It’s vital to get flavor and color right when developing snack and bakery products. Color helps establish the consumer’s initial expectations of a product, and flavor is a critical part of delivering against those expectations. Flavor is a key driver of snack sales, notes Sally Lyons Wyatt, executive vice president and practice leader, IRI, Chicago. She notes that the majority of consumers identify taste/flavor as the top purchase driver for snacks.
“I predict that taste will always be No 1,” says Lyons Wyatt. Consumers still love cheese, she notes. They still love chocolate. “But they love combinations, too. Make sure when you look across your portfolio, you pack it with different flavors. Be able to appeal to all the generations with the variety of flavors that are necessary, from sweet all the way to hot.”