After jumping off the bus where they have been listening to the latest from BusRadio and grabbing a diet drink from the school vending machines (proceeds to support the music program and athletic department), kids and teens can then reach for those healthier snacks grocers are scrambling to have ready for the opening day of school this Fall.
Progressive Grocer notes that 'the timing has never been better to interest kids in healthy snacks.'
According to IRI's Healthy Kids Report: Understanding the Role of Better-for-You Products in Kid-Driven Food and Beverage Categories, released last month, within such "kid-driven" categories as cookies, crackers, portable breakfast and snack foods, and salty snacks, healthy products have grown a total of 31 percent since 2002, vs. 7 percent for mainstream categories. In these categories better-for-you innovation is driving volume growth more than any other factor, the report notes.
Industry spokespeople are quoted talking about the challenges they have overcome to make sure that these new 'healthy' snack foods are both nutritious and tasty (an age-old problem for some reason). But this social marketer was most intrigued by this comment - mainly because it reinforces what to me are the primary marketing problems for countering the increasing prevalence of obesity.
"It's about making great-tasting food totally accessible, portable, and convenient for busy people and families."
That is, provide foods, preferably in large amounts, that kids, teens and adults can eat any time, anywhere. THEN it's about taste and nutrition. As schools and advocates shift their attention from sodas to snacks in their vending machines, words-of-advice: read the labels first. And remember the classic learning experiments with Pavlov's dogs: imagine hearing footsteps throughout the day and having food within an arm's reach of desire. It's called classical conditioning.
And BTW, the word 'calorie' does not appear once in the article! Industry PR folks should take note of this omission and correct the talking points immediately - if they can.
Technorati Tags: Childhood Obesity, Classical Conditioning, Food Marketing, School Nutrition, Snack Foods
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