Product Spotlight: Making fruit a treat

Fruit at its ripest can be a craveable treat. But fresh fruit spoils, bruises easily, gets punctured. Dried fruit is not as juicy as fresh fruit, but it’s able to go anywhere. How do you get the portability and shelf life of dried fruit in a form that approximates the taste of fresh fruit, or that at least adds a little something different to make dried fruit a craveable, near-decadent treat?

It typically takes almost 6 lbs. of fresh fruit to yield 1 lb. of dried fruit. This makes dried fruits a much more concentrated source of energy, fiber, vitamins and minerals, but also more expensive.

The national 5-A-Day for Better Health Program, in place since 1991, recommends five servings of fruit and vegetables per day. However, approximately 70 percent of Americans do not consume this amount, often because they think it is too difficult or time-consuming to prepare.

Dried fruit is similar to snack foods in its ease of consumption. It is hand to mouth, bite-sized. Peeled Inc. (www.peeledsnacks.com), New York, set out to produce a good tasting, easy-to-eat snack that could provide the healthfulness of fruit and yet be easy to consume like common snack foods. The result is the three-item line of Peeled Snacks.

Noha Waibsnaider founded Peeled Snacks when she “noticed something was missing in the snack market. You could get processed potato chips, sugar-filled candy, or energy bars with mysterious ingredients, but you couldn't get something that made you feel good about snacking.”

For this review we’re focusing on Shock-olate, a mix of pears, apricots, almonds, walnuts and dark chocolate.

Understanding the marketplace

The dried fruit and nuts market grew 47 percent from 1998 to 2003, when it reached $3.2 billion. The largest category is nuts and seeds, followed by dried fruit and cooking nuts. Key drivers of growth have been the benefits of nuts in reducing heart disease and the low-carb diets that suggested nuts were the primary alternative for snacking.

U.S. per capita consumption of dried fruits was 0.064 servings of fruit per day in 2003 versus per capita consumption of fresh fruits of 1.26 servings per day in 2003. This suggests that consumption of fresh fruit is more familiar to consumers than dried in spite of the long history of dried fruits. It also suggests that most Americans don’t follow the 5-A-Day plan, that there is a big need for consumer awareness and a radical change in behavior.

Peeled Snacks set out to create a positioning of snacks that are made with ingredients consumers recognize — dried fruit and nuts.

While nut marketers have made their products more convenient through packaging, variety and availability, dried fruits have not advanced. Top producers of dried fruits are Del Monte, ConAgra, Sunsweet, Sun-Maid Growers, Paradise, Dole, Waymouth Farms, Mariani and Ocean Spray Cranberries. How does a young brand like Peeled Snacks break into this marketplace?

The key to bringing consumers to this brand or product space requires either moving them from a familiar brand or bringing new consumers into the franchise. The key here is to create a brand or product that leverages interests and/or behaviors that potential new consumers already have.

The majority of Americans (88 percent) snack at least once a day. The frequency of snacking declines with age, from a high of 3.1 snacks per day among 1-2-year-olds to fewer than two snacks among those 70 and older, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.

Since snacking is such a part of our everyday lives and consumers are trying to eat healthier, Peeled Snacks is trying to help the consumer feel good about snacking by giving them something healthy to snack on.

Peeled Snacks set out to create a positioning of snacks that are made with ingredients the consumer can recognize. Products feature large pieces of fruit and nuts that provide a natural source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. The fruit is in the original large cut fruit piece size with no added sugar or fat. The nuts are dry roasted and lightly salted. And for the chocolate lovers, they use the finest dark chocolate.

Insights

Fruit is one of the most highly craved foods, fitting between cheesecake and steak. Fruit for many can be more craveable than ice cream or chocolate. Its craveablity is driven by the product and emotional attributes. Fruit is a very emotional food.

The key attributes for fresh fruit in order are: taste, product appearance, thirst, aroma, season, texture and mood. Consumers are looking for “fresh fruit … ripe and in season …premium quality.” The sensory aspects and the emotional ties to stress reduction and relaxation are key drivers for fresh fruit. Fresh fruit is consumed midafternoon, midmorning, at breakfast and late evening/right before bed.

Dried fruit is much more difficult to understand. It is less familiar to consumers.

Key trends are convenience, flavor, healthfulness and nostalgia.

Convenience: Manufacturers are responding to consumers’ hectic lifestyles by creating packaging that assists convenience. Snacks are available in every package imaginable. They can be consumed on the go and in a variety of occasions.

Flavors: Most consumers have tried raisins or dried plums. These fruits are sweet and plump, close to the characteristics of the fresh fruit while providing the shelf life advantages of dried. In the past decade, consumers were introduced to Craisins, sweetened, dried cranberries, by Ocean Spray.

Healthfulness: Fruit is the poster child for the health halo. Dried fruit can push the envelope further by having less water (less than 20 percent versus 85 percent in fresh fruit) and is more calorie/nutrient-dense. Peeled Snacks maintains the halo by being all-natural with no preservatives.

Nostalgia: Fruit was something your mom put in your lunch as a kid. Fruit in glass Mason jars (as in canned/jarred fruit) takes many people back to a place that is nostalgic and reminds them of mom, comfort, a calming memory.

Dried fruit snacks are less well known to the average Boomer or his family. Maybe you had some at Grandma’s house, on a camping trip or in a holiday gift pack, but there’s not much familiarity.

Dried fruits also compete with fruit snacks and rollups, those sweetened snacks that have vitamin C, fruit juice and sometimes calcium. Oddly enough, the Nutrition Facts of the corn syrup fruit snacks look better than that of a piece of fruit – the fortification helps.

The experience

Peeled Snacks are available in 2.6-oz. packages (containing two servings) and priced at $1.89 to 2.19. They may not be in your area yet; this was a product we spotted at the Fancy Food Show in New York last July. There are three varieties: Shock-olate, Bing Bing Cherry and FigSated.

For Shock-olate, the bag is bright green with a cut-out of a pear so you can see the product inside. The font is approachable with the name Peeled Snacks and a leaf logo. A burst states “natural source of vitamin A.” Running right below the name and the logo are the ingredients: dark chocolate, pears, apricots, almonds, and walnuts.

The overall suggestion is that there is nothing to hide here. Some of our consumer tasters told us the package looked like it could be a high-end cosmetic. It’s a small stand-up bag, which can stand on the table next to you as you eat it. It does not have a resealable closure, so one assumes you should consume the entire bag. If you do, you will ingest 320 calories and 16g of fat (for two listed servings). This amount of calories is more than most consumers want in a snack.

Inside the package are fruit pieces and a smaller package with the chocolate and nuts. The smaller package has a picture indicating you should pour its contents into the fruit mix. “We at Peeled Snacks think fruit should be moist and nuts should be crunchy, not the other way around,” the small, inner pack explains. “We pack the fruit and nuts separately to ensure freshness without adding sugar or fat.” It’s a nice statement but it means you need two steps before you start eating.

When the bag is opened, some noticed an unfamiliar smell. It can be off-putting. This unfamiliarity creates a barrier to trying this new product. It was especially difficult for our younger tasters to get over the smell. Once past the aroma, the bag with the chocolate and nuts can be mixed with the dried fruit to create the snack, enabling customization if one so desires.

The flavor of the dried fruits and nuts is variety specific (apricots taste like apricots, almonds like almonds, etc.). The fruit was moist and the nuts were crunchy. One does not taste anything in the background of the product that says it is not natural, but that smell raises doubts.

While the fruits and nuts are dry, there is some stickiness on the inner nut package. Some of the evaluators wondered if that would make snacking at their computer problematic (messy fingers). After several uses, one can figure out how to eat the snack without getting your fingers gooey – but it took consumer experience to get over this.

Does the product deliver?

This product delivers the feel-good in terms of the intellectual idea of healthful snacking, nothing hidden from the consumer. You certainly can get your serving of fruit and fiber. Yet for some, it does not deliver the emotional quality of snacking. Dried fruit scared them and the aroma did not make the experience any easier.

One of our groups of tasters, young adults, at whom this product appears targeted, were unsure of the snack. While they loved the package, they were not comforted. The dried fruit experience is just so foreign to this group. For them, consuming the snack on the go (which is what they do) resulted in sticky fingers.

The idea of feeling good about your snacking requires that you also like what you are consuming. The aroma, unfamiliar textures and flavors make this an acquired taste. It will take some effort for Peeled Snacks to create enough buzz to get inexperienced consumers to try it.

For consumers who currently eat dried fruits and nuts, the question is why pick this product over the boxes and packages you currently pick? The package is compelling but the lack of reclosure makes it less portable, less useful than it could be.

How to make the idea bigger

The packaging requires you to consume two servings, not what all consumers are looking for. Perhaps a smaller portion (a one-fruit package) would bring this in at the right calorie level (about 150 calories). Otherwise, a reclosure method is necessary for portion control. We are not packaging engineers, but we believe a different film might manage the smell.

The separate package for nuts and other mix-ins is good. Most would prefer to not have the stickiness, but that seemed manageable to most. The names, the piece sizes and the overall idea is all good – but some things need to be brought together to make this a whole experience. Some of this might be bigger than a small company can manage.

Rating: OK. It does deliver a healthful snacking experience. Getting consumer trial with the package is easy – it is very approachable. However, repeat is the challenge. Dried fruit in this form is just so unfamiliar.

Market potential: Maybe. This approach may be something that one of the big guys will adapt before Peeled Snacks can make money.

About the Authors

Hollis Ashman is chief strategist and Jacqueline Beckley is president of the Understanding & Insight Group. This strategy, business, and product development firm connects with consumers using a variety of both qualitative in-context approaches and quantitative approaches to understand the expected experience the brand promises and the actual experience the product delivers, enabling rapid creation of innovative products and services with enhanced market acceptance. They leverage both the proprietary approach to understanding consumers (“Getting It” ®) and the award-winning approach of Foundational Studies based on the web technology of IdeaMap.Net. Foundational Studies utilize multiple integrated but independent conjoint (trade-off) studies to understand a given experience across multiple categories.

The business partners of The U&I Group have extensive experience in a wide range of businesses such as consumer products, aluminum, durable goods, food, health care, communications, and office products. More about them can be found at www.theuandigroup.com. Crave It!, Healthy You!, Drink It! and other foundational studies are available through It! Ventures and on the web at www.consumerunderstanding.net.