Consumers are looking for a lot of different things when they hunt for snacks. Sometimes they crave familiar favorites; other times they want a new snacking adventure. Often, they want something indulgent; then again, occasionally, they prioritize protein content and other health-centric options. To learn more about balance in snacks and sometimes conflicting interests that consumers pursue, we connected with Jess Waller, general manager of Away From Home with Kellanova.

Jenni Spinner: Could you start off by sharing a bit about the consumer and flavor trends you’ve had an eye on over the past several months?

Jess Waller: Snacking is an interesting thing, in that there’s no one-size-fits-all. Consumers are all very different. Snacking is personal and very much lifestyle-driven. Consumers every single day are curating their snacking. It’s less about just directly picking off the shelf, the same thing every day, and more about what they need, for them and their lifestyles. Whether I’m walking into an exhausting day and want to make sure I have the energy I need so I'm going for items that are packed with protein that'll give me the energy I need to get through the day; or if I'm settling down for the night and I feel like I need to indulge because it was a tough day and I want to end it on the right note so then I'm leaning into those snacks. Honestly, a lot of consumers are doing both of those things. 

There are three big trends that we're watching at Kellanova that we're really leaning into. First is indulgence; 62% of consumers say they want to indulge when they snack—they want that over-the-top, indulgent experience. When we talk about the channels that I represent, foodservice and c-stores, growth is faster there. C-stores are growing when it comes to indulgence, because consumers want to run in there and grab that thing that makes them feel like they’ve gotten that indulgence, so we're definitely keeping an eye on that.

Better-for-you is another one that’s on the opposite end of the spectrum. Consumers say, “I want to eat things that make me feel good.” Defining what makes them feel good, that's a whole other conversation because, again, it's very curated. BFY—whether it's protein, fiber, or whatever else that might be—is another area we're obviously paying very close attention to. 

The last one is what we call mashups, or combinations of things. A big one this year has been hot honey, also salt and caramel coming together, also crunchy and soft. Rice Krispies Treats is an example—we’ve just this year brought to the table what we're calling the Rice Krispies Treats Bliss line, which brings together things like sea salt pretzels and caramel or chocolate, so you have that crunchy and the soft and the sweet and the salty, which is something that consumers are really responding to

One thing I didn’t touch on is hot, bold flavors, which is something that's been around for a while, not necessarily new, but certainly still growing and a relevant trend that we're paying attention.

JS: Let’s dig more into BFY and the mix of BFY and conventional products that shoppers are looking for.  Can you talk a little bit about the better-for-you and the conventional, and the combos that snackers are putting in their cart?

JW: You hit on it. It's not one or the other; it’s both, and the balance is up to each individual consumer, but we're seeing that it's not one or the other. As I said, more than 60% of consumers want to indulge when they snack, but 64% want snacks that are good for them. That doesn’t add up to 100%; there's overlap there. It’s often the same consumer on a trip that is leaning into both of those trends. I'll give you a quick example from my own home. My husband and I have seven kids, and so you get the spectrum at our table. My daughter, when I made a chop suey, she said, “Yeah, not doing the rice—I  want the pork, I want the mushrooms, I want the vegetables—I want all those good things.” She ate that really well, but then she walked up and grabbed a pumpkin doughnut from the counter and sat down. I said, “Wait a minute, but you didn't want the rice?” She said, “Yeah, I chose to not have the rice so I can have this doughnut.” It was the perfect example to me in that moment. We’re making tradeoffs all the time.

JS: Could you talk about the snack market in general over the past year, and how the different channels have fared?

JW: Despite the economic pressures that are certainly being seen and felt in the industry, snacking continues to grow. It’s resilient—we’re talking an almost $140 billion business in the U.S. alone for snacking. That means 1,200 snacks per person, per year, roughly three snacks a day, and that number continues to grow. Snacking doesn’t feel like it's going away in the channels that I represent right now, foodservice and convenience. 

It's been an interesting year; let’s start with convenience. Traffic has been very challenged this year; I think you would hear that across the board within c-store. When consumers are watching their pocketbooks like they are, consumer confidence is not where it once was, so they're making choices and tradeoffs, because when you go through the foodservice or convenience channels, you're paying a little bit more for the convenience factor. Convenience traffic has been down, which puts pressure on sales. Now that is starting to rebound, after a year of a whole lot of pressure, but we're finding that, as traffic is coming back, baskets are not as large, so baskets are down. That’s also a challenge within foodservice; it comes down to the segment. There are places where there’s growth, like colleges and universities. There's growth in long-term care, healthcare, and micro markets. There are places where you're seeing growth, and the sales, of course, are following that trend. But there are places where it's really there's been pressure, you know, restaurants and other areas. 

Snacking is not going away. What we have to pay attention to is where the consumers are going within snacking and what matters most to them. If you look at 25-to 44-year-old consumers, two-thirds of them are buying snacks through digital venues, ordering online for delivery to their doorstep, so they are buying snacks differently. As a food manufacturer, we have to make sure we're capitalizing on where the consumer is going.

JS: Kellanova is always coming out with new innovations. Can you share some of the highlights that you’ve come out with in the past several months?

JW: Let’s start with indulgence: Rice Krispies Treats Bliss. It's a luxe twist to a classic favorite; you have this delicious, ooey-gooey, pull-apart Rice Krispie Treat, and then you've got candied sea salt pretzels, you've got caramel, you've got chocolate. It is absolutely delicious. It launched in market in the first quarter of this year, and has been doing extremely well. When we tested it, it was considered a superstar with a 92% purchase intent; it’s got not only that super indulgence, but it introduces that kind of mash-up thing that we talked about. It is outperforming every other launch within sweet snacking. 

On the more functional or BFY side, we’ve got within our RXBar line a high-protein bar that is 18 g of protein and only six ingredients, so it's very simple. It tastes good, which is not always the case in the high-protein space, so that's one we're really proud of. We've driven excitement with bold flavors, bold platforms, crunchy textures, on some of our legacy brands, like Pringles, where we've launched Pringles Mingles, where we got outside the can and into the bag; and we're putting together flavor mash-ups like dill pickle with ranch, or barbecue with pizza. You will love Cheez-It Crunch; I'm sure you think of Cheez-It as crunchy already—this is more of a 3D texture that really delivers a loud crunch. You can't hear yourself think when you're eating it, because it really delivers a kind of excitement.

I would add some of the limited-time offers we've brought to the market this year within the convenience channel, with flavors like buffalo wing, seven-layer dip, or loaded potato skins. There have been some really fun limited-time flavors that we've brought into convenience stores. Latin flavors are really growing, and the hot and spicy; we had Hot Ones Pringles, so we'll be doing more of that.

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JS: Let's talk about the future--you don't have a crystal ball, but if you could guess, what do you think the snacking landscape is going to look like in the coming months? 

JW: Snacking is going to continue to grow, and I think the future of snacking is going to be about balance, and it's going to be about pushing the boundaries. It's going to be both. Right now, we're talking about playing on the edges, with indulgence over here, and better for you over here; the middle starts to suffer a little bit if you're not playing within those. I think there will be more push to the edge within indulgence, and with better-for-you. I think there's going to be more push to the edge on some of these mash-ups, things that you wouldn't think to bring together. Consumers are demanding more and more excitement and surprise, so I think we'll see more there. 

Then, I think the opening price point is going to be more of a requirement--consumers want the snack and the delight, but maybe don't have the ability to pay as much for it. I think that'll continue, as much as premium snacking will continue, pushing to the edges there as well. Then, with multicultural flavors, the desire for heat, whether it’s Latin- or Italian- or Asian-inspired flavors, it’s going to continue to push us to the edges. If I had to sum it up, I think that’s what it is—pushing to the edge and tradeoffs for what once was in the middle. 

JS: This is probably something that you can't tell me a lot about, but are there any Kellanova plans for new products that aren’t top secret?

JW: It's going to be around meeting evolving needs. We're going to be pushing into bold flavors and new formats. We're going to be working with our retail partners to talk about what it is that consumers want and what we want to really bring forward in the marketplace, and really pushing to those edges we've talked about. As I said, it's going to be about meeting consumers how they want to snack, where they want to snack, with the products that really meet their needs.

Related: Kellanova introduces Pop-Tarts Protein