Report: Kids’ food and beverage a ‘tricky business’

A new report from market research firm Packaged Facts points out what it called the “tricky” business of the kids’ food and beverage market. In terms of desired product attributes, the report said that “fresh” is the word when it comes to selling to children and their parents. Parents also seek out food and beverages that are all-natural, non-GMO, no/low sugar and have no artificial ingredients.

“Marketers must clearly tout such attributes as parents are very likely to consider information on product labels,” according to the report.

In Kids Food & Beverage Market in the U.S., 9th Edition, the firm said the key challenge in both innovation and marketing for this sector is that companies must satisfy both kids and parents.

“While parents may be the purchaser of kids’ food and beverage, kids are of course key influencers over parents’ choices,” The firm said. “For example, nearly all parents say they at least ‘some of the time’ buy a new food or beverage that their kids ask for, with 20 percent indicating they almost always do so.”

In the chapter on “KIDS AS INFLUENCERS” the report includes a section titled, “Kids’ requests have the most power in breakfast cereal, salty snack and produce.”

In 2018, the child population is 73.8 million strong, accounting for 22.4 percent of the total U.S. population, the firm found.

“With little change in the number of children expected through 2020, industry players must engage kids earlier and retain relationships through the teen years to realize full market potential,” Packaged Facts said. “The most effective marketers will leverage honed strategies to increase the connection with the core family market without alienating the childless household.”

To do that, the report advised companies develop an understanding of how the changing family dynamic impacts the market for kids’ food and beverage. Specifically, it warned that millennials now represent a large constituent of the parent demographic, and these consumers have a different approach to parenting than previous generations.

“These consumers have a definitive perspective on what is important in products and brands they buy,” the Packaged Facts said. “Growth of the multicultural population also bears weight on the family demographic and requires marketers leverage strategies in order to appeal to varied traditional and cultural values.”

The report looks at seven retail food and beverage categories that are especially significant to children’s eating choices, addressing a range of use occasions and need states: breakfast foods, lunch foods, and dinner foods; sweet snacks and salty snacks; produce and beverages. For each of these, the report provides uses data from over a ten-year period (2008-2017.)