’t “all natural”). What were once messages in the health food store have become mainstream in every supermarket.

Similarly the “free-from gluten” (or free-from wheat or dairy) message has also evolved to become a reassurance message that every product carries if it can. Gluten-free is no longer a separate category, it has become a standard message on any maninstream brand that can justify using it and more and more brands make “gluten-free” a guiding principal of new product development.

In fact, such is the consumer buzz around gluten-free products that some companies (except in markets where regulation prevents it) proclaim their products “gluten-free” even if consumers would have no reasonable expectation that the product, in any form, would contain gluten. For example:

• Marketing representatives of Dairy Queen, the Warren Buffett-owned ice-cream chain have begun communicating their ice-cream is gluten-free.

• So too have makers of fruit juice. “What we found odd is that there

simply wouldn’t be gluten in our products – they’re fruit juices,” said Kevin Miller, fruit juice maker Old Orchard’s vice president of marketing. “But we got so many questions that we decided to put it on our packaging.”

One of the drivers for this is that ageing populations have found that with age comes apparently greater susceptibility to food intolerances, and gluten – a protein in wheat, oats and barley, among some other grains – has emerged as a primary culprit. Parents, too, are increasingly sensitized to the possibility of food allergies in their kids, and avoiding peanuts and gluten seem to be the two leading ways they’re responding.

Gluten is known for aggravating celiac disease, but much of the interest in gluten-free comes from a growing consumer belief that gluten in foods contributes to digestive disorders. Consumers believe they can improve their digestive health (Key Trend 1) and they feel the benefit (Key Trend 3) if they avoid gluten in their diet. As one food industry executive told NNB: “There’s a lot of consumer pull, and the more they’re seeking out information, the easier our job becomes.”

The 10 Key Trends and the Seven Micro-Trends are already yielding sales growth and increased profi ts for the companies that are connecting to them, particularly those connecting to multiple trends. They are based on 15 years of researching, analysing, explaining and forecasting the future of the nutrition business; at New Nutrition Business we conduct around 350 interviews a year with industry executives worldwide. We strive to make our analysis and forecasting clear, incisive, in-depth, well-informed and practical.

Finally, we wish all our readers a successful – and healthy – 2010!

Julian [email protected]

Continued from front page

Messages such as “gluten-free” will join other “free-from” and “natural” messages in becoming everyday benefi ts offered by mainstream products. Even America’s biggest cereal company now treats gluten-free as a mainstream concern (1 in 130 Americans).




CHART 1: THE NUTRITIONAL PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE – WHERE THE TRENDS SIT

The chart below was developed to aid understanding of brand positioning and the evolution of markets. Many products start out on the left, targeting consumers who have a need for a product that has effective technology. They sell in low volumes at premium prices but over time their appeal increases and they move down the price curve to the right, eventually becoming mass-market products. Few functional foods have yet made this transition – many companies deliberately target the lifestyle area as a way of creating a defensible niche and maintaining premium prices. Below we show where some of the Key Trends and the Micro-Trends – and the brands that are working with these trends – currently sit on the life-cycle. The stages of the life cycle are:

Technology consumers – These are the early adopters, people who have a near-medical need for a product. They need the technology of the functional food to address their health condition. They see products in a medicalised context and, as with drugs, they will pay a substantial premium for something that addresses their condition.

Lifestyle consumers – They are interested in maintaining their wellness, not fighting illness. They will adopt new brands and will pay a premium for a product but only if it supports their lifestyle.

Mass-market consumers – They are motivated when a benefit becomes a standard and is available in products with low or no premiums, ideally from well-known and trusted brands.

Source: Mellentin & Wennström, The Food & Health Marketing Handbook

TECHNOLOGY CONSUMERS

LIFESTYLECONSUMERS

MASS-MARKETCONSUMERS

Solid line = sales volumes

Broken line = unit selling price

6% - 8% of consumers 20% - 25% of consumers 67% - 74% of consumers

SALES

TIME

Omega-3

Protein

Bones &Movement

Fruit & Superfruit

Weight management

Energy

Digestive health

Heart & Cholesterol

Naturally healthy




Digestive health is the single-largest area of the food-and-health markets in Europe, Japan and South America – and it is on the path to becoming the largest in the US, too, where the food industry is at last embracing an opportunity it had neglected until the sudden success of Danone’s Activia probiotic brand forced food marketers to notice.

For fibre and probiotic suppliers the difference in American product developers’ interest in digestive health pre- and post-Activia is “like the difference between night and day” as one industry executive told New Nutrition Business.

Although probiotics have hitherto been the dominant ingredient type in digestive health, fibre is now at the tipping point, with the success of some “expert brands” using fibre as their keynote ingredient, coupled with growing consumer interest in the benefits of fibre, coming together for the first time to spur a surge in interest in the market potential of fibre.

In Europe, in particular, a health claims regime which places demands more onerous than those on pharmaceuticals, is likely to reduce the number of probiotic products

that can make health claims – which will be a competitive advantage for the few that remain that are able to secure claim approvals. Fibre is likely to benefit, since companies in Europe will have to find niches which can deliver benefits based on non-controversial science, dominating them through marketing and distribution muscle, packaging innovation and big promotional budgets. A fibre-digestive health message – though possibly not the term “prebiotic” – should be able to form the basis for such a strategy.

The value to consumers of products that can help them maintain good digestive health is reflected in the outstanding performance of many digestive health brands even while the global economy was in recession.

It has become clear that while consumers are willing to cut back in many areas – consumer electronics, cars and luxuries – they see products that support their digestive wellness as good value-for-money, even when they are sold at super-premium prices.

Key Trend 1: Digestive health – a mega-trend moves beyond

the tipping pointSUMMARY

• Products for digestive health account for the single-largest segment of the functional foods market in Europe, Japan and elsewhere and will remain so for some time to come. Digestive health will probably also become the largest part of the market in the US.

• The value to consumers of products that can help them maintain good digestive health is reflected in the outstanding sales performance of many digestive health brands even while the global economy was in recession. It has become clear that while consumers are willing to economise in some areas, digestive health is not one of them. This is a testament to the power of “feel the benefit” (see Key Trend 3).

• In probiotic products dairy is the dominant format and we expect it to remain so. However, some non-dairy forms, such as juice, will take a large niche position. No other food forms will have more than a toehold. “Dry form” probiotics will exist but will be ultra-niche sellers.

• Fibre is at last coming of age and added fibre will become an industry standard in many categories such as bread.

• However the biggest opportunity lies in the potential to create fibre “expert brands” – similar to the probiotic “expert brands” Activia and Yakult – which deliver an effective dose of fibre so that people can “feel the benefit” and are well-supported. The first one to emerge is General Mills Fibre One, which has achieved 20% annual growth even at premium prices and even in a recession.

• Product benefit focus will remain on laxation and intestinal transit time. Opportunities exist for health claims for products that can use human clinical studies to demonstrate the effect – even in Europe.

In Italy, although the economy shrank by 6% – the worst decline for any major European economy – sales of Danone’s premium-priced Activia digestive health brand actually grew by an impressive 19.5%, to €222.5 million ($325 million), according to IRI.




Consider the following growth figures for 2009:

• In Italy, although the economy shrank by 6% – the worst decline for any major European economy – sales of Danone’s premium-priced Activia digestive health brand actually grew by an impressive 19.5%, to €222.5 million ($325 million), according to IRI, giving it a 38% share of a “healthy yoghurts” market valued by IRI at €581 million ($849 million).

• In the UK, the economy shrank by 5.2%, the worst fall since the 1930s, and the overall yoghurt market was static, yet according to Nielsen data sales of the Activia brand grew 15.2% to over €210 million ($314 million), making it the single-biggest yoghurt brand in the UK.

• In the US, General Mills’ Fiber One breakfast cereal brand increased its sales by 20%, to over $225 million (€150 million).

• In the US Yakult increased its sales by 44%.

• In the US Danone Activia’s sales growth slowed to 8% – still above the category growth rate of 3% and despite an economic downturn and adverse media reporting of a legal threat to Activia’s claims. Total sales hit $355 million (€240 million) in the year to August 2009.

• In Sweden, the ProViva probiotic juice brand, based on one of the world’s most-researched probiotic bacteria, increased its sales by 8% in a juice market which saw no growth.

• In Asia sales of Yakult also grew by 42% in China, 21% in the Philippines, 31% in Malaysia and in double-digits in many other markets.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that it was questions about digestive health that actually started all the functional food trends that we have today. In the mid-1980s a Japanese government report called for more fibre in the Japanese diet. This in turn led to the launch of the first functional food, Calpis Fibe-Mini brand (a fruit juice with added fibre), in 1988. To this day, products for digestive health are still 45% of the Japanese market.

It is also worth noting that the most successful digestive health brands have succeeded despite being sold at premium prices (see Key Trend 10). The benefit of good digestive health is one for which a sizeable minority of consumers are willing to pay and these consumer have high repeat purchase rates.

Marketers of products with a digestive health platform have a big advantage on their side (see Key Trend 3), compared to most other health benefits, which is that consumers are most persuaded by and most loyal to products where they can feel an almost immediate benefit.

With digestive health you can very quickly

find out if a product is effective or not and if it gives you the benefit of better digestive health – and, therefore, an improvement in your quality of life.

Consumers with digestive health issues can draw real and tangible benefits from probiotic and fibre-fortified products that can deliver on their promise.

Digestive health is a “wellness” issue, not (like cholesterol-lowering) a “death and disease” issue. Digestive disorders (ranging from diarrhoea to constipation, bloating and discomfort) are felt by everyone from time-to-time, owing to a range of factors including diet, stress and demanding lifestyles. Women seem to have a greater interest in digestive health and for many of them the feelings brought about by a digestive disorder can have a significant impact on wellbeing. Bloating is a particularly pervasive issue for many women.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN PROBIOTICS

In Europe, the dairy industry – and particularly Danone – has captured the high ground of probiotics. The same can be said of Asia, South America and the US. Dairy products, more than any other category, are associated with the digestive health message, and in particular probiotic dairy products.

2

Women have a strong interest in digestive health. Bloating is a particularly pervasive issue for many women and addressing the feeling of bloatedness has long been a focus of advertising for brands such as Activia.

Source: Skåne Dairy

CHART 2: PROVIVA SALES 1994 - 2009

After years of steady growth, sales took off in 2006 after Skåne Dairy backed the brand with its biggest-ever marketing investment. Sales have kept growing despite economic downturn, refl ecting the marketing power of “a benefi t you can feel” – digestive health – coupled with excellent taste and consistent brand communications.

Amount

sold

(millions

of

litres)

0

5

10

15

20

25

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

30

(forecast)




The dairy sector can be said to effectively “own” the “digestive-health-from-probiotics” message.

However there are significant groups of consumers, particularly in Asia and Africa, who perceive dairy products as having disadvantages in terms of their content of fat or lactose or who just want to have a plant-based diet or who simply aren’t used to the taste of dairy.

There’s no reason why dairy should have such a monopoly. For the segment of consumers who want digestive health benefits but want them in a non-dairy form there are in most countries almost no alternatives – and certainly none that could be said to be convenient.

Probiotic Juice

It’s our belief that probiotic fruit juice is one category that can provide consumers with a viable alternative to dairy. Fruit juice is consumed everywhere, appeals to all types of consumers, has little or no negatives associated with it – especially now that product developers are so focused on lowering the calorific value and have an increasing arsenal of ingredients to enable them to do so – and it can be delivered in highly convenient packages to allow individual, on-the-go consumption. Its convenience and

taste appeal are advantages that few other categories can match.

Moreover, in consumers’ minds fruit is a natural and credible vehicle for the digestive health message. Fruits such as fig, pear, prune, plum, kiwi, rhubarb – and many others – have a traditional association with digestive health in many countries. It’s for this reason that a digestive health dairy brand such as Danone’s Activia spoonable yoghurt uses such fruits as the flavours for its product, even though it’s the probiotic bacteria in the yoghurt, not the fruit, that deliver the digestive health benefit. The choice of fruit serves to reinforce the association with digestive health.

It’s an opportunity that’s so-far under-exploited but, like all good ideas, the idea of juice drinks for digestive health is a very simple one and it’s already been around for a long time:

Calpis’ Fibe-Mini, a fruit juice with added fibre, was launched in Japan in 1988, and it still has annual sales of $45 million (€29.7 million).

ProViva, launched in Sweden in 1994, has shown how successful probiotic fruit juice (using a vegetable-source bacteria, not a dairy bacteria) can be even in a country – Sweden – which has a very high per capita consumption of dairy products and in which lactose intolerance is rare. It has annual retail sales of 25 million litres, worth around €50 million ($75 million), in a country with a population of just 9.1 million. If such a high per capita consumption were to be translated into the US market it would be equivalent to a $2.2 billion (€1.5 billion) brand.

GoodBelly, launched in 2008, is the US version of ProViva. It is essentially the same product based on the same active ingredient. Now targeted at early adopters after an abortive attempt to jump straight into the mass

market, it has annual retail sales of around $10 million (€6.6 million.)

Kagome Labre, a fruit-and-vegetable juice, launched in Japan and also based on a non-dairy probiotic bacteria, has sales of $50 million (€33 million).

Although a clear opportunity exists for probiotic juice brands, given how strongly the dairy sector “owns” the digestive-health-from-probiotics message in the mind of the consumer, such juice brands will sell at lower levels overall than probiotic dairy – they will be “big niche” brands, making a good profit for their owners. The example of ProViva (see sales on Chart 2) shows that it’s a concept that grows its market slowly and over the long term.

Shelf-stable probiotics

In many markets the probiotic dairy market has come to be dominated by just a few large players – such as Danone and Yakult. The opportunities for new dairy digestive health brands still exist, most notably in markets such as India (where Yakult and Danone in fact entered the market in partnership in 2008), where rapidly-increasing wealth is giving rise to a growing urban middle-class with the will and the disposable income to invest in foods for their health.

In the countries where UHT dairy products are popular or where the chilled dairy distribution chain is under-developed then dairy companies can still participate in the probiotic trend, but they will need to use innovation in delivery systems. An example of such an innovation is the Unistraw (see illustration). Originally developed to carry milk fl avourings it is sold under the Sipahh brand in over 50 countries. Unistraw has adapted its delivery system to work with probiotic bacteria so that companies can attach a straw delivering a dose of bugs to the outside of a shelf-stable milk drink.

Interestingly, there are many in industry, particularly in the US, who believe that there are opportunities for shelf-stable products such as bars, cereals, bread and confectionery to deliver probiotics.

Over the last 10 years there have been plenty of attempts by other categories to coat-tail on rising consumer acceptance of the benefits of probiotics. However, the

Kellogg Pop Tarts are the fi rst product to offer increased levels of fi bre. Kellogg aims to have 80% of its products labelled as “good” or “excellent” sources of fi bre by the end of 2009.




marketing of the dairy industry has been so effective; its products so good; and its connecting of probiotics with the consumer logic of “live and active” bacteria in yoghurt and dairy drinks so thorough, that no other category has been able to compete, even other dairy categories such as cheese.

In European probiotic cereals, cheese, sausages, bars and many other food forms have already been attempted – mostly in Germany, Europe’s biggest and longest-established probiotic market – and almost all have disappeared from the market or survive as very marginal brands.

Interestingly, the same lesson is now being re-learnt in the US, where marketers have long struggled to transfer lessons from other markets into an American context.

One of the biggest failures comes from Kraft Foods, which does not appear to have learned from any of the many successes and failures of the last 15 years. Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfield admitted to a meeting of stock analysts in 2009 that its LiveActive probiotic cheeses “turned out to be a disappointment to us”.

Kraft executive Basil Maglaris later confirmed to New Nutrition Business that sales of the company’s probiotic bars were below expectations, producing less than $20 million (€14 million) in retail sales in its first year. Its smaller competitor, Attune, is another brand that has failed to persuade consumers – retail sales are said to be static at less than $10 million (€7 million), five years after it was first launched.

To put this into some kind of context, total US sales of Fiber One digestive health cereal bars in the year to May 2009 were over $130 million (€92 million) – that’s more than four times the combined sales of all the competing probiotic bars.

Many probiotic companies are investing heavily in enhancing the stability, heat-resistance and so on of probiotic bacteria. Where such technology can add more value in beverages and supplements then it will be successful. But those companies targeting “dry-form” probiotic foods face an uphill battle.

Probiotic “dry-form” foods will, of course, achieve some sales – in today’s increasingly fragmented market for health, everything does – but such products will be marginal brands. Anyone who invests heavily in technology to create such products had better have a business plan that realizes large profi ts from very low volume sales. Source: Infoscan Reviews, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI)

CHART 3: THE RAPID GROWTH OF FIBER ONE ($ MILLIONS)

General Mills’ Fiber One brand has grown massively since 2006 on a digestive health platform and its positioning as the “expert brand” in fi bre.

Sales shown are in US supermarkets (excl. Wal-Mart)

All other products

Yoghurt

RTE cereal

Cereal bars

US $(millions)

02006

$36.71

2007 2008 Latest 52 Weeks

Ending May 17, 2009

$36.71 $63.74

$40.32

$104.06

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

240

$112.90

$40.93

$40.93$7.19

$186.57

$130.87

$46.69

$28.58

$19.13

$225.28

The Unistraw delivery system was originally developed to carry fl avourings – and under the Sipahh brand Unistraw’s milk fl avouring straws have become very successful and are marketed in over 50 countries. Unistraw has adapted its delivery system to deliver probiotic bacteria, enabling dairy companies in countries without chilled distribution to offer the health benefi ts of probiotics encapsulated in a straw attached to the milk package.




FIBRE AT THE TIPPING POINT?

In solid foods fibre beats probiotics every time. Certainly in solid foods fibre has largely won the war against probiotics. Probiotics are now naturally associated with chilled dairy as a result of two decades of promotion by the dairy industry – where it is a “natural” ingredient. Probiotics are not something that’s seen as natural in solid foods – even when the technology allows it. Live bacteria on breakfast cereal? That’s not something most people can understand.

Fibre has digestive health benefits in solid foods all sewn up. It’s unusual that marketers and product developers have before them an opportunity that is so evident, or so much insight from other markets on how to make this new digestive health opportunity work, or so much technology at their disposal to create effective products.

By contrast with probiotics, fi bre has been something of a Cinderella ingredient. Its potential and beauty under-appreciated, it has been the unglamorous ingredient of the food industry, often viewed as an after-thought addition, improving a product’s health halo or replacing a less healthy ingredient in an existing recipe. Its potential to enable companies to create distinctive brands with strong consumer appeal – that also sell at premium prices and grow faster than non-fi bre brands even in recession – has been overlooked. More “glamorous” ingredients – omega-3s and plant sterols, probiotics – have seized the limelight. But Cinderella is about to go to the ball.

The success of Fiber One is just one of a number of developments which suggest that fi bre at long last is at the tipping point.

Kellogg is enhancing the fibre content of many of its ready-to-eat cereals in the US and Canada, pledging that nearly 80% of its cereal line will become “at least good to excellent sources of fibre” by the end of next year.

General Mills-owned Progresso aims to use the benefits of fibre to stake out new territory in the US soup business (see box).

Fibre’s fi ve factors in its favour

Innovative ingredients such as omega-3s, sterols, lutein, Coenzyme Q10 and a host of others have been hyped up over the last 15 years by some ingredient manufacturers.

Consumers, however, have largely rejected these ingredients. An ingredient is of itself not a benefi t – that’s one of the most powerful

DIGESTIVE SOUP?

General Mills-owned Progresso aims to use the benefits of fibre to stake out new territory in the US soup business, rolling out a new sub-brand, called High-Fiber. The four flavours will include at least 7g of fibre per serving, more than a quarter of the RDV.

“With so many consumers looking to put more fibre in their diets, it should be a natural fit with soups if they’re high in vegetable content and beans,” Drew Hodges, Progresso’s associate marketing manager for new products, told New Nutrition Business.

Progresso came to believe that fibre could be an appealing benefit based in part on the success of the General Mills Fiber One brand. “Consumers are used to high-fibre products not tasting good – and that’s why Fiber One has been successful. Progresso, in consumers’ minds, is the strongest ‘taste’ brand [in soups], so we knew that it would be a good fit for high-fibre positioning too.”

Progresso High-Fiber dovetails with other trends that General Mills either sees – or is trying to encourage – among American consumers:

• Americans “are moving away from supplement fibre and moving more toward getting the fibre that they need from foods,” Michelle Tucker, senior nutrition scientist for General Mills’ Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, told New Nutrition Business. “That’s a change in attitude.”

• Consumers are more willing to move fibre-consumption occasions away from breakfast alone. “They’ve been used to trying to get their fibre just in breads, yogurts, cereals, bran muffins and oatmeal – expecting to try to get all of their fibre content at one meal,” Hodges said. “But we knew there would be a good fit at lunch and dinner too with Progresso.”

Progresso plans a big marketing blitz for High-Fiber soups. Sampling will be an important medium, “because there’s a little bit of a perceived taste hurdle for consumers, with fibre content this high. One of the best things we can do is in-store sampling.”

Kellogg’s Fiber Plus bars, which deliver a dose of 9g of fibre, from inulin, per bar – or 35% of the RDV – are showing signs of being able to rival Fiber One in the expert brand stakes. Marketed with the message Tastes Better than Fibre One! provocatively placed on the front of the package, Fiber Plus bars are said to have exceeded expectations in their first nine months on the market, with one industry source estimating first year’s sales at over $40 million (€26 million).



ACTIVIA REDEFINES US DIGESTIVE HEALTH MARKET

Danone Activia, a spoonable yoghurt and the world’s second-biggest digestive health brand after Yakult, raked in $130 million (€98 million) in 2006, its first year on the US market.

Launched in the US in January 2006, it represented a totally new approach to yoghurt in the US market. Marketed with an explicitly communicated health message about digestion, it claimed it could “speed up intestinal transit time”.

By its success Activia dispelled the myth that Americans weren’t motivated by explicit digestive health messages and unleashed a frenzy of interest in the US in digestive health products – resulting in, as a senior executive of a European probiotic company explained, a change in attitude to digestive health that is “like the difference between night and day”.

Sales of Activia have rocketed to $327 million (€218 million) in 2008 – by just its third year on the market. 2009 and an economic downturn slowed that growth and the brand hit $345 million (€230 million) in the 52 weeks to August 9th 2009, as measured by Information Resources Inc., which gathers scanning data from supermarkets, except Wal-Marts.

Almost all of this growth can be attributed to the introduction of two new varieties of Activia: a fibre-enhanced version, and a drinkable version, which accounted for sales of $16 million and $12 million (€10.6 million and €8 million), respectively, during the period. Meantime, combined sales of the mainstay regular and “light” Activia dipped (see Chart 4). On the other hand, given that Activia is premium-priced – selling at a 100% premium to supermarket own-label yoghurt brands – its modest growth against a backdrop of an economic recession is an impressive achievement.

Michael Neuwirth, Danone’s senior director of public relations, professed not to be bothered. “While neither product is ‘mature’ in terms of its growth potential, as the base of the businesses grow, the percentage growth rates can be smaller while sales still continue to grow,” he noted.

And about one-third of the market isn’t captured by IRI data, including not only Wal-Mart but other non-traditional outlets such as club stores, Neuwirth pointed out. “This is the faster-growing arena,” he said.

And Neuwirth added that continued growth of any kind is an accomplishment given the severe backdrop of the US economy these days. “Our products are enjoyed because they’re good-tasting, and during challenging times, comfort is always something people seek a little bit more – that may have helped us over the last 12 months or so.”

Plus, he said, financially strapped consumers have been reluctant to give up the functional benefits they have come to rely on from Activia. “If regularity is a problem for you, it’s a small price to pay to purchase Activia to enjoy its benefits,” he said.

Danone is rolling out packaging innovations and new flavours for 2010 to continue to broaden the consumer base besides extending consumption by those who already are loyal to the products.

In September, Danone finally resolved a nagging concerns which had generated some adverse media attention. It settled a class-action suit that had been brought in January 2008, which asserted that the company had falsely advertised the benefits of its probiotic products. Under the settlement, Dannon agreed to create a fund of up to $35 million to reimburse qualified consumers for the cost of buying the products.

Dannon wanted to “avoid the distraction and expense of litigation and to quickly resume 100 percent focus” on its Activia and DanActive (the probiotic immunity brand, known as Actimel in Europe) businesses, Neuwirth told NNB. The settlement “affirm[ed] the essence of the health claims of Activia and DanActive.”

Danone’s pioneering consumer challenge has been highly effective.

Since launch in 2006 Activia has proven itself to be one of the most successful products in the US dairy market.

Source: IRI

CHART 4: ACTIVIA RETAIL SALES IN THE U.S. 2006-2009

0

50

100

150

200

250

$130m

$245m

Activia Light$62m

Activia$183m

2006 2007

US $ (millions)

300

350$327m

Activia Light$112m

Activia$215m

2008

Fiber $16m

Activia Light$110m

Activia$207m

2009

Drink $12m$345m



rules of the nutrition business. Consumers buy products for their health benefi ts (or perceived benefi ts) and hence if the benefi t offered has niche appeal (like cholesterol-lowering), or does not provide a point of difference (such as omega-3’s heart-health benefi t, a me-too message), or is not delivered in a convenient way, or the ingredient is incomprehensible (Coenzyme Q10 anyone?), then few people will accept it.

Consumer unfamiliarity with an ingredient is one of the main reasons for product failure. You can invest as much as you like in technology and scientifi c substantiation, explains brand strategist Peter Wennström, “but if the consumer doesn’t accept your ingredient and doesn’t believe that it is necessary for their lifestyle then your technology is of no use. You must be willing to spend time to educate them about it – or use another ingredient that they do accept”. It’s on such a simple rule of consumer logic that success depends – and it’s such simple logic that favours fi bre.

As we wrote in Ten Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2009, fibre’s five advantages include:

1. It is one of the easiest food ingredients for consumers to accept and one whose benefits are easiest to understand. Fibre from bread, cereals, fruit and many other foods is a logical and natural connection in the consumer’s mind.

2. Modern diets are deficient in fibre (on average Europeans and Americans alike only consume 30% of the recommended

daily intake).3. The benefits of fibre in the diet are

communicated by health professionals – which means it has much more credibility than less well-known ingredients and most people recognize that they need more fibre in their diet.

4. It’s easier to formulate fibre into foods and beverages and as a result of advances in technology high fibre foods taste better than ever before, with none of the notes of cardboard that marked out high fibre foods in the past.

5. If it’s the right type of fibre and it’s delivered in an effective dose, it can give a benefit you can feel – and products that give a benefit that the consumer can feel are the ones that have been most successful over the last 15 years and are proving resilient in the downturn. Digestive health and energy drinks are the two leading “feel the benefit” platforms and together account for the lion’s share of functional food sales and the most successful brands.

The untapped opportunity – expert fibre brands

As we wrote last year, there are opportunities in every country and in many categories for “expert brands” which make the digestive health benefits of fibre their key selling point and deliver a benefit you can feel.

At present it is in the US market where the greatest efforts are being made to create

fibre ‘expert brands” – as yet there is nothing similar in Europe, where too often marketers simply add fibre and a prebiotic message and “hope for the best”.

The selling power of the digestive health benefits of fibre, and the value to consumers of an “expert brand” – meaning the brand that is perceived as providing the benefit better than any other – is illustrated by the recent history of General Mills’ Fiber One cereals and bars brand, launched in the US in the mid-1980s. From 2005 it was given new life, expanded to 20 products in six categories (including bars, each of which delivers a dose of 35% of the RDV of fibre), and communicated with the tagline “Cardboard no. Delicious yes”. Consider that:

• Despite a recession, Fiber One grew by 20% in the year to May 2009, to total sales of over $225.28 million (€149.8 million), according to supermarket scanning Information Resources Inc., which doesn’t include Wal-Mart (add back likely Wal-Mart sales and it’s a $280 million/€200 million brand).

• What makes the achievement all the more impressive is that Fiber One products grew between four times and ten times the rate of growth of most of the categories in which the brand competes.

• This was despite selling at a 50%-80% premium (compared on a price per kilo or price per ounce basis) over competing cereals such as Kellogg Raisin Bran and

Attempts to create probiotic solid foods for digestive health – such as Kraft’s Live Active probiotic cereal bar and its smaller competitor, Attune – have failed to persuade consumers. By comparison, sales of Fiber One digestive health cereal bars in the year to May 2009 were over $130 million (€92 million) – that’s more than four times the combined sales of all the competing probiotic bars.



Kellogg’s All Bran.Rival Kellogg’s Fiber Plus bars, which

deliver a dose of 9g of fibre, from inulin, per bar – or 35% of the RDV – are showing signs of being able to rival Fiber One in the expert brand stakes. Marketed with the message Tastes Better than Fiber One! provocatively placed on the front of the package, Fiber Plus bars are said to have exceeded expectations in their first nine months on the market, with one industry source estimating first year’s sales at over $40 million (€26 million).

Fibre’s fruit opportunity

As stated above some fruits have digestive health associations. Fruit is also naturally associated with fibre by many health-conscious consumers, making the marketers’ task easier. Given that some probiotic fruit juices have managed to make headway, it’s clear that there’s also an opportunity – perhaps a more logical opportunity – for fibre-fortified juices to become digestive health “expert brands” in the same way that ProViva has in Sweden.

Key to success will be:• Delivering an effective dose of fibre so

that people can “feel the benefit”;• Making sure the package is eye-catching

and extremely convenient; and• Supporting the brand with adequate

marketing and a long-term growth plan.

Although some fibre-fortified juices exist, we have not been able to recognise any that score well against this check-list.

“Fibre” “prebiotics” or “wholegrains”

Some companies try to differentiate themselves in the digestive health market by using the term “prebiotic” – referring to the ability of certain types of fibre to promote the growth of the intestine’s natural beneficial flora.

Creating consumer acceptance of the term ‘prebiotic’ is not impossible, but it will be a long-term process with a heavy investment in consumer education. At this moment it’s a term that’s just too similar to probiotic for consumers to understand, or to create enough of a point of difference. As Dorothy Mackenzie, co-founder of Dragon, the world’s largest independent branding consultancy, has said: “Our own research has tended to find that people don’t really understand what prebiotics are – neither the exact term, nor even this way of talking about the effect on the digestive system. There is certainly confusion with probiotics.”

Rather than “prebiotic” , marketers may be in a better position to exploit consumers’ growing awareness of fibre by using that term – and providing it in a dose that gives an effective benefit – after all, it s the benefit that consumers want and feeling the benefit is the most compelling reason to buy a product.

The term “fibre” also offers stronger marketing value than “wholegrains”. Wholegrain has become a category standard in bread and cereals in many countries – but it does not deliver a benefit you can feel. Kellogg’s consumer research, for example, has pointed to Americans’ confusion about the benefits of whole grains, the benefits of fibre, and how they relate.

As a result, Nelson Almeida, Kellogg’s vice president of global nutrition noted to New Nutrition Business: “The consumer confusion around fibre and whole grains is staggering,” meaning that “even people who are trying to improve their diets may be failing to do so because of this confusion”.

According to the company’s survey, 63% of consumers who see that a food is “made with whole grains” expect it to provide digestive health benefits, and 47% of them expect it to help reduce cholesterol.

Last, best chance for European innovation?

Ironically, Europe’s restrictive health claims regulations – increasingly seen as a restraint on innovation in Europe – may prompt the more far-sighted among European marketers to pay more attention to fibre and to re-create the success of a brand like Fiber One.

In a market in which many health claims will be restricted, fibre is one of the few ingredients European product developers will have at their disposal where there is no dispute about the benefits and how to communicate them. With Europeans’ strong track-record in innovating in packaging and in creating new categories, it can only be a matter of time before a truly innovative fibre-based brand emerges.

A fibre-fortified brand backed by human clinical studies that showed it could speed intestinal transit time, for example, or eliminate constipation, would be in a unique position in Europe to make an EFSA-approved digestive health claim.

For makers of dietary fibres and probiotics the future looks bright. The market for products that offer the benefit of improved digestive health has developed into an enduring success story and has shown its power by continuing to grow, even during the worst recession in 50 years. Digestive health is today the biggest segment of the functional foods market and looks set to stay that way – and foreshadows the development of many more products targeting digestive health.


SOME RULES FOR SUCCESS

• Use technology that works – specifically, use a fibre or a bug that is sufficiently scientifically well-established and in a sufficient dose to deliver a digestive health benefit that consumers can actually feel. As stated before, it’s digestive health products’ ability to make consumers “feel the benefit” quickly that is one of the significant competitive advantages. This benefit is one of the key ways of creating brand loyalty. In the light of the EU tightening of health claim regulations EU companies will be forced to focus on a specific benefit. In a lot of markets, yoghurt manufacturers have cheapened the message by including general bacteria, at non-specified levels, which may or may not have a probiotic effect (since the term “probiotic” is not defined in regulations).

• Demonstrate the effect. This is where marketing initiatives such as the Activia 2-week challenge, now widely copied, have been effective. Products that can be felt to work in a very short time frame – that offer immediacy – will be more successful.

• Danone Activia has achieved dominance in digestive health in much of Europe because of superior marketing effort, as has Fiber One in the US. To do this you need a clear and uncompromising “expert brand” position with a clear and consistent benefit statement supported by long term marketing expenditure linked to consumer education.




The message that a food or food ingredient has a natural and intrinsic health benefit is one of the most persuasive in food marketing. For many consumers a health benefit that is natural and intrinsic to the product – such as oats and heart health, blueberries and antioxidants – is the only one they will accept without hesitation. Even better for food and beverage manufacturers, using ingredients derived from such foods increasingly looks like one of the best ways to both appeal to consumers and to successfully address regulators’ increasingly restrictive approach to health claims – particularly in Europe.

People like to hear that something that’s

natural and tastes good is also good for them –the heart health benefits of red wine and the high antioxidant levels of dark chocolate are two pieces of knowledge that you can guarantee every health-conscious consumer will have. It’s this knowledge that has helped propel the double-digit sales growth of dark chocolate in recent years and has made a glass of red wine a day the ideal heart-health regime of men over the age of 50.

This isn’t just a strategy for major corporations – basing your new product on an ingredient that’s associated with a natural benefit allows any innovative company to play in health. As a result, the strategy of

marketing the intrinsic health benefit of a food or food ingredient continues to be the most popular health marketing strategy in the industry.

Natural health benefits are also an idea that’s easy for the media to understand and easier still for time-pressed journalists to explain. The media might be suspicious of GMOs and functional foods, but it is always hungry for stories about foods with an intrinsic health benefit: oats, almonds and heart health; cranberries, blueberries and antioxidants are all foods whose sales have benefited from media buzz. The media has played a bigger role in driving awareness

Key Trend 2: An intrinsic health benefit that’s also convenient

SUMMARY

• Marketing the intrinsic health benefit of a food or food ingredient continues to be the most popular health marketing strategy in the industry.

• The message that a food or food ingredient has a natural and intrinsic health benefit has two advantages for innovative food and beverage manufacturers, big or small: it is appealing to consumers, who will accept it without hesitation, and it is one of the best ways to address increasingly restrictive legislation around health claims.

• Companies may be forbidden from communicating health benefits to consumers, but there is nothing to stop journalists writing about the natural health benefits of a food or ingredient. Savvy companies will help them to access information about relevant scientific research.

• The most successful products with natural and intrinsic health benefits are those that deliver that benefit in a format – usually a beverage or snack – that’s easy for consumers, as the examples of Innocent’s Veg Pots, almonds, and coconut water demonstrate.

Almond growers have focused on making almonds a valuable ingredient. Today almonds are the nut most-used in chocolate confectionery, worldwide.




of some foods than industry has: blueberry growers, for example, can take no credit for the popularity of their berries – that was a direct result of media reporting of scientific studies on blueberries’ intrinsic health benefits.

As a result of the confluence of consumer acceptance and media interest, the idea of “superfoods” has taken hold and magazines, websites and books regularly carry lists of “Top-20 Superfoods”.

Fruit and products containing fruit have benefited from these trends more than any other category, and in Key Trend 5 we focus solely on fruit and “superfruit”; therefore in this key trend we focus on how the “naturally healthy” message can be used by other categories and other food types.

INTRINSIC BENEFITS A WAY ROUND HEALTH CLAIM RESTRICTIONS

Because a natural health benefit is an idea that’s popular with both consumers and the media, foods that can offer such a benefit will

be able to maintain their health appeal even in markets where regulators forbid them from making any specific claims.

In Europe, for example, new health claim regulations which set standards of evidence even more rigorous than for pharmaceuticals will see the disappearance of many health claims over the next two years. Even cranberry juice will no longer be able to discuss its scientifically well-established benefit of fighting urinary tract infections; foods whose claims have been approved by the US FDA might find the same evidence rejected in Europe.

Companies will be forbidden from communicating health benefits to consumers, but there is nothing to stop journalists writing about the natural health benefits of a food or ingredient. All those journalists need is a continuous stream of information about relevant scientific research – which savvy companies will help them to access. Wise companies will also look to see which ingredients are most written about and include them in their products – as much for

their health halo as for any specific benefit. In the European market, in particular,

there will be an increasing focus by product developers on ingredients that have high consumer recognition and positive media attention for their natural health benefits.

Ironically, overly restrictive regulation in Europe has leveled the playing field – if hardly any products can carry a claim, none has an advantage, and the food that will succeed the best will be the one most written about favourably in the media. In other words, success will be about a battle of PR more than a battle of science.

NATURAL PLUS CONVENIENCE KEY TO SUCCESS

The trend is for foods with an intrinsic health benefit to be used as ingredients in more convenient product formats, their presence intended either to provide a health benefit or – if they’re not present at sufficient levels to have any measurable effect – simply to create a “health halo”.

The Innocent Tasty Veg Pot range was launched in 2008 as a four-strong range of vegetable-based ready meals, each of which contains three of the recommended daily intake of vegetables. Initial recipes were Moroccan squash tagine, Thai coconut curry, Tuscan bean stew and Pea & broccoli rice fl avours. The range has since been extended by four more options.

This Cadbury healthy snack brand clearly communicates that it uses ingredients with natural healthy benefi ts. It isn’t necessary to make a claim – just to show prominently the ingredient that the consumer associates with a health benefi t.




While it’s true that sales of some whole fresh foods with purported health benefits – such as spinach and broccoli – increased sharply in the period 2005-2007 as the “superfoods” frenzy took hold in the media, it’s also the case that the growth in many categories has come to an end. The reason is clear – whole fresh foods are not convenient enough for most consumers.

If a product lacks convenience, taste or some premium cachet, don’t expect a superfood reputation to do much for sales, for the very simple reason that evidence shows these factors are ranked by most consumers higher than health benefits – as they are in every category in the supermarket.

Sales of fresh broccoli, for example, have declined in some markets, such as the UK, where broccoli sales are falling as shoppers switch to other vegetables that they find cheaper, tastier or more convenient. Total volume sales of broccoli fell by 5.7% in the year to June 2009 to 89 million kg. Although value sales rose 2.6% to £174 million ($293 million/€197 million), this was caused by inflation.

The fall in consumption has been most pronounced among adults aged 35 to 44, according to TNS, which collects consumption data. Men in that age group have eaten 21% less broccoli in 2009 than in 2008 and women 16% less.

UK trade magazine The Grocer quoted a major broccoli grower as saying that people were “looking for convenient alternatives that did not involve a lot of preparation”.

It’s because of the lack of convenience of many whole fresh fruits and vegetables that the world’s health campaigns to encourage people to eat 5-a-day of fruit and vegetables have largely failed. Even Japan has seen declines in fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among 20-something consumers.

Any vegetable – or any food – that relies on an enhanced health benefit as its primary selling point and does not also deliver high convenience will experience modest sales. As Professor Brian Wansink – one of the world’s most respected food psychologists and professor of applied economics of marketing and nutritional science at Cornell University – explains it: “Fruits are typically eaten raw and consumed most often for breakfast, lunch or between-meal snacks. Fruits can be eaten at the table or on the run. Conversely, vegetables are more often cooked with meals or are supplemented with other flavours, sauces or dressings.”

Eating vegetables, Professor Wansink points out, entails more involvement and preparation – in other words, compared to fruit, for most people they fail the convenience test.

This insight explains why, while UK sales of fresh broccoli have fallen, sales of convenient, branded, prepared, snack vegetables have increased.

Innocent Tasty Veg Pots – marketed by Innocent, a company which is also Europe’s biggest fruit smoothie brand – have recorded £15 millon ($25 million/€17 million) in retail sales since they were launched in September 2008, creating a new category in the supermarket: healthy vegetables that are ready to eat, require no preparation, come in a delicious sauce and are clearly labeled as

CHART 5: LAUNCHES IN AMERICA OF NEW PACKAGED FOODS USING ALMONDS AS AN INGREDIENT HAVE RISEN STEADILY, ONLY PAUSING DURING THE 2008-09 RECESSION.

Source: GNPD

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

128

2002

169

2003

265

2004

271

2005

301

2006

328

2007

276

2008

203

2009

CHART 6: LAUNCHES IN EUROPE OF PACKAGED FOODS USING ALMONDS HAVE ALSO RISEN STEADILY. (Countries used in this sample: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Sweden)

Source: GNPD

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

210

2002

200

2003

292

2004

275

2005

334

2006

325

2007

375

2008

386

2009

400

No. of launches

No. of launches



providing three of your recommended 5-a-day. Drink one of its smoothies with your Veg Pot, says Innocent, and you will get your full 5-a-day in one meal.

All the more impressively this result was achieved against the background of an economic recession in which the UK economy has shrunk by 6%.

Pro rata the success of Innocent Veg Pots to a larger market such as the US and it would be a $125 million brand.

RULES FOR MARKETING NATURAL HEALTH BENEFITS

The keys to successfully marketing products with natural health benefits will increasingly be:

• It’s a health benefit from a natural food or ingredient.

• The ingredient is easy for the consumer to understand and accept (and it sounds like food, not something from a chemistry set).

• The benefit is intrinsic to the ingredient.• The benefit is easy to understand and

relevant to the lifestyle of the target consumer.

• The ingredient and the benefit are a logical fit with the product format.

• The product format is as convenient as possible.

Let’s take two examples of foods with intrinsic health benefits that meet the criteria above and as a result are thriving – almonds and coconut water.

1. Almonds and heart health

Over 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in California – with Spain and Australia the next-biggest producers. Over the last decade the American almond industry has transformed itself from a commodity-minded, production-led, grower-based business into an internationally-minded business successfully creating higher profits through health, brands and convenience.

The industry has invested heavily in establishing the heart health benefits of almonds – which, in common with many tree nuts, are allowed to make an FDA-approved heart health claim – and followed this up with research into almonds’ effect on satiety and their use as a weight management food.

By itself, however, the heart health claim would be of no value. Almonds sold in

the traditional whole form were just too inconvenient and uninteresting to attract consumers’ attention.

The almond industry’s real strength has been its ability to make almonds available in as many convenient forms as possible – with a focus on snacking and their use as an ingredient by food processors – and to create strong snack brands.

Blue Diamond, which historically sold about two-thirds of California almonds, has made a number of significant steps:

• It developed its brand and began to market almonds in snack-size packages and small-size servings.

• It developed snack products based on flavoured almonds, such as Barbecue, Onion and Garlic, and Lime ‘n Chilli.

• It introduced Nut Thins, which are

made from rice flour and nuts with no added wheat or gluten and no trans fat. Available in almond, hazelnut, pecan, smokehouse, cheddar cheese and country ranch flavours, Nut Thins provide six grams of protein per serving.

• It became much more aggressive at merchandising – and found that sales responded strongly.

Blue Diamond is enjoying success with its approach, which has made it the No. 2 brand in the snack nuts category, according to IRI data. In the year to July 31st 2009 Blue Diamond saw sales of one of its snack products grow by 100% compared to 2008 – from $27 million to $54 million (€18 million to €36 million).

The industry has also focused successfully on getting almonds used as an ingredient in


BREEDING A NATURAL HEALTH BENEFIT

As the example of almonds shows, companies growing crops with a natural and intrinsic health benefit will benefit most from this trend if they deliver them in as convenient a form as possible. Around the world, growers are trying to breed new varieties of vegetables and fruits to enhance the specific nutritional benefits. But the challenge then becomes which benefits and which vegetable? There are some clear paths to success (see Key Trend 5 on fruit) but the strategy that’s the riskiest and the one most likely to fail is the one being taken by many vegetable growers, who:

• take an undifferentiated price-sensitive commodity and, using breeding, increase the levels of a naturally-occurring nutrient (usually one that consumers have never heard of);

• market the product for a benefit that few people believe they need, or can understand or have even heard of;

• while providing no additional convenience;• and no superior taste benefit;• and no visual differentiation.

While that might sound a bizarre strategy to packaged goods companies, it’s the one most commonly followed. One of the best examples can be found in the potato industry.

Selena potatoes, which are produced by Ireland-based grower Peter Keogh & Sons, contain hundreds of times more selenium than conventionally grown Irish potatoes – 12 micrograms of selenium per 100g.

But the company has braced itself for an uphill marketing battle, candidly admitting that a lot of consumer education will be needed to persuade consumers to pay a nearly 20% premium for the product.

“I don’t think selenium is known in Ireland at all,” says Peter Keogh. “After having our product on shelves…and speaking to many customers, [it is clear that] there is very low awareness of selenium here in Ireland. A lot more has to be done to educate the consumer.”

Keogh hopes to drive awareness of selenium – an ingredient almost unknown to consumers – via a website and via the packaging for the potatoes, which carry large amounts of text designed to help explain the product.




processed foods – McDonald’s, for example, uses sliced and toasted Blue Diamond almonds as part of its Asian Chicken Salad, as well as other dishes.

Almonds’ ease of use as an ingredient, coupled with their heart healthy halo, have made them a favourite among product developers. As Charts 5 and 6 show, in the period 2002-2009, launches of new almond-containing packaged foods grew 158% in the US and 183% in Europe, according to the most recently available figures from the Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD).

The other major California almond processor, Paramount Farms, recently invested $24 million (€16 million) in the world’s most sophisticated almond processing plant, solely to keep pace with growing demand from packaged foods producers.

As a result of the strategy of making almonds a convenient superfood ingredient and snack, per capita almond consumption doubled in the US between 1999 and 2008.

And it’s not just an Amercian phenomenon. Australian consumption of almonds grew 10% between 2006 and 2008, and such is the demand from health-conscious middle class Indians for almonds that the Australian almond industry has doubled its production.

2. Coconut water

Another “natural health” success story is

coconut water, and as with almonds, it shows how intrinsic health benefits hold the same appeal across different cultures.

Launched for the first time in Brazil in 1999, it is a $350 million (€235 million) market there. In the US, annual sales have hit an estimated $35 million (€24 million) just four years after the first products were launched, and two of the three leading brands have already received investments by PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, who are aware of the power of all-natural benefits and want a slice of the action.

Coconut water is extracted from young, green coconuts, where it gathers as the coconut grows. It is sterile and a little thicker than pure water, and it tastes like regular water that has been slightly sweetened. Coconut water has more potassium than two bananas and 15 times the amount found in the equivalent volume of most sports and energy drinks. This makes it a natural electrolyte drink, three times more hydrating than water. The same property makes coconut water highly effective as a hangover cure as well.

It oxidizes quickly, but packaging innovation (see Key Trend 9) – specifically the development of aseptic TetraPaks – have

made it technologically feasible to package and distribute fresh coconut water.

Coconut water has become the second most-consumed beverage in Brazil after orange juice – so common that McDonalds serves it.

Marketed by New York-based All Market, Vita Coco was the first US brand of coconut water, launched in 2005, and already has about 60% market share.

Vita Coco has taken an essentially viral approach to marketing, focusing on building the category through media and consumer education about coconut water in general and how it differs from other coconut-derived products, Vita Coco spokesperson Arthur Gallego told New Nutrition Business in an interview.

“It will become part of the stable of beverages in the US market,” said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark Consulting, in Santa Inez, Calif. “And if [PepsiCo and Coke] really dig in, and you give them time to invest in it, this segment could become a several-hundred-million-dollars-a-year business in this country.

“Just the nature of the scale of the players, and their investment, and the exposure they get can drive it pretty big.”

Based on a single and natural ingredient with an intrinsic health benefit, coconut water has become a huge success in Brazil and is rapidly growing in the US, where Vita Coco has a 60% share of a market that has grown from zero to $35 million in sales in four years.

RULES FOR SUCCESS IN FOODS AND BEVERAGES WITH INTRINSIC HEALTH BENEFITS

• As the examples of almonds and coconut water show, key to success in foods and beverages with natural and intrinsic health benefits is choosing a convenient product format. Essentially, that means delivering the benefit in the form of a beverage or a snack product.

• For companies drawn to work with this trend – and most should be, we believe – success will still be driven by the way you translate your natural health benefit into a convenient format; how your product connects to other key trends; and the marketing skills you apply when the product or brand goes to market.

• In capitalizing on consumers’ preference for foods with intrinsic health benefits, success is about using them as ingredients –purees, pieces, extracts – that add a halo of health to a convenient packaged food, even if the quantities present are not sufficient to actually deliver the specific health benefit.

• In choosing such an ingredient, or your all-natural health benefit, you need to work with ingredients that the media writes about, or ingredient suppliers who are educating the media about new ingredients with natural health benefits. By adopting this strategy you don’t need to be able to make a health claim (and in fact you may not be able to make a health claim, especially if you are operating in Europe).

• If your ingredient does not score highly in consumers’ perceptions as “natural” – even though technically it may be – you need to invest in consumer education to enable the consumer to accept your ingredient.




We have said it before, but it is so important – especially in economic hard times – we need to say it again. One of the biggest marketing advantages a product can have, and the surest way to create loyalty for a brand, is to deliver a benefit that the consumer can quickly see or feel.

Once again this year, as with previous years, the power of ‘Feel the benefit’ is supported by sales figures – and these are all the more impressive for their contrast with a backdrop of world economic recession.

Let’s review how effective “feel the benefit” has been during the 12 months of worldwide economic downturn that have elapsed since late 2008 when we made our prediction about its selling power:

DIGESTIVE HEALTH

• In Italy, although the economy shrank by 6% – the worst decline for any major European economy – sales of Danone’s premium-priced Activia digestive health brand actually grew by an impressive 19.5%, to €222.5 million ($325 million), according to IRI.

• In the UK, the economy shrank by 5.2%, the worst fall since the 1930s, and the overall yoghurt market was static, yet according to Nielsen data sales of the Activia brand grew 15.2% to over €210

million ($314 million).• In the US, General Mills’ Fiber One

breakfast cereal brand increased its sales by 20%, to over $225 million (€150 million).

• In Sweden, the ProViva probiotic juice brand, based on one of the world’s most-researched probiotic bacteria, increased its sales by 8% in a juice market which saw no growth.

• Sales of Yakult grew by 42% in China, 21% in the Philippines, 31% in Malaysia and 44% in the USA.

ENERGY DRINKS

• For the first time ever, and after more than 10 years of double-digit growth, the US energy drinks market grew by just 1%. But at least there was some growth – at the same time many beverage categories saw sales fall.

• The UK’s nearly 20-year-old market grew by 5%.

• In Australia the well-developed, 15-year-old energy drink market grew by 29%.

Key Trend 3: Feel the benefit – the most powerful marketing message

SUMMARY

• One of the biggest marketing advantages a product can have – and the surest way to create brand loyalty – is to deliver a benefit that the consumer can quickly see or feel. As we predicted last year, offering a benefit the consumer can feel has become even more important in an economic environment in which people are becoming more careful than ever about how they spend their hard-earned cash and more focused on value-for-money.

• Having a benefit that consumers can feel is already the underpinning of many successful brands and the categories that deliver a tangible benefit quickly, such as digestive health and energy drinks, are already the largest segments of the functional foods market, worldwide.

• We are not suggesting that a quickly-felt benefit should be your only strategy – there are many, many benefits that are not immediate but which motivate consumers strongly and have growth potential, such as the perceived benefits of antioxidants, but a tangible benefit is a good insurance policy.

• Products that offer tangible benefits are already able to earn premium prices and this will continue.

• In addition to digestive health and energy, products connected to weight management, sports nutrition and joint health all have “feel the benefit” marketing potential.

• If your benefit is longer-term in effect and/or can’t readily be seen, invest in marketing techniques that demonstrate the effect, such as the Anlene Bone Scans.

WHAT IS ‘FEEL THE BENEFIT’?

Having a benefit that consumers can feel is the underpinning of many successful brands. When people can feel the benefit that is being offered to them, they can see that they are getting value-for-money. If they can quickly feel the benefit they can immediately understand why they should buy the product again – and again and again. ‘Feel the benefit’ has become even more important in an economic environment in which people are becoming more careful about how they spend their money.

Consider the success of energy drinks. Like all the best-performing functional foods, energy drinks deliver a health benefit – an energy shot – that is immediately effective and detectable. If the 24-year-olds who want to party all night long can feel that benefit they become – as they have done for Red Bull and other energy brands – loyal consumers.

Marketers of products with a digestive health platform have the same advantage. With digestive health you quickly know if a product works or not and if it gives you the benefit of better digestive health – and, therefore, an improvement in your quality of life.




ENERGY SHOTS

Super-convenient “daily dose” energy shots, offering a concentrated dose of stimulation, were by far the biggest phenomenon, with the US market soaring from $360 million (€240 million) to over $600 million (€401 million) in retail sales – according to Nielsen data, more according to other sources – in 2009.

MOVEMENT

If you have joint pain you know soon enough whether a product is helping to relieve that pain. The Elations juice brand, a juice beverage based on glucosamine, makes just that promise. Following randomized, double-blind clinical trials with 500 subjects Elations claims to “Improve joint comfort in just 6 days”. According to Mike Burton, Elations director of marketing, “that has shown to be an incredibly meaningful claim”. The result of being able to deliver such a clear benefit is that Elations sales were about $55 million (€37 million) by the end of 2009, up from just $15 million (€10 million) in 2008.

SHOW THE BENEFIT

Whether or not your brand delivers an easy-to-feel benefit, one of the most important lessons of the last decade is that you should try to demonstrate the benefit to make it easier for the consumer to understand. So if they can’t immediately feel the benefit, then show them the benefit. The most successful brands often do both. Here are two examples:

Weight management, Kellogg’s Special K: the Special K Drop a Jeans Size and Drop a Bikini Size promotions offer women a measurable benefit if they follow the Special K eating programme for 14 days, which involves substituting two meals a day with Special K. It has proven to be one of the most successful initiatives ever undertaken by a brand, as popular in France as in the US, leading to the successful re-positioning of the Special K brand, its expansion to over a billion dollars in sales worldwide, with 100% growth in the US alone. In 2009, against a backdrop of recession, Special K has continued to grow by up to 15% in some markets.

Bone health, Fonterra Anlene: in Asia, in support of the Anlene brand, a high-calcium milk marketed throughout Asia which has been clinically proven to prevent bone-loss, consumers are provided with free bone scans. These immediately tell them

whether they need more calcium in their diet. The brand has gone even further in demonstrating the benefit by developing the “Anlene Movement’ – a series of walking events which enable people to participate and “feel the benefit” of activity and movement. The reward for this initiative has been that Anlene has become the number one bone health brand in Asia.

Money-back if not satisfied challenges. Danone pioneered the idea of the “consumer challenge” back in 2002 by offering consumers a full refund if they didn’t “feel the difference” after consuming its Activia or Actimel probiotic products every day for 14 days. Danone now uses this technique in every single market in which it operates (including the US). Now widely copied, it is a highly effective communication and shows consumers – even those who don’t take up the challenge – that you have confidence in your product.

THE RISK OF AN INTANGIBLE BENEFIT

Conversely, the lack of a quick and easy-to-feel effect can be an inhibitor to a brand’s success. This has been a particular problem for products fortified with omega-3s – whose heart health benefit can’t be felt or even

easily measured – unlike specific cholesterol-lowering products, where you can measure your cholesterol going down.

In Australia, for example, where consumers have the highest awareness in the world of the benefits of omega-3, the two long-established omega-3 milks have seen their sales fall as Australian consumers rein back on their spending:

• the two leading omega-3 milk brands experienced a 20% sales decline in 2009;

• this followed a 36% sales decline the year before for one brand.

Brands that promise healthier skin have the same challenge. As Micro-Trend 7 shows, the buyers of Danone Essensis yoghurt – which made a “nourish your skin from the inside” claim – could not see or feel themselves becoming “more beautiful”, even though the benefit was, Danone said, clinically demonstrated. In fact Essensis communicated that it could take up to six weeks for visible results to show. No-one is willing to wait that long for results, so buying Essensis became a matter of faith and “belief ” rather than tangible, quick results. Essensis was later withdrawn and no beauty food or drink brand is doing well in the West.


• If your product has a fairly immediate benefit (within two weeks, which is why so many products, such as Danone Activia, offer 14-day ‘feel the benefit’ challenges) and is easily-detected by consumers, tell them about it.

• If the benefit of your product can’t be quickly or easily felt, you must find a way to show consumers the benefit, as Anlene does with bone scans or as Kellogg does with its “Drop a Jeans Size” promotions for Special K.

The Elations brand of joint health juice has steadily grown to over $55 million in retail sales based on its “movement” message.




2009 has been “the year of energy shots” – and 2010 promises to be the same. The astonishingly rapid success of energy shots reflects the extent to which there are huge areas of untapped opportunities in products for energy – opportunities to create new brands, new segments and new categories through strategies focusing on one or more of the following:

• Groups of consumers who aren’t served by the energy drink brands currently available.

• New product formats, to provide convenient alternatives to regular energy drinks.

• New ingredients with a higher “natural and healthy” score than found in the current energy drinks.

• New carriers – something other than caffeinated beverages – with better health credentials, such as dairy and fruit juices.

NEW CONSUMERS

Although the number of consumers drinking energy drinks has grown, the core consumer has remained the same: overwhelmingly males aged 15- to 24-years-old. This is partly a result of the positioning of energy

drinks, with names such as Monster, Shark, Power Horse, Relentless, Freak or Red Bull, whose packaging and marketing messages are uncompromisingly designed for the high-testosterone young male.

As a result the areas of untapped opportunity are huge. A lack of energy is consistently named by consumers among their

top four interests. Busy mothers, overworked executives – people of all ages can fi nd no product that’s intended for them that gives them a quick feeling of energy, and they are not going to drink any of the brands currently available.

“Energy” shouldn’t be the sole preserve of caffeine and sugar-laced drinks targeted at 20-

Key Trend 4: Energy – a world of untapped opportunities

SUMMARY

• One of the biggest advantages a product can have is to deliver a benefit that consumers can quickly see or feel (see Key Trend 3). Energy drinks deliver a benefit that is immediately effective and detectable and this benefit explains much of their global success.

• The energy drinks market is one of the biggest success stories of the functional food revolution that began in Japan in the 1950s – even today in Japan, the biggest functional brand is still an energy drink.

• “Lack of energy” is a key consumer interest for stressed executives trying to stay on top of their responsibilities, for harassed and time-pressed mothers, for older people who want to stay active, or for anyone struggling to get through a sleepy afternoon in the office.

• Because of the focus – in the West at least – of the brands in the established energy drink category on males aged 18-24, there remains a wealth of untapped opportunities. The shot format has still a huge potential to be fulfilled, primarily from creating brands and concepts with better appeal to older consumers – and particularly women.

• Super-convenient “daily dose” energy drinks – “shots” – are creating a new category in the US and the UK, with the US market alone soaring to perhaps $1 billion (€660 million) in retail sales between 2004 and 2009.

• There are a wealth of opportunities to develop new product formats, use new ingredients with a higher “natural and healthy” score than found in the current energy drinks, and to use new carriers – something other than caffeinated beverages – with better health credentials, such as dairy and fruit juices.

The response of big energy drink brands to the energy shot phenomenon has been to extend their brands into shots, but this does nothing to address the unserved older consumers and female market, to whom these brands have little appeal.




somethings – the 40-year-old executive and the harassed mother need energy too, and they want it in a healthier form.

As Carl Sperber, the marketing director for Living Essentials, which makes the successful energy brand 5-Hour Energy, said in New Nutrition Business earlier in 2009: “We’ve found an audience among working adults. If you’re a 35-year-old man, do you really identify with a product called Monster or Freek?”

NEW FORMATS

Consumers beyond the 18-24 male demographic often don’t like the taste of regular energy drinks and they would prefer not to have to drink such a large quantity of liquid. Hence the field is open for companies who can figure out how to provide an effective dose of energy in a format that’s as convenient and also as good-tasting as possible.

It’s consumers’ need for better formats than conventional drinks provide that has helped propel the biggest success story of the last two years of the entire food and beverage industry. Energy shots are concentrated daily-dose energy drinks in 60ml to180ml (2oz to 6oz) sizes, with little or no sugar, easy and convenient to drink; they are low in calories while high in stimulation.

The energy shot category has grown in the US from zero in 2004 to more than $600 million (€401 million) in retail sales in the year to October 2009 – and that figure includes only supermarket scanning data from outlets monitored by IRI. Add back Wal-Mart and the vital convenience store channels and energy shots are likely to have become a $1 billion (€660 million) business in 2009 – a 100% increase over 2008.

The market leader remains the brand

that created the category – Living Essentials’ 5-Hour Energy – with a 70% market share. What’s more, it’s a premium-priced brand, with a 2oz (59 ml) bottle retailing for around $33 (€22) per 12-pack – equivalent to an impressive $41 (€32) per litre (see Chart 7).

What makes this all the more impressive is that this massive growth of a super-premium category has been achieved against the backdrop of an American economy in recession, reflecting the value that consumers place on staying energetic and alert.

And energy shots aren’t only an American phenomenon – such products have long existed in Asian markets and are even making inroads in Europe (where launches of new products continue and sales rise relentlessly, regardless of restrictive health claims regulation).

As for other formats beyond shots, the energy message is already proven to be transferable to bars but it will be a difficult-to-impossible stretch to take the message to many other categories.

One area of opportunity that has yet to be explored is energy gels. Thus far this format has been marketed solely for sports applications – although products are labelled “energy”. These small – 32g – packages provide an effective dose of carbohydrates, amino-acids, vitamins and minerals. They are a highly convenient delivery system and as a product concept there are overlaps with confectionery and a concept that has great potential in terms of creating new markets by appealing to the unserved consumer sergments.

NEW POSITIONING

While Living Essentials and some other new brands have attracted new consumers outside energy drinks’ established 18- to 24-year-old male demographic, the response of every established big energy drink brand has been to launch energy shot variants of the main brands – from Red Bull to Coca-Cola’s Full Throttle and NOS. Unsurprisingly, these brands hold little appeal for the unserved consumer market – in fact the evidence is that energy shots may be cannibalizing the energy drinks market, which after a decade of double-digit annual growth, grew just 1% in the US in 2009, even as energy shots rocketed.

Red Bull and its competitors have extended their brand in the same way in many other markets – which suggests that the opportunity still remains open to create

new brands whose positioning would better appeal to new and as yet unserved segments of consumers.

NEW INGREDIENTS

There is already a wealth of ingredients available that offer an energy benefit – well-known and widely-used ones include guarana, ginseng, caffeine, taurine and B-vitamins. The opportunity to create new markets is there for ingredient suppliers that can offer consumer goods companies as many as possible of the following:

• An ingredient that can be formulated in an effective dose into dairy or juice-based products without adversely affecting taste too much.

• An ingredient that offers a “natural source of energy” benefit.

• Ingredients that can be added in effective doses into small, low-calorie, daily-dose packages (such as 100ml/3.4oz servings).

No-one can yet offer a fruit-derived stimulant as effective as caffeine. Hence fruit drinks offer-ing natural energy have taken the route of added stimulation ingredients, such as Minute Maid’s Strawberry Kiwi juice drink with its prominent Natural Energy message, a result of combining “Yerba Mate extract and real fruit juice to provide consumers with a delicious natural energy boost”.

5-Hour Energy has driven the creation of the new energy shots category from zero to as much as a $1 billion in five years and retains a 70% market share.



Fruit: with a healthy and natural image, fruit should be an ideal ingredient for energy products. As yet, though, no company has worked out a way to deliver energy from fruit. Ocean Spray, the world’s biggest cranberry company, has tried with Cranergy, a 20% juice drink, with 35 calories per serving. Its energy comes not from fruit, however, but from a dose of added B vitamins. Sales are reportedly modest, at around $15 million (€11 million).

Other fruit drinks offering natural energy have taken the same added ingredients route as Cranergy, such as Minute Maid’s Strawberry Kiwi juice drink with its prominent Natural Energy message on the label, a result of combining “Yerba Mate extract and real fruit juice to provide consumers with a delicious natural energy boost”.

No-one has yet found a way to offer a fruit-derived stimulant as effective as caffeine.

Dairy: Like fruit, dairy has yet to work out how to take a slice of the energy market. One example of the effort so far made was Emminent, a brand marketed in Switzerland and Portugal by Swiss dairy group Emmi, one of the most innovative and successful dairy companies in Europe.

A fruit-fl avoured probiotic milk drink enhanced with ingredients to give an energy effect, including taurine, guarana, dextrose and green tea extract, Emminent was packed in 125ml bottles in packs of four, carrying the claim “Energize your day”.

Yet Emmi missed an opportunity. Emminent’s advertising made it clear that


The Emminent brand, marketed in Switzerland and Portugal since 2008, was the most serious attempt so far to create a dairy energy proposition. It was withdrawn at the end of 2009, with Emmi, the company behind the brand, saying that consumers found its ingredients too confusing.

Emminent missed an opportunity to open up new segments of the consumer market. Its advertising made it clear that the product was aimed mostly at men and clearly the same audience as Red Bull. Its “Save the Men” TV spot featured three lightly-dressed heroines – Emma, Emmilia and Emmilou – on a quest to rescue tired office workers. The Emmi girls were also used to attract potential consumers through a sampling campaign conducted at Swiss train stations, banks and other office buildings.

CHART 7: ENERGY DRINKS ARE PREMIUM-PRICED BUT DAILY DOSE ENERGY SHOTS ARE SUPER-PREMIUM - US energy drink prices compared with one-another and with a “standard” mass-market non-energy product such as Coca-Cola Classic

Price per 32 fl.oz. (approximately

1 litre)

0CocaCola Classic

1 litre $2.19

$2.195

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Monster Energy Drink

16 fl.oz. $2.29

$4.58

Red BullEnergy Drink

8.3 fl.oz. $2.09

$8.06

Cranergy12 fl.oz. $3.99

$10.64

Living Essentials

5-Hour Energy Shot12 pack $33

2 fl.oz. bottles

$41.25

Source: Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Walgreens

45




the product was aimed mostly at men and clearly the same audience as Red Bull – the “Save the Men” TV spot featured three lightly-dressed heroines – Emma, Emmilia and Emmilou – on a quest to rescue tired office workers. The Emmi girls were also used to attract potential consumers through a sampling campaign conducted at Swiss train stations, banks and other office buildings.

At the end of 2009 Emminent was withdrawn. Emmi spokesperson Stephan Wehrle was quoted as saying that sales were below expectations, adding that the principal reason was that the brand – a beverage made with milk, fruit, guarana and taurine – was just too complex for consumers to understand. “For the consumers it is difficult to reconstruct what Emminent is,” Wehrle was quoted as saying.

A PREMIUM-PRICED, FEEL THE BENEFIT BUSINESS

Energy drinks are one of the best examples of a premium-priced, high margin category (see Key Trend 9), one that has kept its premium even as it has evolved into one of the biggest markets in the world. The retail price (measured on a price per litre basis) of Red Bull has fallen from about €9 ($11) to €4 ($5), but, as Chart 1 shows, it still far exceeds the per litre price of a product like Coca-Cola.

What is even more impressive is that new segments of the energy market have also been effective in commanding huge premiums over regular products – and even higher premiums than established brands such as Red Bull.

RED BULL: OFTEN COPIED, NEVER RIVALED

The world-leading energy drink brand, first launched in Europe in 1987 (but available on the market in Thailand – where the brand was born – long before that) is Red Bull. It created and defined the energy drink category, giving birth to a business worth $10 billion (€7.9 billion) in Europe and the US, where Red Bull still holds an impressive 60% market share.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of would-be Red Bulls have entered the energy drink market since the mid-1990s. According to Mintel’s GNPD new product launch database, there have been 2,300 new energy beverage product launches worldwide since 2000. Almost all have disappeared with only one or two – Monster in the US; Shark in Europe; V in Australia – presenting any serious challenge to Red Bull’s lead. This can clearly be seen in the US market where the top three brands account for 70% of energy drink sales in the supermarket and a further 17 brands compete for the remaining 30%.

There is zero chance that any brand can now challenge the dominance of the category creator. To have any hope of success, new entrants into energy must not be me-toos to any brand that’s already established, but instead create new categories and segments of their own.


There is much to learn from the way that Red Bull went about creating an entirely new category – one which didn’t exist in the West before 1990. The lessons of Red Bull’s experience were also applied by 5-Hour Energy in creating the new shots category – and these lessons are relevant to anyone who is looking to create a brand with a specific benefit. These lessons are:

• Create a new category or segment.• Offer a benefit that the consumer can feel. • Focus on one benefit.• Focus on one brand.• Focus on lifestyle marketing.• Innovate in packaging: this signals to consumers that “this is something very

different”.• Make your product premium-priced.• Look to Asia for ideas.

Gels and other convenient formats have huge untapped potential to be adapted for everyday energy consumers. Currently they are designed to meet the needs of extreme sports enthusiasts.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s Oronamin C energy drink brand is the biggest functional food brand in Japan, with annual sales of over JPY42 billion ($475 million/€317 million).

Launched in 1965, it sells in a 120ml bottle containing vitamin C and B vitamins. The product line includes the original one and “Oronamin C with Propolis”.




The trend towards consumers wanting health benefits that are as natural as possible – and ideally intrinsic to the product or ingredient that is delivering them – has benefited fruit more than any other commodity. Fruits are all natural, offer natural and intrinsic health benefits and connect perfectly with the worldwide consumer desire for products that give natural health.

Overwhelmingly the benefits are being felt – and will go on being felt – by fruit used in processed forms, in beverages or as ingredients in other packaged foods.

As we have said many times before in New Nutrition Business:

• Fruit is seen by health-conscious consumers as one of the few things they can eat as an indulgence without feeling any guilt.

• More than any other food type, fruit has a halo of health, one that’s being made brighter all the time as a steady stream of news about fruit’s benefits, such as fibre and antioxidants, makes its way into a media eager for simple and positive stories about healthy eating.

• And as a result fruit is the perfect health food and the perfect health ingredient.

FUSS-FREE SNACKING

Fruit drinks offer a very credible carrier for other health benefits, and the addition of fruit ingredient to a packaged food – such as adding cranberries or blueberries to breakfast cereal – helps add a halo of health to a brand’s position.

Unsurprisingly, as Chart 8 illustrates, the

use of fruit as an ingredient is escalating. It is processed forms of fruit that have grown most and will continue to do so – whole fresh fruit is simply not convenient enough for today’s consumers in any country. The central importance of convenience to consumers means that fruit in easy-to-eat forms (processed) will see growth, while most fruits sold in fresh forms will continue to see only slight sales increases – or none at all.

The only exception to this rule is berries – and specifically blueberries, which in addition to their strong health image are convenient. Blueberries need no peeling and are easy to eat from the hand or add to another dish without waste, mess or peel. Hence sales of blueberries have maintained a strong growth in volume – over 15% in 2009 – despite the backdrop of a global economic downturn, and have even managed to maintain their premium selling price.

As a result of consumers’ desire for fruit in convenient forms, packaged fruit snacks have become a focus for the more forward-thinking companies in the fruit industry, such as Australian-based group Ardmona, which markets its SPC brands globally with a “fuss free snacks” message (see illustration overleaf).

Key Trend 5: Fruit and superfruit – the future of food and health

SUMMARY

• Alongside dairy, fruit will be a key driver of the food and health trend. Fruit is increasingly becoming one of the most important vehicles for delivering a wide array of health benefits to consumers.

• Sales of niche fruits and fruits with some novelty value will continue to grow strongly. Fruits with a health benefit that can be substantiated by science – those with the most scientific studies behind them – will be the most successful.

• Convenience is the key, and only the fruits with convenient and healthy credentials such as blueberries will continue into any growth.

• Main growth will be in fruit in more convenient forms, such as packaged snacks, and beverages.

• Packaging innovation is key to differentiation and market success. Daily dose formats in particular are an area that has yet to be developed.

• The fruit drink market will not only grow but more sub-segments will appear, targeting more specific health conditions than the current “high in antioxidants” message that is used as the standard communication for superfruits.

• In Europe, despite the restrictions on health claims, fruit provides the opportunity to create health brands without claims by choosing fruit with a positive health image and ideally an association with specific benefits and delivering them as a snack or beverage in strongly differentiated packaging.

• There is an unfulfilled opportunity to create a new category of juices with digestive health benefits, based on fibre or probiotics.



BEVERAGES THE KEY FORMAT

The beverage industry has done an excellent job in acquiring for its products the healthy halo of fruit – and in consumer psychology a fruit drink that offers you the equivalent of one of your recommended five servings a day of fruit and vegetables is just as good as eating a piece of fruit, except it’s much more convenient in a juice drink.

As a way of delivering the benefits of fruit, beverages have all the advantages:

• convenience: beverages are fruit in their most convenient form and the form which cost closely matches the needs of modern lifestyles.

• consistency: they deliver a consistent consumer experience more easily than fresh fruit.

• added value: they deliver “more health” by blending in otherwise inedible parts of the fruit such as the skin and seed which may have healthy compounds.

• high quality naturalness and health benefits: consumers view high quality beverages as equivalent to fresh fruit in terms of both naturalness and health benefits.

• multiple formulation possibilities: they can be formulated with a combination of juices to get reinforced benefits or to lower cost (superfruit juices can be blended with apple juice to

enhance taste, sweetness and lower the cost of the finished product).

• excellent taste potential: it is possible to make almost anything taste good as a beverage. Beverages can be formulated to make palatable fruit which are not palatable in their whole fresh form.

• packaging innovation: it’s possible to use packaging design as a key part of your marketing mix to help maximise the differentiation of your fruit.

• super-premium retail prices: most important of all, beverages are a way of achieving super-premium retail prices and high profit margins, something which is very difficult to achieve for whole fresh fruit.

SUPERFRUIT – WHEN SCIENCE MEETS MARKETING KNOW-HOW

Although a huge amount of attention has been paid to the potential of “superfruits” in recent years, the reality is that very few fruits have attained any success. It is not enough simply to label something as a superfruit. Successful superfruits achieve that status because they have a very specific strategy – and it’s the same one that has driven the success of every superfruit.

Central to superfruit success is bringing together science and marketing in order to create a new, value-added niche in the nutrition market. Where fruit lags

– compared to other foods such as dairy or almonds – is in the amount of science that substantiates its health benefits.

There is a demonstrable relationship between the number of scientific studies that have been published about a fruit’s health benefits and its superfruit status. Cranberry, blueberry and pomegranate all have a high number of studies, and relatively high numbers of human studies. These are

probably the most widely recognised and

Pom Wonderful has launched a shot-type product based on its antioxidant PomX, extracted from the peel and membrane of the fruit. Each shot packs a concentrated 1300mg punch of POMx. It is said to have more free-radical fi ghting power than red wine, grape seed and acai extracts.


Whole fresh fruit is simply not convenient enough for today’s consumers. Even fruit companies, such as Australia’s Ardmona, must offer ‘fuss-free fruit’.

CHART 8: US AND EUROPEAN LAUNCHES OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES USING POMEGRANATE HAVE RISEN SPECTACULARLY - EVEN EUROPE HAS EMBRACED THIS INGREDIENT TREND WITH ENTHUSIASM.

Source: GNPD

0

150

300

450

500

650

800

8

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

19

326

788

226

474

17 1353 55 24

102 112

349 350

569

No. of launches

Europe US



successful superfruits.The primary purpose of science in

relation to creating and marketing a superfruit is to generate health benefit information so that you can make believable and convincing claims. This is key to developing a credible and sustainable health position in the mind of the consumer.

However, the fruit industry is low-tech and has never invested more than token amounts in science and continues to under-invest, even though it has been shown that companies that have invested heavily have proven to be very successful. For example:

• It was investment in the science of the cranberry that enabled Ocean Spray to understand its benefits and turn it into the original superfruit.

• It was investment of $25 million (€16.7 million) in the science of the pomegranate that enabled Paramount Farms to create the Pom Wonderful brand, which today earns the company super-premium prices, retailing at around $8 (€6.20) per litre – compared to around $2 (€1.55) per litre for a mass-market orange juice brand like Tropicana – and kicked off the fast-growing and profitable pomegranate juice and ingredients markets.

What is also key to the success of superfruit is that they communicate not simply a “high in antioxidants” benefit, but

that they are backed by sufficient research to be able to claim a specific benefit. Cranberry is widely recognised for its effect of fighting urinary tract infection, pomegranate for its clinically-backed heart health claim. To talk about the benefits of antioxidants is no longer a point of difference, as every product that can is using this message (see Key Trend 6). In the future specific benefits will be essential for would-be superfruit.

Scientific research into most other fruits (with one or two exceptions) is at an early stage and we are just at the beginning of developing and understanding the health benefits of fruit. The science of fruit is today where the science of dairy nutrition was 20 years ago.

However, science is beginning to uncover a wealth of benefits in relation to digestive health and immunity, satiety, sports recovery, glucose uptake and insulin response, energy and mood. Ten years from now, if science can substantiate the many benefits now emerging, the term “superfruit” may become redundant – and fruit, like dairy, may be a vehicle for delivering a wide array of health benefits to consumers.

DAILY DOSE FORMAT OFFERS UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

Even without a specific health benefit, it’s possible to create a strong health platform for fruit. In Europe, where health claims for

fruit drinks will be difficult or even impossible to obtain under the restrictive health claim regulations in force, the need to figure out how to make a compelling health platform for fruit beverages without making any claims is pressing. And hence it’s in Europe that we can already see product concepts which are highly creative solutions to the problem – concepts that could easily be replicated in any market in the world. Here are two examples:

Compal Essencial: Compal is one of Portugal’s biggest beverage companies.

Since its genesis in the early 1990s, Swedish digestive-health juice ProViva has been extended into both the daily dose and sports drink categories and has a current sales volume of more than 25 million litres a year in a country of just nine million people.


The Essencial brand, marketed in Portugal, Spain, the UK and Sweden, is packaged in 110ml bottles, each of which looks like a piece of fruit. It clearly signals what each bottle is providing – one of your 5-a-day. The pear flavour, for example, which is 75% pear pulp, offers half the fibre of a fresh pear and also half the calories. The benefit is clear, as the Essential package states:

Get your fruit the Essential way. Easy to drink, no peeling, no hassle, no waste and tastes great too. One Essential Fruit Shot contributes to your 5 a day (health experts recommend that we eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day). Eat fruit the easy way, with Essential Fruit Shot and become a ‘fruitaholic’.

Available in 6 of your favourite fruits.

Just eat more fruit and veg!



Its eye-catching Essencial brand (see box) is packaged in 110ml bottles, each of which looks like a piece of fruit. It clearly signals what each bottle is providing – one of your 5-a-day. The pear flavour, for example, which is 75% pear pulp, offers half the fibre of a fresh pear and also half the calories. The benefit is clear, as the Essential package states:

Get your fruit the Essential way. Easy to drink, no peeling, no hassle, no waste and tastes great too. One Essential Fruit Shot contributes to your 5 a day (health experts recommend that we eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day). Eat fruit the easy way, with Essential Fruit Shot and become a ‘fruitaholic’.

Available in 6 of your favourite fruits.

Just eat more fruit and veg!

Essencial has proven very successful in Portugal, where the brand has been extended to a package that offers two of your five a day, and still has only 70 calories or less and is being rolled out in the UK and Sweden, where the brand was launched in 2009.

Hero Fruit2Day: Marketed by the Hero group, Europe’s biggest fruit processing company, Hero Fruit2Day, offering the equivalent of two pieces of fruit, rocketed to well over €30 million ($44.7 million) in sales in the Netherlands, a country of just 17 million people, within two years of its launch. As the illustration shows, it uses packaging design to communicate its benefit, in this case a 205ml bottle that is visually the most effective design of its kind in the world. It is very clearly positioned as a convenient alternative to fresh fruit. Fruit2Day has been sold in a 1-litre carton – and its packaging format enables it to command an 80% premium over regular juice.

Such products meet the need for fruit that’s also convenient. People know they should consume the recommended 5-a-day, they want to, but they don’t know how. In consumer psychology a fruit drink that offers you the equivalent of one of your recommended 5-a-day is just as good as eating a piece of fruit, except it’s much more convenient.

What is particularly striking is how much more consumers are willing to pay for fruit when it’s convenient. Consumers are willing to pay 50% more for a piece of fruit delivered in a convenient and delicious drink than for the same quantity of actual whole fresh fruit!

INTRINSICALLY HEALTHY CARRIER FOR OTHER BENEFITS

Lastly it’s worth highlighting the value of fruit drinks as a carrier to deliver added health benefits. The most successful example is ProViva, a probiotic fruit juice, marketed with a digestive health benefit which is clinically proven and based on L. plantarum 299v, one of the world’s most-researched probiotics. Launched in Sweden in 1994, in 2009 it had retail sales of around €50 million ($75 million). When you consider that Sweden has a population of just 9.1 million, it is clear that if Sweden’s per capita consumption of ProViva was translated into a larger country, such as the US, it would be a $2.1 billion (€1.5 billion) annual-sales brand – as big as Gatorade in other words.

ProViva’s success is made all the more impressive when you consider that in 2009

it maintained a growth rate of 8% against a backdrop of economic recession, a juice market that is flat, and consumers allegedly more motivated by price and less interested in foods with health benefits.

That the 15-year-old ProViva brand has managed this feat shows the effectiveness of its combination – excellent fruit flavours and a clinically-proven digestive health benefit that you can quickly feel.

As yet the ProViva model has only been copied in the US, but there’s clearly significant untapped opportunity in most countries for probiotic juices or fibre-fortified juices with digestive health benefits. Fibre and fruit is a particularly good fit, since many fruits – fig, prune, rhubarb, pear and many others – have a strong association in consumers’ minds with digestive health in many countries.


• Focus on delivering the benefits of fruit in the form of beverages or snacks, in as convenient a form as possible.

• Use packaging innovation to differentiate the product as much as possible in a crowded supermarket.

• Focus on high-value, low-volume niches targeting loyal consumers. This is the approach taken by all successful superfruit so far. If you can build a beachhead with such a niche you can later grow from it into the mass market.

• Market a relevant health benefit – the message “high in antioxidants” is so common that it has already ceased to be a point of difference. It is, besides, an “ingredient content” statement not a health benefit and it is the latter which most motivates consumers.

• Use technology that works – fruit or fruit ingredients based in science which, just like Ocean Spray’s promise that its cranberries “fight urinary tract infections”, is demonstrated by science and effectively delivered by the product. The promise of cranberry is a perfect example of the power of “feel the benefit” (see Key Trend 3).


Hero Fruit2Day uses packaging design to communicate its benefi t – convenient fruit.

ADDRESSING CONVENIENCE

Fruit drinks have addressed the widespread problem of convenience and an increasing number are positioned as delivering one or more of the recommended five servings a day. Fruit drinks and smoothies that carry a clear message that they deliver one or two of your recommended 5-a-day provide, as far as consumers are concerned, all the benefits and taste of fruit with none of the mess and inconvenience of peel. In other words, in drinks, fruit comes in a convenient, portable form.

This might not seem like much of a differentiation strategy, but when well-executed, it can be.



Marketing messages about antioxidants have become the single most commonly found message on food and beverages. As Charts 9 and 10 show, there has been a massive growth in the number of new product launches communicating the perceived benefit of being “high in antioxidants”.

A year from now, however, and this trend – while continuing to thrive in most of the world – might be dead in Europe, killed off by the new health claims system which requires rigorous scientific substantiation, using human clinical studies, of claimed health benefits. With very few exceptions, human studies on antioxidants are simply not available that would satisfy the European regulator (EFSA).

Moreover, EFSA requires ingredients that are the basis of health claims to be properly characterised – something which cannot yet be done for most antioxidants to the level that would satisfy EFSA.

As a result, regulatory experts in Europe are advising companies to remove all references to antioxidants from labels, advertising and websites.

As Chart 9 shows, the trend to flag the presence of antioxidants on product labels has been even more frenzied in Europe than in the US, although of course there’s limited evidence that such me-too marketing has yielded much in the way of increased sales for more than a handful of brands.

Ironically, although EFSA’s move will be seen as a problem by most marketers in Europe, for the few companies who

can satisfy EFSA, being able to make a health claim connected to antioxidants will become a competitive advantage, as the antioxidant message will lose the everyday, undifferentiated status it has acquired.

In most markets the increasingly everyday nature of the antioxidant message poses a problem. The term antioxidant has became so common it has ceased to be a point of difference, communicated by tea, chocolate, Nescafé, spices, vegetables, juices, berries and a host of other product types.

The antioxidant message helped create sales for the first products to use it, but new

entrants with a high antioxidant message have no point of difference – and in fact recent would-be superfruits have mostly performed poorly. And while it’s true that adding the “antioxidant” message to an existing brand is an appealing “secondary” marketing message that can raise a product’s health profile with consumers, very, very few brands gain any significant sales increases as a result of using it.

It’s a mistake to think that simply by adding the message “high in antioxidants” to a product this will result in higher sales or higher selling prices.

Danone’s Essensis beauty yoghurt, for example (see Micro-Trend 7), made its content of “antioxidants from green tea” a key support for its “nourish your skin from the inside” message. But the presence of antioxidants didn’t make any contribution to the success of Essensis, which was withdrawn. It’s not the only “beauty food” that includes antioxidants to have disappeared.

Karl Crawford of New Zealand’s research body Plant and Food Research is clear on this matter: “Those companies manufacturing products need to have something else they can say about their product along with the fact that it has antioxidants,” he says. “They need to say ‘It does this, and this, and oh, also, by the way, it has antioxidant properties’. They can’t market solely on the antioxidant message and they can’t necessarily charge any more for it.”

The benefit – and whether it is relevant and credible – is what matters most to the

Key Trend 6: Antioxidants: Big in America, dead in Europe?

SUMMARY

• Messages about antioxidant content have become the most commonly-used messages on food and beverages worldwide. But a year from now this trend – while continuing to thrive in most of the world – might be dead in Europe, killed off by the new health claims system.

• Although very popular – and because of its popularity – the antioxidant message no longer packs much punch. It has ceased to be a point of difference and though it is a message that benefited the first brands to use it, it now has limited effect in increasing sales. Rather, the antioxidant message has settled down as a broad wellness message – interesting to consumers, but not by itself a driver of sales.

• To be effective, brands need to move beyond the presence of antioxidants to link directly to a specific benefit – such as heart health – that is meaningful to the consumer. It is often overlooked that this is the strategy long adopted by the most successful “high antioxidant” brands – such as Pom Wonderful and Ocean Spray, which have long focused on a specific health benefit, supported by science.

• Successful brands must also invest in innovative packaging, effective marketing communications – and good flavours.

Nescafé: now marketed as a source of “Natural coffee antioxidants”.




consumer. The benefit also needs to provide a point of difference – there’s little advantage in offering a me-too benefit.

But because antioxidants have ceased to be a point of difference – and because many companies are unable to link their antioxidants convincingly to a specific benefit – companies are scrambling in their advertising and PR to say that their product has the most antioxidants (as measured by ORAC – the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity scale – which is the most-used measure), as the box shows.

IN SEARCH OF SPECIFIC BENEFITS

Marketers of new products will have to move beyond the high-in-antioxidant message and invest in science so that – like other functional foods – they can be more specific in their benefit statements. In Europe this will be the only strategy available.

For now adding the antioxidant message is too often the resort of weak marketers who fail to grasp that the brands that carry this message that have succeeded have done so because:• They were often first to market with the

message.• They have linked it to specific benefits that

resonate with the consumer.• Their products have been packaged

and presented in a way that strongly differentiates them.

• Their products have been supported by significant marketing communications efforts.

• The products taste good.

POM WONDERFUL SUCCEEDS WITH ANTIOXIDANT MESSAGE

It’s no accident that the pioneer brand, the one that’s most widely recognised as the most innovative success story with the antioxidant message, is also one that meets all of the above criteria.

The Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice brand makes a specific health benefit claim (heart health), substantiated by science – pomegranates have more studies in support of their health benefits than any other fruit – and the creators of Pom Wonderful invested millions of dollars in scientific research. The brand is innovatively packaged, well-marketed and Pom juices taste great. Taking its cue from Pom Wonderful, Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid brand has succeeded in creating its own successful antioxidant juice proposition.

PARALLELS BETWEEN ANTIOXIDANTS AND PROBIOTICS

The high antioxidant content marketing message is not a direct benefit message but an ingredient statement, with the benefits implied. Consumers are free to interpret this as meaning what they want it to mean to them, individually. It has worked because consumers perceive antioxidants as something healthy to include in the diet and the many possible benefits of antioxidants are being actively communicated by the media.

The nearest parallel we can think of is the word “probiotic” which signals “healthy” to many consumers in Europe. There are many parallels between the “antioxidant” concept and the “probiotic” concept:

• Neither has a legal or regulatory definition of how it is to be used in marketing.• Both are available from multiple sources.• There is no regulation saying how much of a probiotic or an antioxidant you must

include before inferring a health benefit.• Both words have come to be attached to products as a general “wellness”

statement.• Consumers know and accept that these things are somehow “natural” and “good

for you” but most don’t know exactly why – and don’t really care. They find them motivating messages when choosing products.

Antioxidants are no-longer a point of difference: potatoes and spices have joined in the marketing frenzy around antioxidants.


Advertising for successful superfruit juices, such as Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, has focused strongly on the purported health benefi ts of antioxidants.



But faced with a plethora of me-too antioxidant messages, even Pom Wonderful’s eye-catching bottles have seen sales stagnate with the well-known brand settling down at valuable but nevertheless niche levels of sales. The company’s response has been to take the same route that has proven effective in many other categories and introduce a product that gives a “concentrated dose”.

PomX Shots provide a dose of 1,300mg of antioxidants per 3oz (88 ml) bottle. And with a retail price of $2 (€1.35) a bottle, they are – in common with most dose products – super-premium priced, equivalent to $22 (€14.85) a litre.

The objective of the launch, Pom Wonderful President Matt Tupper told New Nutrition Business in an interview, is to give a more certain dose of antioxidants than its competitors can offer, in a more convenient form.

CONCLUSION

In any cutting-edge fi eld where science and marketing join hands, there will always be controversy – and antioxidants are no different. What’s becoming clear is that antioxidants are not “black and white”, nor a marketing “quick fi x”, but rather a series of marketing and scientifi c complexities that need unraveling.


• Link your product to specific benefits that resonate with the consumer – “contains antioxidants” is a message that is rapidly ceasing to provide a point of difference.

• Package and present your products in a way that strongly differentiates them.

• Support your product with significant marketing communications efforts.

• Make sure the product tastes good.

Products are locked into a PR and advertising war to show which has got the most antioxidants, as this article in magazine Men’s Health illustrates. The prevalence of the term “high in antioxidants” means that it has ceased to be a point of difference.


CHART 9: US: NUMBER OF NEW FOOD AND BEVERAGE PRODUCT LAUNCHES EACH YEAR WHICH MENTION ANTIOXIDANTS

Number

02003

96100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Source: Mintel GNPD new product database2004

234

2005

292

2006

507

2007

604

2008

765

2009

556

CHART 10: EUROPE: NUMBER OF NEW FOOD AND BEVERAGE PRODUCT LAUNCHES EACH YEAR WHICH MENTION ANTIOXIDANTS

European data from France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium

Number

02003

992

400

800

1200

1600

2000

2400

2800

3200

Source: Mintel GNPD new product database

2004

1470

2005

1458

2006

2146

2007

2603

2008

3023

3600

2009

3343




It’s been a lean year for weight management. Despite the efforts of multiple ingredient suppliers and some branded food and beverage companies, Kellogg’s Special K is still the only real success story in weight management in Western markets – and what a story it is.

The successful re-positioning of Special K from being an out-of-date diet brand – it was fi rst launched in 1955 in the US – dates from 2001, when Kellogg and its advertising agency, Leo Burnett, devised the Special K “drop a jeans size” and “drop a bikini size” challenges. They designed a plan in which participants had to follow basically only one rule: for two weeks, they were required to substitute two meals a day with Kellogg’s cereal or meal bars; they could largely eat what they wanted the rest of the day, in two snacks and a normal lunch or dinner. Special K has no added functional ingredients; it is an example not of technical innovation but marketing innovation – using skillful communications to help consumers alter their lifestyle and produce a measurable result.

Since 2001 sales of Special K have more than doubled in the US and in many markets it has performed even better. In the UK, for example, Special K has become the country’s second-biggest cereal brand, trebling sales between 2005 and 2009 to almost €120 million ($179 million). Worldwide – and Special K is marketed across Europe and throughout the Middle East and South America – Special K is a $1.5 billion (€1 billion) annual sales brand.

The “drop a jeans size” challenges are a perfect example of “feel the benefi t” marketing (see Key Trend 3). The key lesson from Special K is that the best way for a brand to be credible as a weight management

brand is to deliver a tangible, measurable effect – indeed this is the only way to be successful.

High protein variants of Special K – called Sustain in some markets – have also been introduced (see Micro-Trend 1) with a “keeps you fuller for longer” message.

Special K also shows how willing consumers are to pay premium prices for something that is effective:

Australia: Special K retails at a price equivalent to A$15 per kilo ($13.70/€9.20) – an 80% premium to leading cereal brands – yet that was no barrier to it growing by 17% in 2009, to a value share of 4.5%.

Germany: Special K sells for around €3.40 ($5.36) for a 300g box. On a price per kilo basis Special K sells at a 150% premium to Cornflakes and a massive 270% to private

label products.But Special K has not been without its

challenges. The brand has been successfully stretched to include cereal bars, but in 2009 the company learnt that it could not be stretched to water, leading to the withdrawal of its Special K20 Protein Water (see Micro-Trend 1).

SATIETY HAS THE EDGE

Because consumers are most motivated by benefits they can quickly see or feel, satiety will be the largest area of weight management. If you have a snack in the morning and then find that you eat less for lunch, that’s effective. It also works as a consumer communication: it’s not a magic bullet promising to help them shed kilos

Key Trend 7: Weight managementSUMMARY

• Good marketing communications have made Kellogg’s Special K cereal the biggest real weight management success story in Western markets.

• Key to Special K cereal’s success is that consumers quickly feel a benefit, with the “drop a jeans size” challenge helping to focus their minds on what they’re feeling.

• Because their effects are easily felt, products that induce a feeling of satiety or fullness are likely to be the biggest area of weight management.

• Soup or other meals that offered a satiety benefit could have promise as consumers increasingly move away from “dieting” products towards a broader healthy lifestyle – they would be normal foods that help them snack less.

• Weight management is still an embryonic market with opportunities for companies that are no longer found in more mature sectors.

Kellogg is always creating new interest in its Special K brand. Recently it has partnered with publisher CondéNet for its ShapeMate campaign. The integrated campaign for the brand’s diet plan involves Kellogg’s featuring a certain amount of fashion content on its site, with visitors directed to Glamour.com for more content.



overnight, but a positive promise to help them in the long run with a lifestyle change.

At the level of health claims satiety should also be a more straightforward concept. A claim such as Helps you eat less is more straightforward to demonstrate than one that a product “reduces body fat”. While such a claim has significant under-developed potential in most of the world, in Europe even such a simple claim is facing problems.

With a “Helps you eat less” claim Dutch dairy giant FrieslandCampina’s Optimel Control brand achieved retail sales of €8.8 million ($13.7 million) in the Netherlands, a country of just 17 million people, in 2007, its first year on the market, and three times that in Germany. The brand’s active ingredient is based on DSM’s Fabuless, a clinically-proven blend of oat and palm oils that gives a satiety effect.

Eager to get the EU’s approval for its satiety claim, DSM is meticulously collecting scientific data to back up Fabuless. In one clinical study, for example, the ingredient has been proven to decrease appetite a couple of hours after intake, and lower food intake in subsequent meals in the range of 10%-15%. In another more recent study, Fabuless was shown to prolong food passage time from mouth to large intestine, demonstrating its potential to stimulate natural appetite control mechanisms.

In fact, Fabuless has been the subject of multiple human studies dating back to 1997, all of which have confirmed its effectiveness in causing people to want to eat less. And as a concept, satiety and weight management claims have a place in Europe’s regulation and are explicitly mentioned as a subgroup of Article 13.1 claims.

Despite this, the European health claims regulator (EFSA) has declared the claim to be unfit for the EU’s health claim assessment model based on its “insufficiently characterized and comparative nature”, and it is thus facing a withdrawal from the list of accepted claims without any EFSA opinion. EFSA has decided that it doesn’t like comparative claims, a decision which is widely regarded by regulatory experts as well as industry as a misinterpretation of its brief, and of the regulations.

Faced with this regulatory muddle, some companies in Europe are holding back from satiety claims, but others are going ahead, such as Danone, which in 2009 launched Vitalinea Satisfaccion, a new satiety yoghurt. Introduced in Spain it provides a dose of 9.2g of protein and 2g of fibre per 100g and is claimed to reduce the desire to eat for two

hours following consumption. There’s a natural link between food and

satiety – wanting to feel full is, after all, why people eat a lot of the time – and there are many categories in which the link could be developed. Vegetable soup, for example, has a natural connection to fibre, which consumers logically associate with vegetables. Soup is also a good carrier for protein, since the strong flavours of soup are suitable for masking the sometimes astringent taste of protein.

Given protein and fibre’s satiety effect there’s a possible basis for creating lunch-time soups that make you feel “fuller for longer” and take away the risk of afternoon snacking – a recognized problem for many people struggling through an afternoon at the office.

CONSUMERS DITCHING DIET PRODUCTS

The scope for soup and other formats which consumers already associate with “filling you up” is also connected to the clear decline in popularity of dieting as a regime. Most consumers are no longer willing to follow very structured or regimented dieting programs. They’ve concluded that diets that are deprivational and require strict regimentation are too difficult over the long run and offer products that don’t taste good. Hence in Europe and the US traditional dieting brands such as Unilever’s Slim-Fast have seen their sales slide in recent years – by 50% in the case of Slim-Fast.

Consumers increasingly prefer to tackle their shape and weight management as one component of a broader healthy lifestyle. It is in this context – as a concept of “normal food for normal people who just want to snack less” – that soup or other meals can offer a satiety benefit.

The trend towards lifestyle rather than diet is shown in the pressure there is on companies to lower the calorific value of foods and beverages as far as possible – with “less than 100 calories per serving” the gold standard in many categories.

Weight management remains an embryonic market which is still new enough for companies to create opportunities and carve out new businesses in a way that is no longer possible in more mature sectors – and as Special K has shown, for products that enable people to “feel the benefit” the rewards could be significant.



• The ingredients of success for a weight management brand are clear:- a benefit that the consumer can quickly see or feel, and in this respect satiety

seems to have the edge;- an approach that can fit in with the do-it-yourself approach to weight management;- a product that supports the consumer’s healthy diet and lifestyle, rather than

forcing them to change their habits;- delivered in an eye-catching and (if possible) unusual package format;- sold at a premium price; and- a heavy investment in brand support, in particular challenges to consumers to “feel

the benefit”.

• For ingredient suppliers it will be key to success in a very competitive ingredient supply market to work in partnerships with branded goods owners to help them reduce their (very high) risk of failure and maximize their return on investment. An ingredient supplier who has enough strategy and market insight to achieve this is a supplier with a point of difference that ranks equally with good nutrition science and good formulation skills.

• A significant, long-term investment in consumer communications is essential for any weight management brand to establish an “expert position” and earn the kinds of significant price premiums shown above.

• Ingredient technology that works and is clinically proven.

Diet soups are falling out of favour, but a soup that “makes you feel fuller for longer” would be a logical support to helping people snack less.




Snacking is the over-arching trend in food and health, affecting every category, every type of food and creating a blurring of boundaries between categories as consumers evaluate multiple choices in the supermarket from a starting point of their suitability as a convenient snack.

Demand for snack products is increasing and can only grow more. Longer working hours; longer commutes; single-parent families; single-person households; and an increase in the numbers of women working, are all leading to the disappearance of traditional meal occasions. Even in countries like Italy and France, more meals and snacks are being taken alone and/or on-the-run.

Consumers’ growing interest in the healthfulness of what they eat – and their lack of willingness to compromise on taste or extreme convenience – is having a massive impact on new product development in the area of snacking. Today, consumers are increasingly presented with snack product formats and ingredients that would have been unimaginable even as recently as fi ve years ago.

For companies looking to create snack products, there are four factors for success:

1. Excellent taste.2. Extreme convenience.3. Single-serve.4. No limits on innovation in packaging,

ingredients or product formats.

In snacks, taste still rules and no-one is willing to compromise taste for health. In addition snacks often play a psychological role, providing comfort during a stressful or boring day at the offi ce, or on the road.

Snacks need to be portable and single-serve, since snacking is most often a solitary

activity. For instance, the biggest growth in nutritional products in recent years is in bars and single-serve beverages. Products which you can grab for a morning or afternoon snack, which fi t neatly in your pocket or bag and which don’t require a change in eating habits are the main growth categories.

Such demands require innovation. And, given the convergence of innovation in processing technologies and ingredients with consumer need, any company with an ambition in healthy snacks can’t afford to rule out NPD ideas because they are unfamiliar or “too innovative”.

Almost any material that can be dried, extruded, frozen, shaped, poured, pureed, or whatever, to deliver a good-tasting, healthy food or beverage snack should be considered by product developers.

Just to make the challenge more complicated, consumer research is no longer able to tell companies in advance exactly what they should be delivering – the emphasis now is on creating innovative propositions beyond consumers’ imaginations and then building consumer demand for them.

A focus on building markets for new snack concepts rather than simply following on

with predictable products has already led to the creation of some innovative snacking concepts.

That consumers seem to need constant variety in their snack choices, particularly solid food snacks, has a downside. Many snack brands seem to go through cycles of growth and short-term success, followed by stagnation; a host of product and flavour innovations to create new consumer interest followed by years of patchy performance.

For example, PepsiCo thought back in 2000 that its Snack a Jacks rice snack brand could become a $160 million/€115 million business in the UK. In fact, by 2009 it had reached only half that level. But getting even to that point has been a major achievement, driven by constant new product development, a female-focused brand positioning, wholegrain credentials and heavyweight marketing expenditure. It’s an example that vividly illustrates how creating healthy snacks that satisfy consumers and keep their loyalty is one of the toughest challenges.

INGREDIENTS PEOPLE CAN ACCEPT AND UNDERSTAND

The most marked trend is for snacks marketed for their intrinsic healthfulness and perceived naturalness, even if the snack is a processed product and the natural “wellness” appeal comes from added ingredients with a health halo – and even if they’re not present at sufficient levels to have any measurable effect.

Perceived health benefits from “naturally healthy” ingredients is an easy concept for both consumers and the media to understand. Hence oats, almonds, cranberries, blueberries and many other

Key Trend 8: Healthy snackingSUMMARY

• Demand for snack products is increasing and can only grow more because of the gradual disappearance of traditional meal occasions.Products which you can grab for a morning or afternoon snack, which fit neatly in your pocket or bag and which don’t require a change in eating habits are the main growth categories.

• A focus on building markets for new snack concepts rather than simply following on with predictable products has already led to the creation of some innovative snacking concepts.

• Fruit in particular benefits from being delivered in a more convenient form – a snack or drink – than its natural form, something marketers are beginning to flag up for consumers: one company tags its fruit products “Fuss-free fruit”. There is a marked trend for snacks to be marketed for their intrinsic, natural healthfulness.

• Healthy snack products targeting breakfast have promise because this is one time of day when consumers remember to eat healthily – yet are under time pressure.



foods are seeing increasing use in snacks and this trend can only strengthen.

Almonds have been developed into a particularly successful snack and snack ingredient and many other foods are taking the same route, with increasing success (see Key Trend 2).

However, matching the ingredient to the product format in a way that’s logical to the consumer is key to success. PepsiCo’s Flat Earth line of salty snacks, based on fruits and vegetables, encountered this problem. Introduced in early 2007 and targeted at health-conscious women who normally don’t venture down the salty snack aisle of the supermarket, after an initial period of growth sales fl attened and then fell off by about 16%. The reason was that women weren’t buying the fruit-based varieties of chips – and the company had to discontinue them.

Only the vegetable-based varieties caught on with consumers. “Fruit crisps had a strong following, but it was narrow,” said a company spokesperson. “Their appeal wasn’t as broad as with veggies, which were really compelling. Women engaged with them.”

Fruit, in short, with its sweet image, is not a logical pairing with a salty snack product. PepsiCo has decided to focus on vegetables – which are a logical fi t – introducing new varieties and new package designs which have “vegetables front and centre”.

CONVENIENT FRUIT: SNACKS

In fruit, it is processed forms that have grown most and will continue to do so – whole fresh fruit (with the exception of berries, and in particular blueberries) is simply not convenient enough for today’s consumers.

As a result of consumers’ desire for fruit in convenient forms, packaged fruit snacks have become a focus for the more forward-thinking companies in the fruit industry, such as Australian-based group Ardmona, which markets its brands globally with a “fuss free snacks” message (see illustration on page x).

An example of how better packaging, marketing and merchandising has helped a traditional fruit break away from its lowly commodity status and earn much higher retail prices, is Sunsweet Ones.

When Sunsweet launched a repackaging and repositioning of its prunes as individually-wrapped snacks, branded Sunsweet Ones, it generated double-digit growth in prune sales the fi rst year, with Sunsweet’s fresh prune business up 20% overall.

Twenty individually-wrapped Ones are packed in a 7oz canister. “This makes a different impression than fi nding them in a big tub where they’re all stuck together,” a Sunsweet spokesperson told New Nutrition Business, adding: “Many consumers think of candy when they see Ones in their individual wrappings. And we use only our largest and best fruit for this product: if someone is going to eat one prune at a time, we want to make sure they get their fruit’s worth.”

Within three years of the introduction of the packaging and merchandising innovation for “dried plums”, Sunsweet Ones became a $12 million (€6.24 million) product.

Ones retail for around $2.99 (€2.32) for a canister of 20 individually paper-wrapped prunes, putting them at a 100% premium to bulk prunes. The packaging and convenience elements are what have enabled Ones to earn such a premium.

Prunes are an example of how products can benefi t from multiple trends:

1. Interest in digestive health (Key Trend 1).2. Interest in foods with natural and

intrinsic health benefi ts (Key Trend 2).3. Made available in a convenient snack

format (Key Trend 8).

4. Capitalizing on the connection between packaging innovation and premiumisation (Key Trend 9).

CONVENIENT FRUIT: BEVERAGES

Consumers know they should consume the recommended five-a-day, they want to, but they don’t know how. They know they should eat fresh fruit, but they don’t, because fresh fruit is just not convenient enough.

Fruit drinks have stepped into the breach to address this widespread problem and an increasing number are positioned as delivering one or more of the recommended five servings a day. Fruit drinks and smoothies that carry this clear message provide, in consumers’ eyes, all the benefits and taste of fruit with none of the mess and inconvenience of peel. In other words, in drinks, fruit comes in a convenient, portable form.

This might not seem like much of a differentiation strategy, but when well-executed, it can be. Successful examples include Compal Essencial, Hero Fruit2Day, and many others.

RULES FOR SUCCESS

• Use ingredients with a natural health halo and intrinsic health benefit

• In snacks you are not just competing in your own category e.g. bars; in the mind of consumers you are competing with every other category in the supermarket that they could use as a snack. You cannot think in the “silo” of your own category, because consumers don’t.

• Therefore innovating in packaging, merchandising, ingredients, formulation and delivery system are all essential to success.

Flat Earth’s redesigned packaging (right) makes more of the product’s vegetable content. PepsiCo found that fruit wasn’t a logical fit with salty snacks as an ingredient.





It’s become increasingly clear that food and health is fragmenting into a series of premium-priced niche propositions, with very few concepts making it to the mass market. In particular, these niches are skewed towards mature consumers over the age of 40, the age when people start to take a more active interest in maintaining their health, and in particular towards women.

As a result, the three important elements of strategy that now inform more and more companies’ decisions and will become more important in the future are:

Differentiation through packaging: Good packaging, particularly innovative packaging, is crucial to creating successful health propositions in increasingly over-crowded markets. At its best, packaging supports the brand in asserting its difference from the competition. It’s the best way to catch the consumer’s eye and earn premium prices and better-than-average profit margins.

Innovative packaging performs several important functions:

• It signals to consumers that “this is something very different”.

• Innovative packaging conceals a price premium. It is a good way of achieving high margins since consumers have no similar existing products to function as a comparison. Using packaging, companies can create new price points and achieve much higher selling prices for their products. In particular selling in single-serve packages makes it very difficult for consumers to easily compare

prices. Putting your new product in a standard 1-litre gable-top carton, on the other hand, makes your product look like every other brand on the shelf and enables consumers to easily compare prices between your product and regular products.

• If you use packaging innovation to create a new category then you are defining the direction in which many of your competitors must go and you are defining the packaging format they must adopt. You are in effect establishing your credentials as a market leader and innovator.

I-Nutrition: In the era of “Individualised Nutrition” single-serve packages have more appeal to the many niches of consumers than family packages. Though health matters, convenience matters more, and delivering convenience is essential for a health brand that wants to earn a premium price. The successful premium brands almost all sell as single-serve products.

Targeting the early adopters: “I thought we’d get the mainstream consumer right out of the gate, but I may have been naïve. It became clear to us that the early-adopter market was extraordinarily strong for us. After zeroing in on the early-adopter market, you build acceptance points so that as the market heats up, you’ve got the opportunity to spread your wings and expand.”

If every food industry CEO was as realistic and as brutally honest with

themselves as Steve Demos, the multi-millionaire food and beverage entrepreneur quoted above, then the industry’s success rate for new products – and renovated old brands – would be much higher than it is.

Demos told New Nutrition Business that this need to focus on the early adopter niche was a key lesson for his company after its first year of marketing innovative probiotic fruit juice GoodBelly.

He added: “Now our approach will be to go two inches wide and seven miles deep. We will build the maven market and viral acceptance of the product among loyalists who believe in what we’re doing and will talk about it. It’s a different route from what we expected at first.”

Again and again, food and beverage executives convince themselves that they must – to satisfy their need for volume, to meet the expectations of senior management or shareholders or to meet their own preconceptions about how the market should work – target the mass market.

This point of view is mistaken more often than it is right. One of the key lessons of the last 15 years is that companies who try to jump straight into the mass market usually wind up with an expensive failure, or at best a brand that performs short of expectations. The past decade is littered with failures.

The mass market was reluctant to pay high price premiums for health, even in economic good times, and is more price-sensitive than ever now, while the cost of effective health ingredients means that it is difficult to deliver

Key Trend 9: Packaging and premiumisation

SUMMARY

• More and more companies are learning to apply two of the key lessons of the last 15 years, which are that:a) packaging innovation is key to success in the business of food and health; andb) so too is focusing on lower-volume, higher-margin niches of loyal consumers rather than targeting the price-sensitive mass market

– these niche consumers are the same ones for whom packaging innovations have most value.

• There isn’t much point in putting in a major effort to create a health brand, with all the development costs and higher ingredient costs that often entails, unless you’re going to be able to earn superior retail prices and therefore higher profit margins.

• Health is an ever-increasing number of niches whose appeal is primarily to the 20%-25% of consumers who are actively health-conscious, who have on average higher educational levels about nutrition, and who are willing to pay to maintain good health.

• Companies who target the niches of the most-health conscious consumers find loyal consumers with high levels of repeat purchase – 80% repeat purchase rates are common. Brands targeted at the most health-conscious niches have thrived even in recession, even in very price-sensitive markets, even at premium prices.



an effective product at low prices.Better than aiming a less-than-precise

“wellness” message at the mass market, look instead for people for whom health is part of their lifestyle. These people are, at best, only 20%-25% of the population in most countries and tend to be older, 40 or 50-plus – the age when people start to notice the changes that life brings to how they look or feel and also the age when people have not only the motivation but sufficient disposable income to spend on maintaining their health.

Health-conscious niches are the key driver of health brands – in almost every case in every country. For example:

• The ProViva probiotic juice brand, marketed with a digestive health benefit, has become a mass-market success in Sweden, but even after 15 years on the market, the company says: “The brand’s penetration could be higher. Overall penetration is 31% in Sweden. Our consumers are a very loyal but quite a small bunch of people. There is a hard core of 10% of households consuming perhaps 50% of the sales.”

• Even Danone Activia probiotic yoghurt, the biggest brand of its kind in the world, is something of a niche brand. Activia has rocketed to over $350 million (€238 million) in retail sales in the US in the space of three years, but, as a Danone spokesperson told New Nutrition Business, the crucial point is that: “It doesn’t have broad penetration among consumers but rather dedicated usage among a narrow slice of consumers – sales are driven by about 5% of consumers.”

EXAMPLES OF INNOVATION

The following examples demonstrate the power of innovative packaging to conceal premiums, catch the consumer’s eye, and in some cases – like the TetraPak aseptic package – facilitate the birth of a new market.

Coconut water: The advent of the TetraPak aseptic package – an innovation – is what

has allowed the fast-growing coconut water market to emerge. Coconut water oxidises quickly, but the aseptic TetraPak made it technologically feasible to package and distribute fresh coconut water for the first time, giving birth to a market worth over $350 million (€234 million) in Brazil and already more than $35 million (€23 million) in the US.

Danimals: Dannon, the US arm of Danone, launched Danimals Crush Cups in January 2009 as a sub-brand of its Danimals kids brand and by the end of 2009 they had contributed to a 20% growth in the brand. The patented technology gives children the novelty and convenience of being able to eat their yoghurt without a spoon. Eating from Crush Cups is also less messy. In addition to generating growth, the Cups use less raw materials than conventional yoghurt cups and have other environmental benefits.

Compal Essencial: Compal is one of Portugal’s biggest beverage companies. Its eye-catching Essencial brand is packaged in 110ml bottles, each of which looks like a piece of fruit. It clearly signals what each bottle is providing – one of your five-a-day in an extremely convenient form. Essencial has proven very successful in Portugal, where it was launched in 2008 and in 2009 had over 25% penetration of Portuguese households. The brand has been extended to a package that offers two of your five-a-day. It has also been launched in Spain, the UK and Sweden. With a retail price of €2.20 ($3.29) for a pack of three 110ml bottles, Compal’s equivalent price per litre is €6.60 ($9.88) – a more than 100% premium over 1-litre

packs of Tropicana Pure Premium.

Hero Fruit2Day: Launched in 2004 in the Netherlands, each 205ml bottle of Hero’s Fruit2Day is a healthy snack that delivers two of your recommended daily servings of fruit. The distinctive bottle is shaped like two pieces of fruit balanced one on top of another to strongly visually reinforce the benefit. Priced in Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ number one grocery chain, for €2.15 ($3.22) for a pack of two bottles, it equates to €5.25 ($7.86) a litre. On a per litre basis that’s an impressive 80% premium over a 1-litre pack of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. Fruit2Day is thought to have over €30 million ($45 million) in retail sales.

Pom Wonderful: The confluence of convenience-plus-health-plus-packaging innovation also helps the so-called superfruits – mangosteen, pomegranate and goji for example – to command super-premium prices. Pom Wonderful pomegranate drinks combine innovative packaging, clever merchandising and delicious taste to deliver a health benefit. Pom Wonderful’s distinctive, eye-catching and elegant packaging conceals a price premium of 400% compared to regular juice.

The “daily dose” format has become one of the defining product formats of the global nutrition business. Long-established in Asia and South America, it has been growing in popularity in Europe over the last decade and is now, at last, taking off in America, after years of resistance to the concept from American beverage marketers. It’s a format that achieves differentiation and premium pricing, and reassures consumers that they are getting a guaranteed “concentrated dose” of the ingredient that provides the benefit they are looking for. It’s a compelling idea – “concentrated doses” have long been established as one of the most powerful concepts in consumer marketing, in laundry




powders and liquids for example, it has been redefining the market for many years (see illustration). Now food and beverages are catching up.

PomX: The next stage in the evolution of pomegranate juice, the point of the PomX brand is to give consumers a highly concentrated dose of pomegranate-derived antioxidants. “This allows consumers to get their daily dose of Pom antioxidants in a whole range of delivery vehicles,” Pom Wonderful President Matt Tupper told New Nutrition Business. “And they contain the same polyphenol antioxidants as in our juices, but in very concentrated form.” PomX Shots, retailing for a suggested $2 (€1.34) a shot, come in a 3oz. (89ml) format, each one providing 1300mg of antioxidants. On a price per litre basis that’s a hefty $22 (€14.70) a litre.

Anlene Concentrate: The “daily dose” version of Fonterra’s successful Anlene bone health brand (see Key Trend 10), each 110ml pack of UHT milk provides a concentrated dose of calcium and other nutrients for bone health. With a message of “four times as much calcium as regular fresh milk”, each 110ml pack delivers 500mg of calcium. First launched in Thailand it has since been rolled out into many Asian markets, where, contrary to expectations, it has succeeded despite retailing at a super-premium price. For its target market of health-conscious women over 45 the price – equivalent to $4 (€2.67) a litre – is worth paying. It’s an example of a successful brand creating a high-value, low-volume niche with high repeat purchase patterns.

Energy shots: Offering a concentrated dose of energy – usually from caffeine and B-vitamins – energy shots have rocketed from nothing to over $600 million (€401 million) in retail sales (more, according to some sources) in the space of four years. They have achieved this against a backdrop of economic recession and despite retailing at a price equivalent to $41 (€27) per litre. This success

reflects the winning combination of a benefit you can feel (Key Trend 3), a benefit that is one of the most-needed by consumers (Key Trend 4) delivered in a highly convenient, innovative dose format that conceals the price premium.

NICHE FOCUS BRINGS REWARDS

Even if you cannot deliver your product in innovative packaging, it is still possible to build brands selling at premium prices by delivering a benefit you can feel (Key Trend 3) and focusing on the most motivated niche of consumers. For example:

Kellogg’s Special K: In Australia Special K retails at a price equivalent to A$15 per kilo ($13.80/€9.20) – an 80% premium to leading cereal

brands, yet that was no barrier to it growing by 17% in 2009, to a value share of 4.5%. Its weight management benefit also enables Special K to sell for around €3.40 ($5.36) for a 300g box in Germany. On a price per kilo basis Special K sells at a 150% premium to Cornflakes and a massive 270% to private label products. Note that Australia and Germany are both notoriously price-sensitive markets.

Activia in Europe: Another successful premium-and-mass brand is Danone Activia, Europe’s – and possibly the world’s – biggest digestive health-oriented spoonable yoghurt. It retails for the equivalent of £7 per kilo ($11.60/€7.75) in the UK, a massive 450% price-premium over the own-label probiotic yoghurt of Tesco, the UK’s biggest grocery chain, and a 30% premium over the second-biggest probiotic brand. And despite this, Activia is the single-largest yoghurt brand in the UK – a position it holds in many other European countries, where it also sells at a premium (in Italy, for example, Activia retails at a 100% premium over competing yoghurts).


• Reconsider the urge to take your product to the mass-market. The business of food and health is about value, not volume. Consumers’ interest in health is highly personalized and so health markets are highly fragmented. Target niches of motivated consumers with an effective product, innovative packaging and a premium-price.

• To have a good chance of commanding and keeping a higher price point and higher profit margins, offer a relevant benefit in a product that consumers believe to be effective, and use packaging innovation to add to your point of difference (to cater to the increasing need for single-serve products and to conceal your price premium).

• Exploit the concept of “concentrated doses”.

• Lead the way in your category with a new packaging idea that defines the format for that category.




In last year’s Ten Key Trends report, we identified “bones and movement” as a micro-trend – one that has been gathering momentum as the numbers of people over the ages of 40 and 50 increase and become more aware of the health of their bones and joints, but nevertheless a trend which was niche.

It now looks as if the niche is getting bigger faster than we thought; more companies are trying to develop the market and more brands are building sales quicker than we expected. Hence we are happy to promote bones and movement to the level of a key trend.

Bones and movement may seem, at first sight, to be a strange pairing, but it is a link that has already been made by the world’s most successful bone health brand, the Asian-based Anlene brand, in response to the insight that consumers already make precisely this connection. By connecting to this consumer way of seeing the world, the Anlene brand has begun to move its position from a successful medicalised niche brand to one that has a wider lifestyle market positioning (see box).

It represents a significant area of opportunity in every continent – and one that has not been exploited anywhere except by Anlene in Asia.

It’s even an opportunity in Europe, where, ironically, the new ultra-restrictive health claims regime may leave “bone health” as one of the very few permitted claims.

Faced with this new regulatory reality, it’s not surprising that the more forward-thinking European dairies have forged ahead with launching “bone health” brands with similar positioning to Anlene in a bid to carve out a leading place in the market before their competitors do. These launches signal the new direction that many companies in Europe will have to go in bringing

new products to market – finding niches which can deliver benefits based on non-controversial science and dominating them through marketing and distribution muscle, packaging innovation and big promotional budgets.

It will be a market in which it is not new science and innovative ingredients and benefit that count the most, but execution skills that turn an “old benefit story” into a new market.

The potential of bone health has already got the attention of Europe’s most innovation-minded companies:

Calcifort: FrieslandCampina was probably first in Europe with the concept, launching Calcifort in Belgium in 2007. Calcifort is a daily-dose product, and each 100ml bottle delivers 400mg of calcium, half the RDV, as well as 20% of the RDV of

vitamin D. Thus far, Calcifort has performed at only a niche level, but that may be because the marketing message remains narrowly focused around the medicalised benefit of “strong bones” – a benefit that you cannot feel. Campina has yet to move into the kind of investment in the movement-and-healthy-lifestyle connection or bone health testing service that has helped make Anlene such a success (see box).

Activ Ossia: Clesa, a Spanish dairy, introduced its own bone health-specific brand in 2008. Called Activ Ossia, it is thought to have been the first brand on the Spanish market that moved beyond talking about being “with calcium” into a stronger bone health message. Marketed as the “perfect allies to help you take care of your bones”, Activ Ossia is a probiotic dairy drink that retails in packs of three 170g bottles for

Key Trend 10: Bones and movementSUMMARY

• “Movement” may sound like a strange name for a trend – but it’s a more relevant description than “bone health” or “joint health”, neither of which by itself captures the niche opportunity that is emerging in some markets.

• For companies that are willing to provide the right marketing support for a product that can deliver an effective dose of the active ingredient in a clinically-proven, ultra-convenient, premium-priced, niche, delicious-tasting form, and are willing to grow the brand slowly (as Anlene and Elations have done) there is scope in many markets, and particularly in those many developed countries with ageing populations, for niche brands with a bone-joint-movement health benefit platform.

Launched by Friesland Campina in Belgium, CalciFort offers a dose of 400mg of calcium in each 100ml bottle.




around €2.30 ($3.40) per pack. Each 170g bottle provides 90mg of calcium (19% of the RDV) as well as 2.15g of fibre (inulin and pectin). The product has no added vitamin D. Clesa’s literature describes inulin as “the active ingredient” that “improves the absorption of calcium. Consuming one bottle of Activ Ossia gives 25% of the inulin

needed for this absorption”. Densia: “An important bet in innovation

terms,” is how Jérôme Boesch, Manager of Danone SA, referred to Danone’s introduction in the Spanish market of a new yoghurt brand, called Densia, which targets bone health. An important bet, we can surmise, because if Danone can make the concept work in Spain, it gives the company a new type of product to take to all of its European markets, using a message that presents no challenges within the EU’s highly restrictive new health claims system. Densia is a low-fat yoghurt that specifically targets women over 40. Retailed in a four-pack of 125g pots, each 125g pack delivers a dose of 400mg of calcium – twice as much as regular yoghurt and 50% of the RDV – as well as 5mg of vitamin D, 25% of the RDV.

According to Danone, Densia is the only yoghurt on the Spanish market which

contains this much calcium and the brand’s packaging flags up the high calcium plus vitamin D content.

Each 125g serve is low in total fat (1.9g per serve of 1.5g per 100g), has 7.8g of sugars and 73kcal. A four-pack of Densia is priced at around €1.50 ($2.20), making it a mass-market priced item.

The launch of Densia is supported by a heavy but unspecified investment in TV and print advertising, devised by Young & Rubicam, as well as PR. The ambassador for the brand is Coco Comin, a dance choreographer who is famous in Spain in connection with the TV programme Operación Triunfo. She is also a former dancer with the Barcelona Corps de Ballet and the founder of Spain’s leading school of dance. Comin appears in the media talking about the importance of women taking care of their bones.

ANLENE: THE EXPERT BRAND IN MOVEMENT AND BONE HEALTH

Marketing a high-calcium milk is one the most difficult things a marketer can try to do. There’s no technical advantage – any competitor can launch an identical product – and many consumers believe that regular milk is already high in calcium. Moreover, the benefit – improved bone health – is not one that the customer can see or feel (see Key Trend 3). That one brand can overcome all these obstacles so successfully – and all at a premium price – is the result not only of having a clinically-proven product that actually works, but more importantly a sophisticated, focused, long-term consumer communication effort backed by significant marketing funds.

The brand is Fonterra Brands’ Anlene, the world’s biggest clinically proven bone-health dairy brand, with annual retail sales in Asia in excess of $300 million (€200 million) and an average 75% share of the high-calcium milk market – despite selling at a 100% price premium to regular milk.

Anlene is a low/no-fat calcium-fortified milk sold as a powder, yoghurt and in ready-to-drink formats. Two 250ml servings provide 100% of the RDI of calcium and the product is also fortified with vitamin D3, magnesium and zinc.

The Anlene brand has always worked to establish the benefit in the mind of the consumer. Since the 1990s the brand has provided millions of people with bone health scans through the Anlene Bone Health Check – consumer education teams who visit clinics, supermarkets and shopping malls where they set up bone scanning machines and offer free bone scans to passers-by.

The Anlene Bone Health Check, already a massive commitment to consumer communication, has been supplemented by The Anlene Movement, which built on the insights from consumer research that for consumers the benefit of bone health is mobility –

it’s not about prevention or osteoporosis, it’s not about a disease but about a healthy lifestyle.

The brand is focused on a core target of women aged over 40, to whom bone health is very relevant.

The result of applying this consumer insight is the Anlene Movement, a series of walking and dancing events that underscore that the brand is about activity in a healthy and positive lifestyle. In Indonesia, for example, 56,000 people took part in 11 walkathons and another 22,000 have taken part in mini-walkathons in hypermarkets and shopping malls.

Nor has packaging innovation been ignored. Anlene has been successfully extended to a concentrated “daily dose” format that provides 500mg of calcium per 110ml pack. A super-premium product, it has nevertheless been successful across Asia.




GLUCOSAMINE DRINKS FOR JOINTS HAVE FUTURE OUTSIDE EUROPE

While beverages based on glucosamine cannot now be marketed in Europe – where the health claim regulator (EFSA) in 2009 rejected claims that consuming glucosamine can help maintain your joint health – it is an idea with potential in the rest of the world, as the developing success of the Elations brand in the US is showing.

The Elations brand expects to reach an annualized sales rate of about $55 million (€37 million) by the end of 2009 and is on a path to reach $85 million to $100 million (€57 million - €67 million) in sales next year, according to Mike Burton, director of marketing, who has helped turn Elations from a strong product with a foundering business plan to a highly targeted functional-beverage missile, a pricey brand that nevertheless is actually accelerating even as most other beverage categories have suffered amid the US downturn. In 2008, Elations’ sales were just $15 million (€10 million).

Procter & Gamble scientists came up with the joint-health concept several years ago, squeezing efficacious amounts of glucosamine, chondroitin, vitamin C, calcium and boron into an eight-ounce (237ml) bottle of a clear, juice-based beverage. Brand-turnaround experts JW Childs bought Elations in 2004, but it has taken until now for the owners to light a fire under the brand. Recently they added powder packets that consumers can mix themselves, seven of which retail for the same price as six-packs of the ready-to-drink beverages.

The elements of Elations’ developing success include:

A benefit you can feel: following randomized, double-blind clinical trials

with 500 subjects Elations can now claim “Improve joint comfort in just 6 days”. “That has shown to be an incredibly meaningful claim,” Burton said.

Focused consumer target: Elations began as a brand meant broadly for those with osteoarthritis pain, but nowadays targets women – in America, at least, the condition is split about two-thirds to one-third between women and men.

Disciplined marketing: Elations has matched its more tailored message with more disciplined marketing. It has segmented health-care providers and other professionals to whom it markets the brand, making no communications to general practitioners and most other doctors, who are continually inundated with marketing messages anyway. Elations instead targets geriatric surgeons because their clientele are perfect candidates for the product.

“After gastric bypass surgery and other operations, people are very limited in what they can eat or drink during the first 60 to 90 days, but Elations is allowable to them,” Burton explained. “And most people in that demographic already have been suffering from joint pain anyway, so there are a lot of synergies there.”

Elations’ “professional program” also pursues golf and tennis shops where professionals can sell the product line. “It benefits them directly to recommend the product to their clients and customers, because they get incremental revenue,” Burton said. “And if that helps keep them active and playing that sport, they’ll buy more lessons and rounds from the pros.”

Convenience and taste: Elations specifically contrasts its appeal with that

of joint-pain pills. “The fact that we’re drinkable, and that you can have some delicious flavour once a day, is tapping into consumer language that we hear in all of our focus groups,” Burton said.

Elations’ advantage, added Burton, is that: “Boomers don’t like to take pills – that’s something that always has been associated with getting old and sick, and they don’t want to feel old or sick, especially when they’re only in their 40s and 50s. They view themselves as much more active and able to continue with their lives than people of their age a few generations ago, and a beverage fits better into their overall lifestyle.”

Distribution: Elations quickly got distribution for its beverages and packet-mixes in as many outlets as possible.


• Technology that works. Your product must be clinically proven.

• If the product doesn’t enable the consumer to “feel the difference” quickly, as Elations does, then you must “show them the differences”, as Anlene does.

• You are not marketing bone health, you are marketing a healthy lifestyle, ease of movement and activity.

• No brand can succeed without a significant and long-term commitment to investment in marketing and consumer education.

• Packaging innovation creates convenience and a point of difference and helps secure premium pricing.


The Densia package carries a graphic showing a spine, the brand, and prominently carries the claim: Helps you to maintain your bone density (In Spanish: Ayuda a mantener tu densidad Osea)



Protein-fortified foods have for a long time been the domain of elite athletes, body builders and gym-maniacs. But for a variety of reasons the image of protein is beginning to change. Protein is already making headway in products for a wider consumer market that’s sporting, health-conscious and weight-conscious – and very different from the classic protein powder consumer.

Both consumer research and market experience indicates that protein’s appeal is growing among “normal people”, for whom protein now has a better image as part of a healthy diet. As a result, consumer research indicates, in future there will be a different balance between protein and carbohydrates than has been the case with diets in the past and people will consume more protein, but with a focus on leaner and higher-quality sources.

Dairy group Glanbia Nutritionals, for example, has seen “growing awareness of the value of different food components, and protein is seen as very positive. As a result, product developers are trying to balance the nutrients in products more responsibly, which usually requires more protein.”

The trend to greater mainstream interest in protein as part of a healthy diet is illustrated by Campbell’s Soups’ decision to talk more about protein in

the marketing of its Chunky range of soups. “We established in our minds three what

we called ‘power claims’ that we wanted to celebrate with consumers and that Chunky could deliver as a brand,” explained Doug Brand, Chunky’s senior brand manager. The claims are that a soup is a “good source of protein”, contains “100% lean meat” and

includes a “full serving of vegetables”. He said that “these are powerful to the consumer and also are recognized by them as claims of quality.”

Chunky’s advertising historically appealed to ‘real men’ – the sort who would respond to advertising featuring sportsmen – but now has focused on images of ordinary men with

families, rather than celebrity athletes. In Europe, the success of the Quorn

brand illustrates the appeal of a low-fat, meat-free protein source. Quorn is produced by fermenting mycoprotein, a type of fungus, and forming it into sausages, escalopes and other meat-type products. Quorn contains the same amino-acids as meat and it is low in calories, fat-free and cholesterol-free – as well as providing around 10g of protein per 100g. Marketed as a healthy meat-free protein, the Quorn brand can be found in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, France and Germany and has retail sales of around €200 million ($298 million).

DAIRY AND SOY THE MAIN PROTEINS

The major sources of protein in formulated foods include soy and dairy (specifically whey and whey fractions), with other sources including egg,

Micro-Trend 1: Protein powerSUMMARY

• The image of protein as a body-builder’s food is changing and protein is making headway in products aiming for a wider consumer audience.

• Protein’s appeal is growing among “normal people” with some of the more health-conscious people consuming more protein, but with a focus on leaner and higher-quality sources.

• This trend has already helped drive the growth of brands such as Quorn, which uses protein from a novel source.

• Dairy and soy protein have gained most attention, thanks to the science behind them and their cost.

• Research behind proteins is growing and good links have been established to satiety – making protein in combination with fibre the most-often used basis for foods with a satiety benefit.

• The most popular formats for protein are bars and beverages, because they are so convenient. However, protein is beginning to make inroads into other categories – mostly together with fibre as a basis for a satiety claim – including yoghurts and breakfast cereals.

• Although consumer and industry interest in the benefits of protein is growing no company has yet figured out how to make protein-fortified products taste good enough – and have a sufficiently compelling marketing message – that they become truly successful. Outside the niche of sports nutrition devotees, many brands have performed poorly, even Kellogg encountering challenges with some of its high protein Special K products.

E D I T O R I A L : M I C R O - T R E N D S




wheat proteins and canola. But it is dairy and soy protein that have captured most of the attention, due to the science behind them and their cost. The research behind proteins is growing and good links have been established to satiety – making protein in combination with fibre the most-often used basis for foods with a satiety benefit.

Suppliers of whey and soy protein have also been trying to find new ways to get their ingredient included in more foods and beverages and diversify away from their reliance on the sports nutrition segment. This has involved working on the many challenges in formulation with protein – such as its sensitivity to water, heat treatment and interactions with other ingredients and its stability. One of the most significant hurdles has been the difficulty of adding protein to foods without compromising taste – giving beverages astringency for example – or texture (high protein bars have long had a reputation for being dry and unappealing).

The most popular formats for protein remain, for now, bars and beverages, because they are so convenient. In addition, many of the sensory issues have been resolved so as to make these products more appealing.

However, protein is beginning to make inroads into other categories – and mostly with fibre as a basis for a satiety claim. Danone’s Vitalinea Satisfaccion brand, marketed in Spain and with 9g of protein and 2g of fibre per 100g, is one of a growing number of satiety yoghurt brands.

PROTEIN WATER HITS APPEAL PROBLEM

Sales of Kellogg’s Special K20 Protein Water were never high – and in mid 2009 they collapsed, falling 28% that year. The launch of Special K Protein Shakes in May 2009 suggested that its ambitions in protein water could be at an end. Kellogg’s extension of a breakfast cereal brand to water with a weight management benefit has proved to be a brand stretch too far. At the time of writing the Special K website reveals that Special K water is no longer available.

Kellogg decided to place an unusual bet on its Special K brand equity, leveraging the brand into water, launching Special K 20 Protein Water, a product built on the idea that protein, in combination with fibre, aids in creating a feeling of fullness, diminishing appetite – and thus providing a weight-loss benefit.

The product contained 5g of whey protein as well as 5g of fibre in a 16-ounce (500 ml) bottle.

Adding sales from Wal-Mart and other outlets it seems that at best Special K20 hit $30 million (€21 million) in retail sales at its peak in 2008, a modest achievement in the huge US market for a well-supported brand.

In contrast with the sharp focus on “drop a jeans size” and similar results-oriented messages that are the distinctive and consistent communications of Special K breakfast cereal, Kellogg seems to have struggled to find the right positioning for its water.

At launch the label carried a tape measure in an echo of the Special K drop a jeans size concept while advertising promised that: “Losing up to 6 pounds in 2 weeks just got easier!” This evolved to say on the label that it: “Takes the edge off hunger”.

The brand had two problems from the view of the consumer – first that breakfast cereal brands don’t make sense on water, secondly that protein in water is still a new and unfamiliar idea. If consumers ever accept it – and in some places such as Europe it is easy to see that they won’t – it will take a long time to get there.

Shaking things up

With sales of its Special K Protein Water having proven to be a disappointment, Kellogg has made a second attempt at extending its Special K weight management brand into beverages, this time in the form of a shake. The ready-to-drink, shelf-stable protein shakes are packaged in a single-serve, recloseable plastic bottle. The line is positioned as “the perfect grab-and-go breakfast for on-the-go women”.

Each 295ml bottle delivers 10g of protein (about 20% of the RDI) and 5g of fibre “to satisfy your hunger to help you lose weight”. The protein used is a combination of whey protein concentrate and soy protein isolate.

Protein is also gaining ground in breakfast cereals, where Kellogg seems to make more use of it – or at least be more interested in its potential – than any of its competitors.



PROTEIN BEVERAGES TARGET WIDER CONSUMER MARKET

The widening appeal of protein is illustrated by the huge growth of brands such as Muscle Milk, which is in fact a protein beverage based on dairy protein yet lactose-free as it has no milk content.

Muscle Milk’s rapid growth can be dated to its launch in single-serve ready-to-drink form in 2004. Marketed with the tagline, Healthy, Sustained Energy, Muscle Milk communicates about “premium proteins”, delivering a dose of around 34g of protein per 500ml, using milk protein isolate and whey.

A distribution partnership with Pepsi has taken the brand into a wider range of retail outlets than classic sports drinks would be found in. Recently the brand has been extended into new segments with the launch of on-the-go oat-based breakfast snacks and high-protein snack bars.

Muscle Milk is thought to have grown to sales of over $280 million (€191 million) in 2008.

Health-conscious females who go to the gym once a week or more are very aware of the ben-efits of protein, according to consumer research. They are the perfect target market for this brand of bars and beverages that aims to support healthy lifestylers rather than gym-maniacs.

Protein is also gaining ground in breakfast cereals, where Kellogg seems to make more use of it – or at least be more interested in its potential – than any of its competitors. It’s easy to work out why, since Kellogg has already created the world’s biggest weight management brand, its Special K breakfast cereal, which has over $1 billion (€670 million) in sales worldwide, thanks to the success of its pioneering Special K consumer communications, notably the “drop a jeans size” challenge. It illustrates how compelling it is for consumers to “feel the benefit” (see Key Trend 3).

Seeking to maintain Special K’s point of difference and its effectiveness Kellogg has increased the protein content of many its cereals, which deliver between 12g and 14g of protein per 100g, and has introduced variants that have an even higher protein content – in the case of Protein Plus, 10g per 30g serve.

However the very high protein cereals have tended not to fare well. In the US, for example, sales of Protein Plus fell 5% in 2009 to $14.6 million (€9.7 million), following a 9% decline in 2008. However the brand’s protein bars – which are both more convenient and formulated differently, resulting in better taste – rose by 16.5% in the same period, to $39.5 million (€26.3 million). This followed a 20% jump in sales of protein bars in 2008.

Naturally, marketers are tempted to extend

successful brands and Special K has been also extended into a high protein water format – a concept which has met with no success (see box).

Fibre and protein water is a new idea for consumers and it runs against consumer logic about what fibre and protein are, and about the purity of water. It’s one format in which success would be the hardest to achieve.

The challenge for protein is both

technical and marketing – how to get more protein into a wider range of foods, without compromising taste and texture, in away that consumers will accept and how to communicate its benefits to consumers. Whoever can answer these questions will have the opportunity to pioneer a new market and a new protein “expert brand”.


Quorn is a brand of very low-fat, cholesterol-free foods based on protein-rich mycoprotein, a type of edible fungus. Quorn is produced as both a cooking ingredient and a range of ready meals. Retail sales are thought to exceed €200 million ($298 million). During the 1950s, it was predicted that there would one day be a shortage of proteins – something which has not yet happened but is still a possibility. The fungus Fusarium venenatum was discovered in 1967. After an extensive screening process and a 10-year evaluation in 1980 it was permitted to be sold for human consumption.



Health-conscious parents have shown that, despite recession, they are committed to continuing to buy healthy food for their children, even as they economise in other areas. Sales of the leading organic kids brands, for example, have surprised most commentators by continuing to climb. US brand Annie’s has recorded sales growth of 25% since September 2008, with no sign of its growth abating yet.

Naturalness as an underpinning for a brand is just as strong a trend in kids’ food as in adult nutrition. Health-conscious parents prioritise spending on “simple and natural” products over those with “added benefits”.

Being “as natural as possible” and offering one or more of the benefits of being “free from” gluten or dairy (to take just two examples) is essential.

This has a downside for foods with added health ingredients. Omega-3 fortified foods, for example, while successful in ranges sold to mothers who are buying them for very young children (omega-3 has become almost a category standard in baby and infant foods), have failed to get much traction in foods targeting older (five years plus) children.

US branding agency Just Kids, which specializes in products for children, describes a fortification-focused strategy as “Sin number six” of the many things that companies can do wrong in trying to develop a kid-specific food:

“When labeling a purely nutritional product delivered to us by Mother Nature herself, such as milk or fresh fruit, gilding the lily is generally far more detrimental than it is helpful,” it says. “Some products need no improvement: milk, fresh fruit, vegetables and juices come to mind. ‘Fortified’ and ‘Now with…’ don’t add much to milk, for example, which has a distinctive value proposition, a presumed set of terrific nutritional values, and is hard if not impossible to improve on credibly. All too often, added ingredients

only add clutter and confusion to natural products—and seldom add sales revenues. Be careful and thoughtful, always looking through to the consumer benefit, before fooling with Mother Nature.”

Even a mainstream brand such as Nestlé now puts “no added” centre-stage. “Whether their kids are under two, or two to five years old, or six-plus,” said Victoria Nuevo-Celeste, Juicy Juice Marketing Manager at Nestlé USA, “if we asked them what benefits most interested them in foods or beverages, low sugar and extra calcium were the things they were most interested in across the board. So we decided to make the products lower in sugar. It’s harder to differentiate by adding calcium.”

As a result Juicy Juice’s over-arching brand message is:

Naturally Lower in Sugar: With filtered water to lower the natural sugar content, and enhanced with nutrients. As always, no added sugars, artificial flavours or preservatives.

In trying to find a new health directions for its Juicy Juice brand Nestlé also found that immunity was identified by mothers as the most important benefit for their two to five year-olds. Interestingly, these mothers were also very concerned about digestion.

DIGESTIVE HEALTH

Digestive health is one of consumers’ main concerns worldwide (see Key Trend 1). Children have as much as need for good digestive health as adults. Fibre is something every mother knows that both they and their child need more of.

“Regularity is a big issue with kids,” said Paula Krebs, a spokesperson for Nestlé USA. “Enterologists actually have said that chronic constipation is one of the largest childhood maladies that parents face. So a digestion benefit would address a key issue for parents.”

The digestive health message is being used increasingly by breakfast cereals. Kellogg, for example, is enhancing the fibre content of all of its cereals to the point that 80% of its cereals will be “at least good to excellent sources of fibre” by the end of 2009. Kids, through their parents, are an important part of Kellogg’s fibre initiative. In fact its most popular children’s cereals – such as Froot Loops and Apple Jacks – are the first to get a high-fibre makeover.

PACKAGING INNOVATION

The “3 Ps” – Packaging, Portability and Portionsize - can help significantly to make a product stand out.

By their nature, and by the nature of the range of packaging that’s available for beverages, drinks can be sold in single-serve, on-the-go, hand-held, lunchbox-friendly formats and in multipacks more readily than most foods – except, of course, snack bars, which also score highly on the 3 Ps index.

There’s no finer example of this innovation strategy in action than Y Water, which illustrates how a start-up brand has made differentiation through packaging innovation a key part of its strategy. It remains to be seen how successful the Y Water brand will be but it has certainly thus far established excellent distribution for itself as a result of its point of difference.

Micro-Trend 2: Kids nutritionSUMMARY

• Despite recession, parents continue to be motivated to buy healthy food for their children, even economising in other areas to afford it.

• Being “as natural as possible” and being able to offer one or more of the benefits of being “free from” one or more of gluten, wheat or dairy (for example) is essential for any brand targeting children and health-conscious parents.

• Digestive health products are an untapped opportunity for kids’ products – regularity is a big issue with kids.

• Packaging design, portability and portion size – the three Ps – are important elements in differentiating a kids’ product and maximizing its appeal both to parents and to kids.





Heart health may seem like something that’s far from being a micro-trend – it’s often cited as the second-largest part of the functional foods market after digestive health. However, unlike digestive health and energy, which are defined by brands specially created to deliver the digestive health benefit, drill down into the sales of heart-health products and you’ll find that the largest percentage is made up of products that have long been established and which later added heart health as an “all natural and intrinsic” benefit. Usually they are fairly traditional products and often, although the addition of the heart health message brings an increase in sales, it may not be very much or very long-lasting unless the brand scores highly on convenience and other factors.

New brands created with heart health or cholesterol-lowering as the primary selling message – often based on plant sterols or stanols as the active ingredient – have met challenges. The US market remains much smaller than Europe and overall the sterol-based cholesterol-lowering foods market is less than 10% the size of what was forecast (though not by us) 10 years ago.

Thanks to the ageing of the boomers, however, cholesterol-lowering foods can look forward to a brighter future – and in Europe, where cholesterol-lowering is one of the few health claims to have been approved so far, the uniqueness of the claim on supermarket shelves stripped bare of health claims may cause a renaissance in this market.

Both these factors can be seen at work in Italy, where 20% of the population is already over the age of 65, the

average age of the population is 42 and the average Italian can expect to live to the age of 80.

Italians embrace food as a way of maintaining health, even in the teeth of economic gales. Danone’s Danacol cholesterol-lowering brand, based on plant sterols, earned €72.7 million ($106 million) in retail sales in the year to August 2009, a 28.8% increase in value and 25.4% increase in volume, according to IRI data, giving it a 12.5% share of the “health yoghurt market”. For a brand that sells at a 100%+ premium, to achieve this growth even while the Italian economy contracted by 6% is quite some achievement. Pro rata Danacol’s performance to a market the size of the US and it would be a $500 million brand.

Given that today’s over-50s, and in particular over 65s, have little or no debt, have often accumulated significant assets and have more disposable income to spend on their health than any previous generation, the long-awaited rise of the cholesterol-lowering foods market is perhaps here at last.

In the UK, too, the leading brand in cholesterol-lowering – Benecol – also did

well against the backdrop of recession, growing its sales by 14% (in the year to June 2009, according to IRI) in a super-premium priced category that grew 4%.

Esther van Onselen, marketing manager for Benecol Europe at McNeil, confirmed to NNB that cholesterol-reducing products have evolved into a category that attracts almost exclusively older consumers: “About two thirds of people have elevated cholesterol, and about 35% to 40% of people are motivated to do something about it. If you then look at the active cholesterol-lowering foods category – Benecol, Flora pro.activ – the overall penetration is between 18% and 20%. Our spreads

are consumed predominantly by people who are over 60. Our yoghurt drinks, launched back in 2003, got people into the fridges who were a bit younger, around 50, 55-plus.”

Van Onselen says it has become clear that the cholesterol-lowering market is never going to attract truly ‘young’ consumers. “Cholesterol reduction and being motivated to do something about it is really something that comes onto your radar after the age of 40-45.”

Another brand that is enjoying 20% annual growth thanks to older consumers is MiniCol, a cholesterol-lowering cheese, marketed by Swiss dairy Emmi. Like those who purchase Benecol, its consumers tend to be aged 45 and above. The highest proportion is in the 55-64 age group and the second biggest group are 65-74. MiniCol has a repeat purchase rate of 86%.

Sirco juice is another brand hoping to gain in Europe from the confluence of regulatory approval – its claim is also one of the few signed off by regulators – and an ageing population. Marketed with a claim that it helps “maintain a healthy blood flow and benefits circulation” Sirco found that its customers were overwhelmingly in their 60s and 70s and formed a loyal hardcore with a high repeat purchase pattern.

There’s nothing unusual about Italy’s ageing population – in fact of Europe’s 500 million people 20% are also over the age of 65 and the average age of the population is 41. By 2030 30% will be over the age of 65. With figures like these in prospect, the cholesterol-lowering market may be looking at a new era of growth.

Micro-Trend 3: New life for cholesterol-lowering?

SUMMARY

• Markets for cholesterol lowering foods are much smaller than forecast 10 years ago, but the rapid ageing of the population is now causing increases in sales.

• In Europe in particular, approval for a cholesterol-lowering health claim, together with an ageing population, has boosted sales of these foods – in Italy, for example, Danone’s Danacol cholesterol-lowering brand enjoyed a 28.8% increase in value to August 2009, even while the Italian economy contracted by 6%.




Probiotics are without question a major trend and not a micro-trend, but the big trend relates overwhelmingly to their applications in products for digestive health and, to a lesser extent, immunity – subjects we have covered elsewhere in this report. In this micro-trend we discuss their applications beyond digestive health and immunity – applications that are in their infancy but which hold promise.

In the US market in particular, far from being a micro-trend, probiotics have been the subject of a frenzy of interest since 2006 and Danone’s Activia probiotic yoghurt for digestive health shot to $130 million (€87 million) in retail sales in its first year.

In Europe, on the other hand, media reporting of the health claim regulator’s decisions in October to reject health claims connected to tens of probiotic strains has been widely represented as a disaster for the probiotic sector.

In reality, neither of these points shows the full picture.

US market: a wealth of me-too digestive health probiotic dairy products is flooding the US market, just like Europe 10 years ago. And, just as happened in Europe, most of these – many based on probiotic bacteria of questionable effectiveness – will perform poorly or disappear from the market leaving a handful of leading brands. In the US, probiotics is a still-nascent area and many there believe there are still opportunities for many categories to succeed with the probiotic concept. As a result the US is also a hotbed of interest in probiotics in solid food forms – bars, breakfast cereals and other formats.

But the idea of probiotic breakfast cereals or bread runs strongly counter to consumer logic, and probiotic chocolate runs equally strongly against the indulgent, health-from-natural-antioxidants positioning that chocolate occupies in the mind of the consumer today.

If consumers are being educated that probiotic bacteria are “live and active” and they are associated with “alive” environments such as dairy foods it will be illogical to the consumer to imagine these bacteria living on a cornflake. Moreover, breakfast cereals in no way offer a convenient, on-the-go solution.

Probiotic cereals, sausages, bars and many other food forms have already been attempted – mostly in Germany, Europe’s biggest and longest-established probiotic market – and almost all have disappeared from the market. The development of the US market is set to follow the same arc.

Dry-form probiotic foods will, of course, find some devoted fans – in today’s increasingly fragmented market for health, everything does – but will be marginal brands with little impact on dairy’s dominance. Anyone who invests heavily in technology to create such products had better have a business plan that realises large profits from

very low-volume sales.Probiotic bars have already disappointed,

despite scoring highly on convenience. The Attune brand, for example, despite having significant financial backing, performs at a niche level with sales said to be less than $10 million (€6.7 million). In addition, as Attune has discovered, there is a cost problem with many dry-food forms and most have much higher retail prices per serve than competing dairy probiotics. Kraft Foods, too, has met disappointing sales of its probiotic bar, even though the product is based on one of the most effective and well-researched bacteria available.

European market: No claims for probiotics were given positive opinions on 1 October. But scratch the surface of this apparently startling fact and the facts aren’t quite as clear cut, or as dramatic, as they might seem. In fact, most claims for

Micro-Trend 4: Probiotics’ new prospects

SUMMARY

• Besides their obvious application in products for digestive health and immunity, which we have covered elsewhere in this report, probiotics have promise in a number of embryonic new formats, targeting new consumer groups and new conditions, such as dental health.

• Despite the high hopes of many in the industry, probiotics are already performing poorly in solid food formats – as the experience of the European market would lead you to expect – and these types of products look set to remain ultra-niche for some time.

GoodBelly Big Shot 50 is an example of the potential for new formats for probiotics. It is neither diary nor juice but an oat drink and is designed to deliver “a therapeutic dose” and targets people with conditions such as IBS.



probiotics were rejected simply because the micro-organism cited in the application hadn’t been “characterised” to EFSA’s satisfaction. In other words, they were not identified in enough detail, mainly because although the species was specified the strain number was not. In fact, nearly half of all the rejected 1 October claims were turned down on this basis rather than on the evidence itself.

It was, in essence, a case of failing on a technicality, though this was not how it was interpreted by many consumer journalists. The probiotics sector was given yet another pounding in the media, with market leaders Danone and Yakult forced to rush out statements clarifying that their particular probiotic strains had not yet been evaluated.

However, the fact that many claims were rejected – and none of those rejected related to probiotics found in brands such as Yakult or Danone – will have been unsurprising to many in the industry, since there has been a tendency to describe “probiotics” as a wealth of strains, few of which have any evidence behind them. If the many are not able to make claims then that gives the few that do pass the claim process and are supported by science more visibility to the consumer.

INCREASING SEGMENTATION

Whatever the outcome, the fact remains that the digestive health from probiotics message is strongly associated with dairy by consumers. Over the last few years competition among probiotic suppliers has intensified and the need to differentiate has become more pressing, and to do this these suppliers are now looking to segment probiotic benefits according to age, gender and health conditions.

This in turn supports the ambitions of companies marketing branded consumer products – be they foods or supplements – that are looking for ways to differentiate themselves in markets increasingly well-served by brands using a digestive health or immunity message.

Below are just a few of the many possible segmentation bases for probiotics:

Condition/Function• Dental health• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)• Lowering blood pressure• Antibiotic-related diarrhoea• Vaginal health• Atopic dermatitis

• Diminishing the effects of lactose intolerance

Age and Gender• Infants• Children• Women• Men• Elderly

PROBIOTIC GUM

Companies are also looking at differentiating themselves by delivering probiotics in new forms. One example of a new format combined with a new benefit is the area of probiotic chewing gum for oral health.

Gum for dental health is a concept which is already established in the minds of consumers and several probiotic gums are in embryonic stages in Western markets. On example is BLIS Technologies, the company behind an innovative anti-sore throat probiotic called Throat Guard, based on its K12 Streptococcus salivarius probiotic. BLIS has an ongoing licensing and option agreement with Nestlé Nutrition, which currently holds exclusive rights to use K12 in infant formula products. Nestlé is researching how K12 may help to inoculate very young children against pathogens from birth.

Meanwhile, in spite of its focus on licensing K12 as an ingredient – which is underpinned by a global distribution agreement with Frutarom – BLIS has made further inroads in the sale of its fi nished products, too.

Regulatory approvals are being sought in both China and Korea, where the company has struck distribution and marketing agreements with local fi rms for Throat Guard lozenges.

Streptococcus salivarius, says Grant Washington-Smith, business development and marketing manager at BLIS, is similar genetically to a starter culture used widely in the European dairy industry.

America is a good opportunity for BLIS, says Washington-Smith. “The market understands the concept of probiotics, by virtue of the fact that Danone has done a great job with their range of gut probiotics. They’ve lit a fi re under the mainstream of North American consumers about probiotics in general and the benefi ts. It isn’t a very great leap of faith from a gut probiotic to an oral probiotic.”

US retailer Costco is to stock dietary supplements containing BLIS K12 from the fourth quarter of this year in a 50-store trial.

It is in America that BLIS will debut M18, its newest probiotic strain, which is said to live around the teeth and gums and help prevent tooth decay. “Americans are very big in the oral care space in general,” says Washington-Smith. Applications for M18 are likely to include chewing gum, toothpaste and mouthwashes. First out of the gate is a children’s chewable dental probiotic”, Animal Parade Tooth Fairy from Nature’s Plus. This is said to contain “live M18 probiotic cells, L. acidophilus, tooth-building vitamin D3 and calcium, and xylitol, which may reduce the risk of tooth decay!”.

New retail products containing BLIS K12 or M18 probiotics are to be launched in the US early in 2010. Already launched is a children’s chewable probiotic for oral health from Nature’s Plus, called Animal Parade Tooth Fairy. Applications for M18 are likely to include chewing gum, toothpaste and mouthwashes.





Immunity – in the sense of better defences against colds and infections – is something that everyone wants. For parents of young children, it is the benefit that is most important.

Consumer research by Numico – the world’s biggest infant formula company – led it to re-position its brands on an “immune health” platform in 2007, leading to a double-digit increase in sales.

Many other companies have come to the same conclusion. Nestlé, for example, chose an immunity benefit for its Juicy Juice brand. A company spokesperson explained its appeal to New Nutrition Business: “If the child is sick, you can’t take him to school or go to work yourself, and you may not be getting paid and you may need babysitting. So we wanted to lead with the immunity benefit because it was more compelling to mothers.”

Adults, too, want to avoid sickness and lost working time. But few brands have yet been able to successfully develop this market. The most successful one is Danone’s Actimel probiotic daily dose drink, which has over €1.8 billion ($2.6 billion) in annual retail sales, and uses a “supports your natural defences” message.

Many other companies have explored the probiotics-for-immunity platform. It’s a logical route to take, since the effective operation of the immune system is connected to the health of the gastrointestinal tract and evidence is accumulating about the role that certain probiotic bacteria can play in boosting immunity.

It is becoming clear that probiotics hold promise for addressing a range of diseases

in children and in adults with applications including geriatrics, reduced incidence of eczema and others.

IMMUNITY CLAIMS UNDER FIRE

The challenge remains demonstrating an immune effect for probiotics. As one scientist explained it: “We know that it works but we still don’t know how it works”. More data on mechanisms of actions and more clinical trials are needed. The same could be said for many of the ingredients other than probiotics that are connected to healthy immune function.

The increased attention that immunity claims are getting from regulators might therefore be a cloud with a silver lining, leading to more research that better substantiates immune benefits.

Already two major multinational brands, under severe criticism, have dropped important immunity claims from their packaging and marketing:

• Danone’s US arm recently settled a lawsuit against the immunity claim for DanActive (as Actimel is called in the US). One of the conditions of the settlement was that Dannon USA

Micro Trend 5: Immunity – a great claim that’s hard to use

SUMMARY

• Everyone wants better immunity – and it’s a particularly compelling message to parents of young children, which could explain why Numico’s infant formula brands experienced a double-digit increase in sales after the company repositioned its brands on an immune health benefit.

• Probiotics have received particular attention for their potential immune-boosting effects, although there are few strains with sufficient science to satisfy increasingly demanding regulators.

• Regulation poses significant barriers to using immunity claims, particularly in Europe. Danone in the US and the UK, and Kellogg in the US, have both been forced to drop immunity claims. However, Swedish company Skåne Dairy is launching its fruit juice with an immunity claim under regulations that allow it to sell in the supermarket, addressing a defined target audience.

IMMUNE BOOST FROM VEGETABLES

General Mills’ Health Blends line of frozen vegetable dishes includes a line called Immunity Boost, a medley of broccoli florets, julienne carrots and red and green sweet pepper slices in a garlic-herb-infused, extra-virgin olive oil seasoning. It is “naturally rich in antioxidants to support a healthy immune system,” representing an “excellent” source of Vitamins A and C. It has 50 calories per serving.

Immunity Blend – which earned sales of possibly $10 million (€6.7 million) in its first year after launch – has appeared as one of a proliferating number of products in all segments of the grocery store that are touting immunity benefits. It’s interesting that General Mills chose to introduce a second immunity-oriented product in a product line that only has five SKUs total. This product, however, throws fruit into the mix in what Green Giant called a “unique” combination.

The product includes cauliflower florets, sliced orange and yellow carrots, and dried cranberries in a butter sauce, a combination that “helps boost the immune system”, General Mills said.




had to remove the word “immunity” from the packaging. But it could retain the claim that the product helps “strengthen the body’s defenses”. “The immunity benefit will be more difficult to communicate” for the whole industry, Michael Neuwirth, the company’s senior director of public relations, told New Nutrition Business. “Food companies have to take more notice of using the word ‘immunity’. And as we have, they should make sure that they possess, and that they’ve double-checked, scientific dossiers to make sure what they’re saying indeed is accurate.”

• Danone UK also dropped any reference to children and immunity following a ruling by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which ruled that health claims used in an advert run by the French dairy giant for Actimel were misleading. The irony in the ASA’s decision is that the same claims had earlier been approved as adequate by expert reviewers appointed the ASA. But a new review, using the more restrictive requirements of the new EU health claims regulation, resulted in a negative decision.

• Kellogg is dropping a claim on the package front of its Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereals that said, “Now helps support your child’s immunity”. The company began making the claim last spring after it boosted the amounts of vitamins A, C and E in the cereals to 25% of the RDV. The company said it would stop making the claim after it was pressured by health activists and legal threats.

But the actions by Kellogg and Danone have nothing to do with each other and don’t appear to be precursors to a widespread withdrawal of assertions by mainstream food and beverage manufacturers that their products boost immune systems in kids and adults – marketing language that has been proliferating in the last couple of years.

But one marketing advisor to major American CPGs, speaking to New Nutrition Business on condition of anonymity, believes that “we’ll see more companies targeted” about immunity claims. And she said that the attacks on Kellogg and Danone at least will make other companies think twice. “Because of that, anyone thinking about going into the

area of immunity claims will rethink it.”In Europe it is already becoming

increasingly difficult to make immunity or “natural defence” claims, an area which has in 2009 caused uncertainty for Danone, despite its dossiers of over 30 clinical studies which had mostly been approved by national regulators across Europe before the new and draconian regulations came into play.

BRAVO FRISCUS TOUTS IMMUNITY BENEFIT

Not everyone in Europe is overly-anxious about making immunity claims, however. Fruit juice has long had an association in many people’s minds with boosting your defences against seasonal colds and in 2009 a Swedish company with a successful 15-year history in functional beverages took that concept one step further with the launch of a new probiotic fruit juice that has been clinically shown to reduce the severity of symptoms by a third and to significantly reduce the duration of colds.

Called Bravo Friscus, the new product is an extension of the Bravo brand, the biggest fruit juice brand in Scandinavia, which is owned by Skåne Dairy.

Bravo Friscus is a chilled, all-natural 100% fruit juice with a 30-day shelf-life and no sugar added. The effect comes from the

addition of two patented probiotic strains: L. paracasei 8700:2 and L. plantarum HEAL 9. This combination provides the claimed “natural defence” benefit.

The strains have, in numerous scientific studies, shown positive effects on different parts of the immune system and several large clinical trials have shown that the bacteria contribute to milder common cold symptoms and shorter common cold periods. A patent is pending on the product.

In terms of using the health claims in marketing, the current EU impasse on health claim approvals will not be a barrier to communicating Bravo Friscus’s benefit.

The brand will be launched under PARNUTS – foods for specific nutritional uses – regulation, as Skåne and other European companies have already done for other brands.

PARNUTS allows a product to be sold in the supermarket like any other regular drink but recognises that the marketing addresses a defined group of target consumers.

In this case Bravo Friscus will be able to talk to groups who have a higher likelihood of being affected by colds, such as the elderly and children, who are the two groups who tend to be most exposed, as well as other people who have a higher tendency to be affected by colds. Taking this path means that Bravo Friscus can go to market with its claim prior to any ruling on the claim by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

EDUCATING CONSUMERS

In addition to regulation, there are consumer education challenges. The industry consultant who asked that her identity be protected maintained that, among other things, Kellogg ran into deep ignorance about science and nutrition among American consumers.

“In the consumer’s mind,” she said, “sure they could read that immunity claim and say in their minds, ‘My child isn’t going to get ill.’” After all, she explained, consumers are used to believing certain kinds of immunity claims already that have some validity, such as the conventional wisdom that vitamin C helps prevent colds.

“But the crux of the industry’s problem, as people want more ‘positive nutrition’ benefits, is ‘What can you say?’ There’s no public education, and that’s the challenge. How do you talk about such a complex scientific subject to the public in a way that doesn’t exceed the science but that people can harness?”

Kellogg is dropping a claim on the package front of its Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereals that said, “Now helps support your child’s immunity”. The company said it would stop making the claim after it was pressured by health activists and legal threats.



The story of marine omega-3s illustrates just how challenging it is, even for essential nutrients supported by significant science, to get consumers to incorporate more into their diet. Ironically, the omega-3 producers themselves bear much of the blame for the failure of their ingredient to evolve beyond its niche appeal, having over-hyped the mass-market potential of omega-3 as an ingredient before they addressed the issues that would make it more acceptable both to consumers and to product developers. However, the industry seems to have accepted at last that omega-3 is still “in its infancy”, as the spokesperson for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega 3s (GOED) recently wrote, and has refocused on the basics.

Around the world the omega-3 dietary supplement business (pills and capsules) is thriving; omega-3 has become a standard ingredient in infant formula and in Asia it is routinely added to kid-specifi c foods and beverages. But in the wider adult food and beverage market, in Europe, the US, Japan and most of Asia, sales of omega-3 fortifi ed foods and beverages have underperformed.

Given the overwhelming science supporting omega-3’s benefi ts for human health and the marked defi ciency of omega-3 in modern diets (about 60% below recommended levels) a new approach is needed to give the omega-3 trend a fresh start. Below are the two essential elements to a successful strategy.

1. Deliver an effective doseOne of the key lessons of the last 15

years is that there’s a significant niche of health-conscious consumers who want an effective dose of whatever nutrient it is they

need, delivered in a convenient and good-tasting beverage form. This can be seen in calcium and vitamin D for bone health and glucosamine for joint health (Key Trend 10), fibre or probiotics for digestive health (Key Trend 1), sterols for cholesterol-lowering (Micro-Trend 3), or antioxidants for heart health (Key Trend 6).

As yet, no omega-3 product can give you such a quick fix of an effective daily dose. In fact omega-3 fortified foods deliver only modest dosages per serve. More than 100mg and many products start to have an “off-taste” – yet the effective daily dose according to most international guidelines is around 500mg. To build their market, the omega-3

companies will need to crack this problem and find a way to create (good-tasting) Yakult-type products that give you your effective daily dose in one convenient, single-serve beverage.

2. Capitalise on the power of a natural health benefi t

As we point out in Key Trend 2, consumers’ desire for health benefits that are intrinsic and natural to a food is one of the most powerful trends. Omega-3 – fish oil – has its natural home in fish-based products. Why then would anyone want to add fish oil to yoghurt?

German-and-UK based dairy giant Müller’s marketing director Chris McDonough told New Nutrition Business in 2008, following the company’s decision to drop omega-3 from the ingredients in its Vitality yoghurt brand (for a while the biggest omega-3 dairy brand in Europe), that: “We found in our new research that people simply weren’t interested in having omega-3 in a yoghurt product.”

For consumers to accept ingredients the ingredients must be a logical fit with the product in which they are being used. Hence omega-3 oil in dairy products is a turn-off to most consumers – and there has only been one dairy success, the Puleva milk brand in Spain.

Fish oil added to fish products, however, is acceptable and logical. “We know that people understand the omega-3 health message and find it motivating,” says Charlotte Broughton, marketing controller at fish processor Young’s. “Consumer awareness of fish as a natural source of omega-3 is widespread. We believe

Micro-Trend 6: Fresh start for omega-3?SUMMARY

• Until recently hyped as having mass-market potential, in reality omega-3 as an ingredient remains in its infancy, as the omega-3 producers’ body now admits.

• The acceleration of the omega-3 trend will come through following two important strategies:a) Working out how to deliver an effective “daily dose” of omega-3s in a convenient, single-serve drink, with a good taste.b) Focusing on the potential for omega-3 as an ingredient added to fortify processed fish products – a natural fit for fish oil in

consumers’ minds, unlike omega-3 in dairy, and a way of connecting to the important “intrinsic and natural health benefit” trend.

• Unless urgent moves are made to address these strategies as well as technical issues such as off-taste, omega-3 will remain stuck in a slow-developing niche – a success in infant formula, capsules and pills but an also-ran in food and beverage.

• In Europe the challenges will be greater, since European health claim regulators have decided to treat marine-source and plant-source omega-3s as equivalent – despite protests from scientists that consumers will be misled into thinking they get the same health benefits from both, when the science backs only marine-source omega-3.

Benecol advertising addresses the consumer insight that many people are confused about the things they can do to manage their cholesterol: “What we are trying to do is give people the right information so they can make an informed choice. So, for instance, fi sh is really good for your heart, but it doesn’t lower cholesterol.




people appreciate the naturalness of fish and value it as part of a healthy diet.”

The consumer logic of a natural and intrinsic health benefit (Key Trend 2) is one that seafood suppliers are beginning to use to advantage. For example, fish canner John West launched a canned tuna steak enriched with omega-3 from added tuna oil. It contains 400mg of omega-3 per 100g of drained product. This means a 160g can provides almost 100% of a person’s RDI daily intake, says John West, and five times more omega-3 than is in standard canned tuna.

By retrenching to processed fish, where it is “an intrinsic health benefit” and credible to consumers, and/or by offering an effective dose in a single serve beverage – a strategy proven to be successful for many other ingredients – new life can be breathed into the omega-3 trend.

NO “FEEL THE BENEFIT” MESSAGE

These kinds of approaches will be necessary to overcome disadvantages which have limited sales of omega-3 products in many markets. The biggest of these is that omega-3 does not provide any benefit you can feel (Key Trend 3).

In Australia, for example, where consumers have the highest awareness in the world of the benefits of omega-3, there have been two significant omega-3 milk brands on the market there for almost a decade. But in 2007 and 2008, as Australian consumers reined back on their spending in response to higher interest rates and falling house prices, the two omega-3 milk brands’ sales fell.

Despite Australians’ awareness of omega-3, there is still only one brand that is a success, the mass-market omega-3 brand Tip Top Up bread. However, even this brand has seen its sales decline in recent years, according to industry sources. And every other new omega-3 launch that has been made has either been withdrawn or sits at an ultra-niche level of sales.

OMEGA-3 THE HEART HEALTH ME-TOO

Omega-3s are looking increasingly disadvantaged compared to an increasing number of ingredients that communicate heart health benefits and are available in the supermarkets of the world in good-tasting and convenient formats, including:

Oats: which market their heart-health and cholesterol-lowering benefits as an intrinsic health benefit, supported by

regulator-approved health claims.Sterols: cholesterol-lowering plant

sterols and stanols are already available in convenient daily dose 100ml drinks in Europe, a format that transformed the fortunes of this ingredient. While people can’t “feel the benefit” of lower cholesterol, it is easy enough to get your cholesterol levels tested. This key difference from omega-3 is one that sterol brands, such as Benecol, are already exploiting, making it the basis for effective advertising (see illustration).

Pomegranate juice: after investing millions in research, heart health protection from its high antioxidant content is the promise, a benefit that’s offered as intrinsic and natural (Key Trend 2), has the advantage of coming from fruit (Key Trend 5) and tastes good.

REGULATORY CHALLENGES

Making things even more challenging for omega-3, in Europe the regulators have made the bizarre decision to treat marine and vegetable-source omega-3s as equivalent, prompting a protest from lipid scientists.

The protesting omega-3 scientists believe that new regulations would mislead consumers as it does not distinguish between marine-sourced EPA and DHA and plant-based ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). This would be misleading, they say, as only the fish-derived omega-3s have the scientific backing for their health benefits.

The UK’s FSA supported them, stressing that only the consumption of oily fish can deliver recommended levels of EPA/DHA: “We want any claims agreed at EU level to be supportive of Government dietary advice, and not mislead consumers into believing they can achieve their recommended dietary intakes of DPA/EHA from foods other than oily fish,” it said.

“Oily fish is the only significant dietary source of long chain omega-3 fatty acids and consumers are recommended to eat two portions of fish per week of which one should be oily. Plant-derived short chain fatty acids (ALA) offer no significant cardiovascular benefit to consumers.”

The group of scientists has sent an “urgent petition” to the EC stating that: “The regulation would... allow manufacturers to fill their products with cheap plant oils, yet claim they are high in omega-3s, thus implying the health benefits of fish oils, without delivering them. The regulation would legalise the deception of consumers.”

TECHNOLOGY, TASTE AND NATURALNESS MATTER MORE THAN RDI

Omega-3 products have been plagued by technical issues, starting with oily tastes and extending to oxidation, off-smells and short shelf-life.

Even securing national RDAs for omega-3 will not change the situation. Note that:• there is an RDI for calcium and has been

for decades, but in most countries most people – particularly women and young girls – still don’t meet their RDIs, 70 years after calcium was recognised as an essential nutrient.

• Japan has an RDA for omega-3 fatty acids – it is recommended that 2,600mg of DHA be consumed daily – but even so it’s had limited effect on the omega-3 market. Japanese people prefer to get their omega-3 from fish or from supplements – and Westerners are showing every sign of going the same way.Until technological and marketing

breakthroughs can be made, omega-3 is locked into a 10-year niche, following the same growth path that all nutrients have followed in the 100-year history of nutrition.


A daily-dose of heart health from an all-natural source – John West communicates that its omega-3 fish oil-fortified canned fish products provide 100% of your recommended daily intake of omega-3 in just one can.



The idea of foods and beverages to boost skin health and “beauty” started in Japan and there have been repeated efforts to make the concept fly in the West.

But even in the most active market – the US – the inner-beauty segment had sales of barely $1 million (€0.67 million) as recently as 2006. Challenges lately have made some forecasts – such as that predicting inner beauty would reach $1.3 billion annually by 2011 – look increasingly far-fetched.

One thing is for sure: for now, Europe is not a good opportunity for skin and beauty foods and beverages, thanks to its health claim regulations. The bigger opportunities lie in the US, Asia and South America.

Yet there are some significant lessons to be learnt from the European market, where Danone has made the most successful – yet ultimately unsuccessful – foray into beauty foods ever attempted.

The launch of Danone’s Essensis yoghurt brand was a bold move and a good example of a company being willing to take the risk of trying to create a new category – as Danone has already done before successfully with its Activia and Actimel brands.

Packaged in an eye-catching shade of rose,

Essensis carried a claim that it would “Nourish your skin from the inside”, with the benefit delivered by the ingredient complex “ProNutris” – vitamin E, green tea, probiotics and borage oil. It was the first product of its kind on the European market from a significant company.

Danone’s marketing of Essensis cannot be faulted. In France alone the company spent more than €9 million ($11.5 million) promoting the brand in 2007, using a marketing approach which was unavoidable in a business in which its concept would have to appeal to consumers as much as the cosmetics brands marketed by high-spending

giants such as L’Oréal. Essensis’ advertising strongly

echoed that of cosmetics and Danone invested in dedicated merchandising units and sampling

areas. At one point Essensis even went on sale in a chain of beauty salons – meaning that it was available in the place where the

women most likely to be interested were present and thinking about skincare.

Initially Essensis got a warm reception from consumers and retailers and was rapidly rolled out to Belgium, Spain and Italy.

But as experienced marketers know, it’s one thing to get an initial spike of sales, its quite another to get the levels of repeat purchase once the initial consumer curiosity has abated.

By late 2007 Essensis had stalled. Industry sources estimate that the brand peaked at no more than €50 million ($64 million) in retail sales, Europe-wide. Danone’s stated ambition, when it launched Essensis in January 2007, was to create a brand with more than €100 million ($128 million) in annual sales. Essensis was withdrawn in March 2009.

Micro-Trend 7: Beauty an ultra-niche opportunity

SUMMARY

• It’s clear from the examples of Danone’s withdrawn beauty yogurt Essensis, and the niche sales of Nestle’s Glowelle drink, that the idea of delivering beauty benefits from a product you ingest has ultra-niche appeal.

• Anyone that does tackle beauty-from-inside must make their product a beverage, a pill or a powder. Beauty bars, breakfast cereals, breads and the like are not credible formats.

• Inner-beauty products should not sell in the supermarket; other channels of distribution, such as the upmarket department stores that stock Glowelle in New York, allow you to more easily communicate the benefits of your product and provide a more credible – and less price-driven – environment in which to talk about your beauty benefit.




Seven factors weighed against Essensis:

1. It was sold in the supermarket dairy aisle. One factor simply may be that it was merchandised in the supermarket alongside the regular yoghurt, where was easy for consumers to see that it sold at quite a premium to regular yoghurts. Essensis wasn’t differentiated enough to justify a price premium; the only thing that set it apart from other yoghurts was its beauty benefit. This benefit had to perform as the sole reason-to-purchase. Supermarkets are often the worst place to sell a product. Your package can become invisible among the thousands of other products, and finding the right aisle to put your product in can be a nightmare – especially when it brings, as Essensis did, a new benefit that’s unfamiliar to consumers and not one that consumers have ever before associated with the dairy category.

2. Can’t “feel the benefit”. As we have stated before (see Key Trend 3), delivering a benefit that the consumer can quickly see or feel is one of the most compelling advantages that a product can have – particularly when economic downturn is causing people to think more carefully about how they spend their money. The buyers of Essensis could not see or feel themselves becoming “more beautiful”, even though the benefit was, Danone said, clinically demonstrated. In fact Essensis communicated that it could take up to six weeks for visible results to show. No-one is willing to wait that long for results, so

buying Essensis became a matter of faith and “belief ” rather than tangible, quick results.

3. Too much trouble to get the benefit. The recommended daily intake of Essensis to get the claimed effect was two pots a day. For most people, that’s just too much effort. For consumer acceptance a single dose is the most that people can be expected to discipline themselves to do.

4. Too much money for a substitute. Anyone consuming the recommended two pots a day would have been spending around €40 a month ($51), or €480 ($617) a year. As a regimen that’s a cost comparable with using one of the leading brands of face-cream. The question for many women – especially in times of tighter personal budgets – would be whether they could justify that as an additional expense, which would only be possible if there was a clear effect. Few would be willing to substitute Essensis for their favourite – and trusted – brand of skincare lotion.

5. New and unfamiliar benefits take time to get established. The idea of skincare benefits from food is still new and relatively unknown in the West. As Danone said itself when announcing the withdrawal of Essensis, such new concepts take time to get established. But with food markets tight, consumers more unwilling to try new and expensive ideas and pressure on Danone to produce ever-more profits, there would have

Learning from the Actimel experience, extensive end-aisle and secondary placements in branded fridge units gave Danone’s new Essensis beauty yoghurt high visibility.

DANONE’S MARKETING OF INNER BEAUTY

Below we have reproduced examples of Danone’s Essensis advertising – the first two are print ads from France and Belgium respectively and the third is taken from the Spanish Essensis website. While the core communications are the same – the slogan “Nourishes your skin from the inside” is foregrounded in every ad – it is interesting to see Danone tweaking the message for each market, a reflection of their international marketing savvy.

From the French:

The health and beauty of your skin depends on your diet. It’s your diet that should bring you all the essential nutrients to assure you of good cellular renewal: your skin renews itself endlessly – and completely every 4 to 6 weeks.

Thanks to the exclusive ProNutris complex, which brings together omega-6 from borage, antioxidants from green tea, vitamin E and exclusive probiotics, Essensis delivers essential nutrients to deepest layers of your skin.

Skin cells are therefore better nourished when they reach the surface of the skin. Essensis nourishes your skin from the inside, making it more healthy and thus more beautiful. Clinically tested.




been little management patience with slowly building a niche brand (and limited resource to do so). That’s a pity, because in reality sales of €50 million ($74 million) in its first year is an excellent performance for any brand and – had the problems with the proposition been ironed out – might have provided a basis for long-term growth.

6. Share of mind for beauty belongs to topical products. The benefit of “nourishes your skin” is already addressed by hundreds of skincare lotions and creams. The concept of topical application has the dominant “share of mind” among consumers, and brands such as L’Oréal or Estee Lauder have, thanks to decades of massive marketing spend, a massive share of mind. Acquiring even a tiny share of mind in competition with such brands seems like an impossible task.

7. Wrong format? We could be wrong, but a yoghurt doesn’t seem like a very credible format for the benefit of beauty. Juice or water – with its image of naturalness, purity, and fruit – used in imagery heavily by cosmetic brands might be a better vehicle. Water brands with a claimed skincare benefit, such as Contrex and Vichy Celestins, have performed well enough to survive.

NESTLÉ GLOWELLE

By contrast with the fortunes of Essensis, Nestlé’s Glowelle high-end “beauty drink” seems to have addressed many of the issues above. It has so far defied the odds by surviving despite a recession that has caused its target of upscale American consumers to think twice about some discretionary spending.

Kimberly Cooper, brand manager and “Chief Beauty Officer” for Glowelle, declined to disclose to New Nutrition Business information about Glowelle’s sales. Industry sources estimate sales at less than $5 million (€3.4 million) a year.

Glowelle offers the benefit of a range of ingredients with natural health benefits (see Key Trend 2), such as botanical and fruit extracts quercetin, lycopene, lutein, pine bark, goji berry, white tea, green tea and white-chocolate extract.

Marketing a $7-a-bottle drink exclusively at the upscale Neiman-Marcus department store chain may seem an unusual step for Nestle, but Cooper told New Nutrition Business that the proposition was “working out well.”

One year after launch, it’s still being merchandised exclusively at the cosmetics counters of the 41 Neiman-Marcus department stores around the US and at the chain’s sibling Bergdorf-Goodman stores in New York. In surviving, Glowelle’s marketers have learned and applied some important lessons:

• Emphasizing the less expensive powder form of Glowelle, which sells in the form of a 30-day supply of mix-in powder packets for $112 (€75).

• Training Neiman-Marcus cosmetics personnel to underscore that the packets are “the biggest value” in the line “even though it’s a bigger absolute-dollar purchase” up front than a bottle or two of the RTD form. “And they’re taught to emphasize what customers are getting in return for their daily cost.”

• Boosting packet sales by promoting them as add-ins to smoothies and other beverages, not just bottled water. Glowelle has published a brochure of smoothie recipes featuring its products,

and Neiman-Marcus restaurants have a Glowelle smoothie on their menu.

The past year has also seen Nestlé expand on claims about the product that earlier it could only use implicitly. Upon the completion of a clinical study, Cooper said, Nestlé became comfortable making three specific claims about Glowelle, including on its packaging. These are:

1. “Clinically proven to help reduce” the effects of moderate sun exposure.

2. “Clinically proven” to “beautify from within”, including skin tone.

3. Skin biopsies that indicate antioxidant activity in the body have shown that Glowelle replenishes antioxidants in the body.

The RTD version of Glowelle gets its smoothie-like texture from purees of peaches and mangoes, and it is made from natural juices. The “active” ingredients in both packets and the RTD form are the same. The ready-to-drink version has 100 calories in a 260ml bottle, and each drink stick has 50 calories.

One other adjustment Nestle has made was to sweeten Glowelle a bit, with stevia. “Consumers were concerned about keeping calories low but we also wanted to make sure the taste profile met their needs,” Cooper said.

One thing is very clear from the Glowelle example. Even though Nestlé has addressed many challenges that proved fatal to Essensis, it is still left with a niche product. And consider this: that if even companies of Danone’s and Nestle’s deep pockets can’t make the concept work beyond a niche, and nor can Meiji in Japan, the home of beauty foods, move beauty beyond a niche, then it’s unlikely anyone else will do better.

For anyone who wants to succeed on a niche basis in foods with skin and beauty benefits, there are two key lessons from the years 2007-2009:

1. Make your product a beverage, a pill or a powder. Beauty bars, breakfast cereals, breads and the like are not credible formats.

2. Don’t sell in the supermarket. Find and open up other channels of distribution where you can easily communicate the benefits of your product and which provide a more credible – and less price-driven – environment in which to talk about your beauty benefit.Glowelle communicates that it is available in powder form in convenient 7-day or 30-day packs.




T R E N D S A N D R E G U L AT I O N

Which trends have a future in Europe and which do not is governed by the new, restrictive, controversial and muddled EU health claims regime.

There’s a widely-held view that from being a leader in innovation on health and nutrition, Europe is en route to becoming a graveyard of innovation. That point of view is too pessimistic.

While on the one hand there will be a dramatic reduction in the number of products making health claims, on the other this will be good news for the few products that remain that are able to secure claim approvals. They will stand out all the more on the shelf and in advertising as the clutter of competing claims disappears.

NEW LIFE FOR BONES, HEART, CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING

One example is Sirco, a tomato extract formulated into fruit juice – and marketed with a claim that it helps “maintain a healthy blood flow and benefits circulation”. It is one of the few claims so far approved. Sirco now looks as if it might have the potential to get noticed by consumers.

Cholesterol-lowering – based on plant sterols and stanols – is another claim approved this year in the EU. Even before this piece of good fortune, its prospects were looking better: Europe’s population is ageing – of 500 million people 20% are over the age of 65 (the core market for this benefit) and the average age of the population is 41. By 2030 30% will be over the age of 65.

As a result, it’s already a growing niche – in Italy Danone’s Danacol brand earned €72.7 million ($106 million) in sales in the year to August 2009, a 28.8% increase, even while the Italian economy contracted by 6%.

Demographic change is also driving some forward-thinking European dairies to launch “bone health” brands (see Key Trend 10). Bone health represents a significant area of opportunity and one that has only been fully developed in Asia.

DIGESTIVE HEALTH THE MAIN CHANCE

But the biggest opportunity lies in the biggest trend, Key Trend 1. The value to consumers of good digestive health is reflected in the strong sales of many digestive health brands

even during recession. The few probiotic brands that can secure

an approved digestive health claim will probably sell even better than at present, owing to their new-found uniqueness. But an untapped opportunity lies in a digestive health message based on fibre – though possibly not the term “prebiotic”, which might be difficult to get past regulators.

Fibre and its benefits are easy for consumers to understand. However, simply adding doses of fibre to existing products won’t make much difference to anyone’s sales. A smarter strategy is to create a fibre “expert brand” – just as General Mills has successfully done in the US with Fiber One – that delivers an effective dose and a benefit people can feel (see Key Trend 3).

NATURALLY HEALTHY A WAY FORWARD

Companies will be forbidden from communicating health benefits to consumers, but there is nothing to stop journalists writing about the natural health benefits of a food or ingredient (see Key Trend 2). Wise companies will also look to see which ingredients are most written about and include them in their products – as much for their health halo as for any specific benefit.

Ironically, overly restrictive regulation in Europe has leveled the playing field – if hardly any products can carry a claim, none has an advantage, and the food that will succeed the best will be the one most written about favourably in the media. In other words, success will be about a battle of PR more than a battle of science.

Foods and beverages based on fruit will benefit most from this trend. Fruit provides the opportunity to create health brands by choosing fruit with a positive health image – and ideally an association with specific benefits – and delivering them as a snack or

beverage in strongly differentiated packaging. This might not seem like much of a

differentiation strategy, but when well-executed, it is. One example is the successful Compal Essencial brand, marketed in Portugal, Spain and elsewhere. With its eye-catching 110ml bottles, each of which looks like a piece of fruit, it clearly signals that each bottle is providing one of your five-a-day.

In Europe, even more than the US, there has been a massive growth in the number of new product launches communicating the perceived benefit of being “high in antioxidants”. A year from now, however, and this trend might be dead. With a very few exceptions, human studies on antioxidants are simply not available that would satisfy the European regulator (EFSA).

Europe is likely to split between:• Products with unique claims based on

strong science (that only the largest companies can afford to invest in) found on only a handful of brands, which enjoy healthy sales thanks to the rarity value and “scientifi cally proven” nature of their claims. It will be a market in which new science and innovative ingredients mostly benefi t only the giant companies – Nestlé, Unilever and the like – who have the resources for such a strategy.

• Brands, mostly from small and medium-sized companies, using no health messages, relying instead on ingredients with a naturally healthy halo.

• And the larger part of the market will be one in which execution skills matter the most, where companies fi nd niches where they can deliver benefi ts based on non-controversial, widely-available science and dominate them through marketing

skills, distribution muscle and packaging innovation.

Mixed future for Europe



Country Company Brand & Product Description

PART 1: NORTH AMERICA – FOODS & BEVERAGES

All new product information is sourced exclusively from Mintel’s GNPD (Global New Products Database), which can be visited at

www.gnpd.com. Mintel can be contacted at 18-19 Long Lane, London EC1A 9PL, U.K.. Tel. +44-(0)20-7606-4533, Fax +44-(0)20-7600-3327

FUNCTIONAL & HEALTHY-EATING NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHESEach month we summarise new product launches from around the world.• Part 1: North America • Part 2: Rest of the World

BREAKFAST CEREALS

Canada Belgo & Bellas Yog Active Probiotic Cereal with Psyllium Fibre

Crunchy wheat flakes with probiotic yogurt, real peaches and strawberries. Contains no preservatives, is a very high source of fibre, a source of 8 essential nutrients and contains whole grain. The yogurt pearls are made up of 15% active L. acidophilus bacteria that “help to maintain an intestinal balance and control appetite, by making consumers feel fuller for longer and strengthen their immune system”.

BEVERAGES

Canada Arthur’s Arthur’s Super Juice 100% Pomegranate Juice

A source of naturally occurring antioxidants and is claimed to provide cellular protection by reducing the damage caused by free radicals. Formulated with vitamin C.

Canada Purity Organic Purity Organic Pomegranate Blueberry Functional Drink

Claimed to improve mood and various aspects of memory in healthy middle-aged individuals and contains antioxidants for the maintenance of good health. The certified organic drink contains 60 calories per serving.

Canada The Healthy Beverage Company Steaz Energy Shot Drink, Organic Berry flavour

Contains extracts of green tea, yerba mate and açai guarana. This fair trade certified product is suitable for vegans, is fortified with vitamins, and provides 150mg of natural caffeine per serving. “It can be used on the go, on the job and at gym”.

USA High Performance Beverage NOS Powershot X Antioxidant Boost Formula Liquid Energy Supplement

Available in a Grape flavour, it is said to provide all the maximum performance of an 8-fl. oz. serving of NOS energy drink in a 2-fl. oz. energy shot. Contains taurine, inositol, green tea polyphenols, catechins and concentrated levels of caffeine. The caffeine content is equivalent to the amount of caffeine in an 8-fl. oz. cup of coffee and the product provides 100% of the RDI of niacin, vitamin B5, B6 and B12, riboflavin and vitamin E.

USA Labrada Nutrition Lean Body On the Go! Hi-Protein Nutrition Shake

Now in Vanilla Ice Cream flavour. The sugar and lactose free shake provides 25g of protein per serving and is designed to support lean muscle and burn fat.

USA PepsiCo Amp Energy Amp Energy Energy Juice Comprising 100% from concentrate fortified with caffeine, taurine and plant extracts to provide energy. It is free from added sugar, naturally and artificially orange flavoured and retails in a 12-fl.oz. bottle.

USA Vianda LLC Enzyte Erupt Berry Blue Flavour Energy Shot

Each serving is “packed with an explosive blend of B-vitamins, taurine, goji berry and green tea extract”. Available in a 2-fl. oz. bottle.

USA Vital Pharmaceuticals Red Line Power Rush 7-Hour Energy Boost

Now available in new packaging containing 2 x 2.5-fl. oz. bottles. Enriched with antioxidants, vitamins and amino acids to provide an energy boost that lasts for seven hours. Free from sugar and carbohydrates, and does not induce a crash once the energy boost has worn off. Features an Exotic Fruit flavour.

USA Vital Pharmaceuticals VPX Protein Rush Protein Shake Claimed to provide 40g of high grade protein per serving. Made with a 7 stage protein complex and is designed to increase lean muscle and reduce body fat.

USA Worldwide Sport Nutritional Supplements

Pure Protein Supreme Whey Shot with BCAAs (branched chain amino acids)

Contains 50g protein, zero sugar, and is said to speed recovery from training: “a quick way of providing muscles with critical amino acids rapidly”. Comes in a 3.2-fl. oz. vial, said to be virtually unbreakable. Features a Fruit Punch flavour.

DAIRY & DAIRY SUBSTITUTES

Canada Ultima Foods Yoplait Asana Strawberry Probiotic Yogurt

A good source of calcium - contains two times more calcium than regular Yoplait yogurt - and vitamin D for strong bones. Contains MBP, a milk protein blend whose effectiveness on bone health has been clinically proven. Made with vitamin D fortified milk. According to the manufacturer, a healthy diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D as well as regular exercise helps to achieve strong bones and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Each 175g serving provides 30% of the RDI of calcium and more than one billion probiotic bacteria.

Canada Danone Danone DanActive Probiotic Drink Repackaged and is now available in a weekly 7 + 1 pack, containing 8 x 93ml bottles. This kosher certified product is formulated with L. Casei Defensis to support natural defenses and is available in a Strawberry flavour.

USA Valio Valio Real Goodness 0% Milkfat Free Milk

Contains 42% less sugar than regular milk and is high in protein. Enriched with essential vitamins and minerals, calcium to strengthen bones and teeth, and vitamin D to enhance the absorption of calcium. Also available in this range is a 2% Milkfat Lactose-Free Milk variety.

USA Turtle Mountain So Delicious Agave Sweetened Blueberry Yogurt

Has six active live cultures to promote optimal digestion. Made with organic ingredients and is fortified with calcium, magnesium and vitamin B12 and contains no dairy, gluten or cholesterol. It is said that agave’s glycemic index (GI) value is five times lower than table sugars, “making it an ideal choice for diabetics or anyone seeking to reduce their sugar intake”.

SNACKS

USA Clif Bar Clif Builder’s Natural Protein Bar Features a new packaging design. The all natural, low glycemic product is high in protein (20g), contains 23 minerals and vitamins and is free from trans fat. Also available in Lemon flavour.

USA Forward Foods Detour Lean Muscle Whey Protein Bar Available in a cookie dough caramel crisp variety, and contains 32g protein, only 3g sugar and 2000mg omega-3s.

USA Kraft Foods Planters NUT-rition Digestive Health Mix

Reformulated and contains now 60% more fibre. This kosher product consists of pistachios, almonds, cranberries, granola and cherries.

USA Kraft Foods Planters NUT-rition Heart Healthy Mix Now contains more fibre. Also reformulated are the following variants: Energy Mix; Smoked Almonds; Almonds; and South Beach Diet Recommended Mix.

USA Powerbar Powerbar Protein Plus High Protein Bar Now available in a Chocolate Brownie flavour. Made with TriSource Protein, which “combines whey, soy, and casein proteins that are absorbed by the body at different rates to deliver a steady supply of muscle building amino acids to support muscle growth and help reduce breakdown”. The bar contains 30g of protein and 3.5g leucine per serving.

N E W P R O D U C T S



Country Company Brand & Product Description

PART 2: REST OF THE WORLD – FOODS & BEVERAGES

BAKERY

Finland Fazer Leipomot Fazer Vilpuri Bread for Children Baked with rapeseed oil. Rich in fibre and lower in salt than similar products, these milk- and lactose-free loaves retail in 285g packs. Available varieties include Pikkupaahto (Small Toasting Bread) with oats and Pikkusämpylä (Small Bread Roll).

New Zealand General Mills Old El Paso Healthy Fiesta Extra Light Tortillas

These tortillas are 60% reduced in fat and salt, are a source of fibre, and are approved by the National Heart Foundation.

Norway Mesterbakeren Mesterbakeren Hjertebrød (Rough Bread with Oats)

Developed in co-operation with LHL (Association of Heart and Lung Patients), this wholegrain product is claimed to be healthy for the digestive system and specially formulated for the whole family.

Portugal Industria Rodriguez Virginias B-San Col Biscuits Contain beta glucan, which is said to help control cholesterol, and are high in fibres from oat bran “for a balanced intestinal transit”. Available with no added sugar and low in saturated fat.

BREAKFAST CEREALS

Belgium Nestlé Nestlé Fitness Miel & Amandes (Honey and Almonds) Cereal

Now available in a 625g maxi pack. This wholegrain product provides a good source of essential fibre and is enriched with nine vitamins, calcium and iron. The product is aimed at women and is said to help control weight if consumed as part of a healthy diet.

India Avee’s Products Avee’s Western Style Crunchy Muesli Contains a three grain mix of oats, wheat flakes and corn flakes. Contains grains which are rich in fibre to maintain a healthy digestive tract and lower overall blood cholesterol levels. It contains: oats “rich in beta glucans to help stabilize blood sugar levels, and said to be excellent for diabetics”; almonds, “a good source of protein that is high in antioxidants”, magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium and vitamin E, as well as monounsaturated fat “needed for a healthy heart”; raisins, “to keep the blood clean and flowing”; and milk products, a rich source of calcium and protein.

Malaysia Cereal Partners Uncle Tobys Oats Reformulated to offer a smoother and creamier texture. This 100% wholegrain oat contains high fibre, is free from added sugar and rich in beta-glucan. According to the manufacturer, oats are naturally rich in beta-glucan to help lower cholesterol re-absorption.

Mexico Kellogg Kellogg’s All-Bran Yogufibras con Lactobacilos Cereales con Fibra + Yoghurt con Lactobacilos (Yogurt, Fibres & Lactobacillus Wholegrain Flakes)

Enriched with 14 vitamins and minerals, cholesterol-free, and a good source of fibre. With more than 100 million lactobacilli, the product is said to help improve digestion.

BEVERAGES

Japan Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Plus Cola with Added Fibre

This zero-calorie & preservative-free variety of Coca-Cola contains added fibre. This is the 3rd product introduced under the new brand Coca-Cola Plus.

Japan Ito En Yuzu Lemon Drink A blend of yuzu citrus with lemon. According to the manufacturer, one 500ml bottle contains 1,000mg of vitamin C.

Japan Nippon Milk Community Nokyo Vegetable Juice with Anserine Designed for people - especially men in their 40s and 50s - who lack vegetables in their diet. According to the manufacturer, one pack of drink equals 350g of vegetables. The juice is formulated with anserine, which the manufacturer says “is known to have health benefits”, and is free from sugar and added salt.

Japan Yakult Honsha Yakult Healthy Concentrate Drink in a Cassis variety

Contains 140mg of cassis-derived polyphenols “beneficial for those with eye fatigue”. This product is also formulated with cassis fruit juice and cassis extract and blueberry fruit juice to offer an authentic fruity, bitter taste. Comes in a compact 65ml board pack, the smallest board pack available in Japan, for easy on-the-go consumption. Other available varieties are: CoQ10, which contains 30g of CoQ10; and Perilla, which contains 400mg of red perilla extract.

Mexico Unilever Lipton Iced Tea To Go Té Verde Pink Lemonade (Defense Iced Tea Mix with Pink Lemonade)

This sugar-free product contains zero calories per serving and is made with real tea. It contains vitamins C and E, “helps to keep hydrated”, features 80mg of “protecting flavonoid antioxidants per serving, which help protect the body against free radicals, and enhances body’s natural defences”. Also available are: Energize Green Tea with Blueberry and Pomegranate; Green Tea with Mandarin and Mango; Green Tea with Honey and Lemon; and Iced Tea with Peach.

Portugal Ecolandia Internacional GoldNutrition Extreme Gel Available in a strawberry variety with taurine, vitamins, 50mg caffeine, carbonate hydrates and amino acid chain. Said to immediately replenish energy lost during exercise. Retailed in a 40g pouch.

UK Target Energy Shots Target 5 Hour Sport Energy Shot with Citrus flavour

Free from carbohydrates and added sugar, and contains only four calories. Said to improve performance and concentration, and is retailed in a 2-fl. oz. bottle. Also available is a 5 Hour Gorgeous Energy Shot variety with fruit flavour.

DAIRY & DAIRY SUBSTITUTES

Australia Parmalat Vaalia Kids Vanilla Flavoured Yogurt With a low GI “for sustained energy and concentration” and is gluten free. It is said to be “full of cool stuff for happy tummies and immunity, brain function and concentration and strong bones and teeth”. Free from preservatives, artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners.

Austria Nöm Voll Fit Probiotischer Fitness-Drink Erdbeer (Probiotic Strawberry Fitness Drink)

Now available in a new designed pack of six 125g bottles. The mild yogurt drink is enhanced with L-carnitine and vitamins B6, C and E.




Chile Nestlé Nestlé Chamito Bebida Láctea con Probióticos (Probiotic Dairy Beverage)

Contains millions of live micro-organisms, including lactobacillus. According to the manufacturer, lactobacillus help regulate digestion and improve organism natural defenses.

Chile Soprole Soprole Activ Yoghurt Bebible Alto en Calcio Sabor Frambuesa (Raspberry Yogurt Drink)

Contains Microcal, a calcium-based complex said to help “maintain good bone health and ensure the effective absorption of calcium”.

Greece Friesland Foods Noynoy Calciplus Yogurt Drink Claimed to fully satisfy daily needs of calcium and vitamin D3. This product contains 1% fat and retails in a 376ml multipack containing four 94ml bottles.

Hong Kong Dairy Plus Fonterra Anlene Black Sesame Flavoured Milk

Extra-concentrated and contains four times more calcium than regular milk. Designed for females and is high in calcium and low in fat. It contains nano calcium and important bone nutrients including calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and zinc.

Japan Morinaga Milk Industry Morinaga Mammy Autumn Green Apple Beverage

This new variety in the long-selling Morinaga Mammy range blends lactic acid bacteria drink with green apple fruit juice and offers an “aromatic fruity taste with a clear aftertaste”. Contains 3.8g of dietary fibre per 500ml and is available for a limited time only.

Japan Ohayo Dairy Products One Day’s Iron Yogurt with Folic Acid, Prune Flavour

This spoonable yogurt contains 7.5mg of iron and 200µg of folic acid to satisfy the RDA. It also contains L-55 lactic acid bacteria, which is claimed to reach the intestines alive.

Mexico H-E-B Blue Diamond Natural Almond Breeze Bebida Sabor Almendras (Original Almond Non-Dairy Beverage)

Ddescribed as a smooth, creamy and unsweetened non-dairy beverage. Made from real almonds and contains only 40 calories per serving. It is free from sugar, lactose, casein, cholesterol, gluten, and is a good source of calcium and vitamins A, D and E. Features a low GI index to improve diabetes control, aid in losing weight and prolong physical endurance.

Portugal Danone Danone Densia Especialidade Láctea Fermentada Batida com Cálcio e Vitamina D (Strawberry Cream Yoghurt with Calcium & Vitamin D)

Said to help keep bones strong. This low-fat product is said to contain twice as much calcium as a regular yogurt.

South Africa Woolworths Woolworths Creamed Plain Cottage Cheese

Contains HOWARU probiotic cultures and is rBST hormone free. The probiotic culture HOWARU Bifido HN019 is said to assist in stimulating the function of the immune system, healthy functioning of the digestive system, and lactose digestion.

South Korea Binggrae Yoplait Bioplait Apple Yogurt Drink Contains probiotic lactobacillus, and prebiotic oligosaccharides to stimulate the growth of bifidobacterium. The drink contains lactose yeast for healthy intestines.

Sweden Bioferme Yosa Mango-Vanilla Smoothie New to the Yosa range of oat based products, this probiotic organic 100% vegetal milk-, cholesterol- and lactose-free product retails in a 200g pack. Raspberry-Redcurrant Smoothie is also available.

UK Mars Galaxy Chocolate Probiotic drink Said to be “thick, creamy and delicious”. It contains Galaxy chocolate, only 2% fat and is “formulated with friendly probiotic bacteria, which helps to support body’s natural defences and a healthy digestive system”.

DESSERTS & ICE CREAM

Australia Fonterra Brands Calci Yum Chocolate Custard Contains 25% less sugar and 50% more calcium compared to regular dairy desserts. Free from artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners. The low fat product retails in a 600g pack containing six 100g tubs, which feature Looney Tunes characters.

Austria Nöm Grandessa Fruchtoase Rote Gartenfrüchte (Red Fruit Dessert)

Contains fibres, vitamins A, C and E and is free from colourants and preservatives.

Belgium Nutrition & Santé Gerlinéa Vanilla Caramel Flavoured Puddings

Now feature a more intense vanilla flavour. The puddings can be used as a meal substitute, are rich in protein and contain 12 vitamins and 11 minerals.

UK Kara Smooze! 100% Natural Fruit Ice with Coconut Milk

Made with real fruit purée. The range includes a Coconut and Strawberry variety, which is low in fat and 100% free from dairy ingredients, cholesterol, gluten, GMOs, trans fat and preservatives. It contains at least 87% fruit, is rich in vitamin C and is suitable for vegans.

MEALS & MEAL CENTRES

Hong Kong Quaker Foods & Beverages Quaker Anchovies Flavoured Instant Oats Congee

Now available in a newly designed 93g carton containing three 31g sachets. This product is said to help promote heart health and weight management. One sachet provides about 0.9g oatmeal soluble fibre. According to the manufacturer, a diet rich in dietary fibre can help promote heart health, and decrease risk of weight gain and obesity.

South Korea Pulmuone Chanmaru Smart Kids Little Kimbab A kit containing the ingredients to prepare a Kimbab. The pack contains vegetables, garnish, sauce for rice and black laver. The product is low in fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sugars and sodium. It is rich in protein, dietary fibre and calcium. The kit is said to provide the same amount of vitamin A as three tangerines, the same iron as two eggs and the same DHA as two tuna cans. No monosodium glutamate, sodium, saccharine, glacial acetic acid, bleaching agent or synthetic preservatives.

Spain Sojasun Sojasun Plato Vegetal Risotto (Vegetable Risotto)

A 100% vegetable product containing soy cubes, vegetable & cereals. A good source of fibre and proteins, contains no cholesterol, and is free from GMO.

UK Marlow Foods Quorn Chicken Style & Mushroom Pies

Golden pastry pies filled with succulent Quorn pieces and mushrooms in a light, creamy sauce. Claimed to be a good source of protein and fibre.

Belgium Marlow Foods Quorn Fillet Slices with Sweet Chilli Rich in vegetable protein and fibre and are low in saturated fat. This vegetarian product is said to be ideal for salads and sandwiches.

Singapore Marlow Foods Quorn Chicken Style Pieces Quorn pieces which are said to be perfect for stir-fries, curries, casseroles and many other recipes. This halal certified meat substitute is made from mycoprotein.

UK Marlow Foods Quorn Just Add Chicken Style Fajitas Part of a new range of Quorn products, it requires only chopped tomatoes to be added “to prepare a healthy family meal in 12 minutes”. This vegetarian product is already seasoned and spiced, and contains sliced onions & pepper. Made with mycoprotein, a nutritious member of the fungi family which is “naturally low in fat, containing less than 3% and high in protein and fibre”.

PROCESSED FISH, MEAT & EGG PRODUCTS




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Consumer challenges – quick-hit campaigns that offer tangible and rapid results for those

who follow the rules of the programme – have been the key driver of Special K’s success

and have become synonymous with the brand.

Kellogg Special K – the billion dollar weight management brand

4 NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS


In contrast with the sharp focus on “drop a jeanssize” and similar results-oriented messages that arethe distinctive and consistent communications ofSpecial K breakfast cereal (since 2001),

Kellogg seems to have struggled to find the rightpositioning for its water.

At launch the label carried a tape measure in anecho of the Special K drop a jeans size conceptwhile advertising promised that: “Losing up to 6pounds in 2 weeks just got easier!”

In its current incarnation the brand has evolved tosay on the label that it: “Takes the edge offhunger”

MUDDLED MESSAGES?

3



Sales of Kellogg’s Special K20 Protein Water were never high – and now have collapsed,falling 28% this year. Kellogg’s extension of a breakfast cereal brand to water with aweight management benefit has proved to be a brand stretch too far. Poor merchandisingdidn’t help.

With sales apparently tumbling it’s hard to see how this brand can survive. The recentlaunch of Special K Protein Shakes suggests that Protein Water’s days may be numberedand Kellogg is keen to take a new direction in weight management beverages.

Special K20 Water’s look, shape andmessages have all undergone significantchange in the two years since it waslaunched, suggesting that Kellogg wassearching for the right positioning.

BRAND FUTURE IN QUESTION

2

NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS© New Nutrition Business

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Kellogg makes second attempt

at protein drink market

NEWS ANALYSIS

To fi nd out more e-mail: [email protected]



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Energy shots: birth of a new premium-priced, high-growth categoryStrategies, trends and case studies from the US and UKSuch is the value to consumers of the proposition of a daily dose of energy with no added sugar that in the US alone this new category has soared to over $350 million in retail sales in less than two years - despite recession and despite sell-ing at a massive 400% price premium over “mainstream” energy drinks such as Red Bull!

10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2009Our annual review, 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health, is one of the most sought-after publications in the food industry. The report identifies the 10 mega-trends that will have the most impact on the food and beverage industries over the year ahead. It points companies towards some clear and practical strategies for their functional food and beverage developments, production and marketing.

Trends & Strategies in Weight Management: Ten Key Case StudiesOur concise analysis shows which brand strategies are most effective and why, which ingredient strategies are most effective and why and sets out the key market and consumer trends. Our analysis is illustrated with ten detailed case studies which cover satiety and fat burning and look at how to use weight management to revive old brands or create new ones.

Superfruit: strategy for superfruit successSuperfruits are the product of a strategy, not something you find growing on a tree.Superfruits are revolutionising the way consumers relate to fruit and fruit-based products and they’re growing their market fast – from 40%-100% every year. And yet just a handful of fruits have crossed over from commodity status to superfruit stardom. This guide provides a checklist for superfruit success.

Probiotics: Successful Strategies from the Global MarketplaceThis report is written for anyone trying to develop an effective strategy in the

challenging and fast-changing area of probiotics. It sets out the seven steps to creating a successful probiotic brand and describes probiotic strategy both in dairy and emerging new segments such as fruit juice and solid foods.

The Food & Health Marketing HandbookIn a competitive world how do you take your technology to market so that it’s your product that wins at the point of purchase? This handbook tells you how to get the best out of the science and the health benefits of your ingredients or products.

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CASE STUDIES

Anlene: What makes the world’s biggest bone-health brand so successful? Positioned as “Expert in Bone Nutrition”, Fonterra’s Anlene dairy brand dominates the high-calcium milk segment in Asia and is the biggest bone health brand in the world. Anlene has achieved that position as the result of both innovation in science and innovations in marketing, marketing communications, packaging and products. It’s a case study that provides a model of best practice for anyone looking to communicate clinically-proven benefits.

Danone Actimel: Innovation Builds a Probiotic Mega-BrandDanone’s Actimel probiotic drinking yoghurt is the world’s biggest immunity brand and one of the world’s biggest and most successful probiotic brands. In this report Actimel’s marketing communications, pricing, packaging, labeling, merchandising, advertising and consumer insights are analysed and explained in detail and illustrated with colour photographs, charts and images from advertisements to provide valuable lessons from which all food and beverage businesses can learn.

Innocent Drinks: What makes Europe’s fastest-growing smoothie brand so successful? For any company, large or small, looking to create a successful health proposition the story of the meteoric rise of smoothie makers Innocent Drinks shows what can be achieved in a tough, highly competitive category. Innocent’s strategies are not elusive, nor unachievable – they are instead steps that any company can easily take to propel its brands to new levels.

Gainomax: How to create an expert brand in sports nutritionGainomax has shown how a brand can successfully broaden the market for a sports recovery drink, reaching beyond serious “elite” athletes to draw in occasional gym goers and other mainstream consumers while maintaining its loyal following among the elite athletes.

Cranberries: How Ocean Spray made them the world’s most successful superfruitCranberries’ rise to success as “the original superfruit” is well-known. Less well-understood is that cranberry sales actually declined for several years. That decline was turned around by a focus on innovative new product development and effective brand communications. This 35 page case study shows how Ocean Spray - and other companies in the cranberry field - have already moved cranberry far beyond simple cranberry cocktail.

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Our case studies and reports give you unique insights into the vital and changing food, beverage and nutrition market.

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n ew n utrition business · n ew n utrition business volume 15 number 3 –nutrition.com december...

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