Mondelez was seeking to further develop a leadership platform in the snacking space to drive total category growth, push the aisle further into the future, and embed snacking as a critical opportunity through a compelling category story.
Cookies & crackers are found in US homes more often than any other mega-category. This aisle is very important to retail as it is the #3 selling center store category with high value shoppers. The average basket ring of a cookie or cracker shopper is $80.79. In comparison the average food and beverage basket ring is $49.31, while other salty snacks only elicit an average basket ring of $75.35.
Today we have an aisle that generates greater sales and increased shopper satisfaction, but does not address how shoppers will shop tomorrow.
The shopper paradigm is changing from ME to WE, as 85% of all US adults say they have at least 50% of the household responsibility for grocery shopping. The factors contributing to this include more women in the workforce, more non-traditional families, and expanded tastes and preferences.
With these factors come changes in lifestyles and mindsets.
Time compression and lifestyle changes are driving snacking growth while there are many factors contributing the a cultural shift in wellbeing. These changes are leading to overall shifts in snacking behaviors — in fact, people are snacking more than ever before. As a result, there is increased demand for new innovations and better for you offerings but shoppers need help making sense of category blurring, product hybrids, and the growth of snack categories. For shoppers who were turning away from the center-aisle shopping, we needed to use the “love” of top brands to create more theater and excitement in the category.
We conducted in-home interviews and shop-alongs with 45 individuals across a range of ages, locations, incomes, and household structures to understand snacking behavior. This primary research enabled us to dimensionalize the moments surrounding the category both in-home and in-store, through which we found a disconnect in how customers shop the category and use the products.
We created a future state strategy that sits at the intersection of needs, occasions, and cohorts to drive connection between today’s shifts and the future state of the category. Our "Make More Out of Every Moment” platform emphasizes the love and nostalgia that shoppers feel for this aisle, and focuses on the snacking moments that connect us.
The final playbook includes recommendations for store and aisle layout that identify space for future entrants and hybrid products. New and updated in-store and out-of-home digital channels link end need states with occasions, and address the following growth opportunities:
Increasing occasions by articulating and inspiring new occasions while elaborating on existing occasions; Showing the aisle has something for everyone by educating around new ways to use and new reasons to love; Leaving room for the evolution of BFY products within the occasion space while targeting products for shoppers across life stages, genders and ethnicities; Recognizing pantry staples and how seamlessly they fit across multiple snacking occasions; and Ensuring the ease of execution at shelf for retailers and partners.