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its Sam’s Cookie Snacks 60g, said to be a healthier cookie snack with “natural visual inclusions” portioned for teenagers or adults. Flavours include Blueberry, Chocolate, and Choc Chip. Mr Tucker says the range falls into the “better-for-you offer” as it delivers on nutrition in terms of protein and fibre while still offering butter and sugar for flavour and taste. “With improved satiety, you can satisfy your sweet tooth without the bingeing many other sweet biscuits give rise to,” he said. “I can say they really are delicious in natural fruit and chocolate flavours. They’re what people are looking for in terms of a guilt-free treat – made evident by the way my three young boys devour them, and they’re particularly fussy with their snacks.” As to the “motivator” for the Sam’s Cookie Snacks range, he again cites his children, who get a “healthier yet treat- oriented” option for their lunchboxes “that they actually eat”. “For manufacturers it’s all about finding the right balance, because while people are looking for nutrition, they don’t want to forgo taste and, if possible, indulgence,” Mr Tucker said. “It’s a really interesting space in that it’s hard to tick all the boxes because products are usually going to have sugar, fat or salt to give them the flavour consumers are conditioned to tasting.” It must also be considered, he adds, that although many people are concerned about their health, there’s a tendency for them to want to indulge when they treat themselves. “We believe we’ve been able to find the right balance between healthy and indulgent,” he said. Another tricky issue, he says, is getting Australians to change their habits through trialling new products. “Trial by consumers is one of the biggest obstacles we have when introducing new products or launching brands to market, and this is especially the case for SMEs with limited marketing budgets,” Mr Tucker said. “There are a lot of great, new products that hit the market but simply don’t get trialled by consumers and therefore fail – and definitely not because they’re not good enough, but because they can’t attract attention and secure the momentum they need to clinch a position in the market. “Consumers are faced with many decisions when they’re shopping, and often habit overrides trial. This is both a producer and retailer barrier that needs to be shared, so we can all benefit as well as the consumer with new innovative products.” He points out, however, that the younger generation are more adaptable, engaged and interested in trying new products and brands. “The important thing about new snack products is they have to meet a consumer need and provide at least three or more points of innovation because the snacks space in retail is very competitive,” he said. “They have to be creative and innovative, whether through packaging, portion size, ingredients, supply process, or social and environmental position, etc. “A product presented to a category buyer, such as another water cracker at a cheaper price or 5g more per pack, no longer elicits interest. “Critical is that the product fulfils a need for the consumer, which in turn allows for them to engage with the brand and even potentially the product’s further development.” Mr Tucker says “quality” remains the most important factor for Tucker’s Natural snack products, along with “value for money” and being Australian owned and made. “In times of crisis, mass produced cheaper products have always provided volume sales,” he said. “However, through this health crisis consumers are also looking for products that support their health (both physical and mental) and nutrition, and this trend will continue well beyond Covid-19.” Pinpointed snack trends Mr Tucker cites a general increase in the consumption of salty snacks. “Salty snacks lend themselves to healthy credentials through the addition of fibre and protein and the like,” he said. “People are also looking towards more plant-based products from both a health and environmental perspective. With the entry of Covid-19 to our world, both attributes will continue to command greater consumer interest.” Both trends perfectly align with the company’s philosophy of ‘natural snacking every day’, he adds. Consumers are also demanding sustainable plant-based proteins from traceable farmed ingredients. “This is a strong focus for our business,” Mr Tucker said, “and we’ll be bringing through products with these types of credentials in the next six months. If a snack can cater to the vegan and gluten free market with the same product and still deliver on convenience and taste, it will do well because there’s definitely growing demand in this space.” And the “snacking space” is only going to grow, he says, given the extent to which Australians “graze” across the day. He adds that it’s interesting to watch his children snack constantly and still manage to eat main meals. “There’s no doubt that people are snacking throughout the day and I think that’s a positive thing for metabolism and for overall weight management,” he said. “That’s where we’re targeting our snacks: for snacking on the go, between meals and occasionally as a substitute for meals.” Mr Tucker says that on packaging, both the visibility of the brand’s logo and the prominence of the company’s story as an Australian family owned business over three decades hold weight with the consumer. Both packaging and positioning, he adds, are strong marketing tools PANTRY in supermarkets. TO PAGE 54 SEP, 2020 RETAIL WORLD 53