Brilliance In Marketing: Changing Trends in Snack Brands

With snack habits changing and snack marketers are changing, too. In light of Hershey’s launch of Hershey’s Gold, Mars buying into KIND Bars, and Nestle getting out of the candy business, we went out to talk to people about how they snack. Transcript: 00:01 They say snack habits are changing and snack marketers are changing, too. 00:06 Hershey’s just bought skinny pop for $1.6 billion and launched its first non-chocolate candy bar 00:12 Mars, the makers of M&Ms, just bought a minority interest in KIND bars 00:17 And Nestle is getting out of the candy business altogether. 00:20 So are snack habits changing? The American Marketing Association New York came to the crossroads of America here in Times Square to find out. 00:28 Truck Driver: My experience has been they’ve been pretty rotten in the past. They leave a nasty aftertaste 00:35 I saw a bag of chips a couple days ago. It said that they were beet chips, but if you look closely, they’re just dyed with beet juice. They are still potatoes 00:46 I look for healthier things, but for the most part, I tend to stick with what I know. I’m not a big fan of change. 00:53 Young Woman from Connecticut: My favorite snack is the Lay’s Pops. They’re really healthy and I like the healthiness and that there’s still a little salt. 01:01 Also my other favorite one is Veggie Sticks. I love them because they’re healthy and they taste Great. 01:06 I’m actually starting to eat fruits with the chips, like kind of like dried fruit chips and I’m starting to like those. 01:14 It’s tricky because it’s a different texture to get used to. 01:17 Visitor from the UK: Well I love crisps and chocolate 01:20 Definitely yeah. No I don’t want healthy snacks 01:22 I might try it just to see what it was like, but it’s not what I want from a snack. No! Um, no. 01:29 Young Father: I’m just eating what she eats, so usually a lot of fruit. 01:32 She loves grapes. We are both grape addicts, so we’ll eat like a pound of grapes every day between us. 01:37 And then strawberries and fruits and she loves lollipops, one of her favorite little treat snacks. She just had one now, because she came from the doctor. 01:46 But other than that, we haven’t really introduced her to the other snacky stuff. 01:49 Yes, so as long as we can we’ll continue. 01:52 That that being said, she started daycare like three months ago and they tend to give them these little crackers that are shaped like fish and all these other types of snacks so she’s starting to ask for different things 02:04 Yes. We found interest and better-for-you snacks, but people love the old favorites, too. 02:10 The market for snacks is becoming more diverse and snack marketers are following suit. 02:16 That’s brilliance in marketing.