RESEARCH
ASK
For the Interview process I decided to start with the same base questions for everyone I spoke with. From there the second round of questions became more specific based on their answers to the first set of questions. I then decided to pursue 3 different “archetypes” of people who buy and eat snacks based on my WHO SNACKS? category in my mind map. Both the types of people and most of the questions I asked were pulled from that original idea generation. For reference I have included another copy of it here:
The 3 Archetypes
The Mom: An older mother (early 50’s) who has 2 kids, both are now grown. (One lives at home while the other works out of state.) Both for her and her children the dynamic of snacking has changed over the years. While there was a time when her children were young that they ate largely processed or junk food for snacks that is no longer the case. After struggling with weight gain herself she began to purchase primarily healthy snacks and make the rest from scratch. Since the switch she has lost over 80 lbs and was very happy to share that information.
The Grandfather: A retired man with both grandkids and now one great-grandchild. He remembers what “snacking” was like during the depression and WW2 as a child. With his kids both the shopping and selection of snacks were mostly done by his wife who is no longer with us. From what he remember most of the snacks were homemade, “good midwestern food” as he referred to them. For his grandkids, when they are around he has no shame in being the guy who has all their favorite snacks no matter the health nor backlash from parents.
The New-Dad: A graduate student at the University he snacks pretty constantly, packing with him a large selection of snacks to last throughout the day and the occasional long nights working on projects. Back home his wife and him are enjoying being parents to there 3 year old daughter as well as there 8 month old baby girl. Due to the ages of the children their snacking tendencies are quite different. While there 3 year old is enjoying homemade granolas and veggie snacks, there 8 month old is still enjoying the beautiful blend of random ingredients we call baby food.
First Round
Why do you (or your kids) snack?
The Grandfather: “I have always snacked for pleasure if you can call a beer, some port wine cheese and crackers a snack … for my kids it was always about the time of day, they had to have there afternoon snack before going to football practice or working on homework.”
Have you ever had a bad snacking experience?
The Mom: “I seems to be really easy to find terrible healthy snacks and much more difficult to find ones that are delicious and inexpensive, it’s why I usually just make my own.”
The New-Dad: “As a kid I loved snacks like fruit roll ups, gushers, and what are they called…fruit by the foot, I recently tried them again and couldn’t choke them down. Maybe my pallet has changed, maybe the recipe, my guess is that my knowledge has changed, I now know how terrible they are for me and I couldn’t see myself ever buying them for my kids except so they could know something from my childhood.”
Have you ever had a particularly good snacking experience?
The New-Dad: “All of my best (snacking) experiences have been homemade, every one, I think they are what my kids enjoy best and certainly what I have always enjoyed. Snack companies would be hard pressed to concoct anything nearly as good as what I, my mom or my wife have made.”
What goes into your decision making when buying snacks for yourself or your kids?
The Mom: “While brands do matter especially when it come to things like Oreos (back and forth banter about how there is no good knock off Oreo and how really terrible they are for you.)… I usually go by how healthy they are.”
I asked here how she defines healthy: “Usually by calories or when snacking myself I will check on there Weight Watchers points to help make my decision.”
Where do you usually purchase snacks?
List of answers from all the interviewees: “Cub Foods, trader joes, the vending machine at work, Seward Co-op (For bulk ingredients for making homemade snacks), Mississippi Market, Aldi’s.”
Second Round
Do other items within the packaging (games, toys, prizes) effect your snack purchasing decisions?
The New-Dad: “Traditionally not. Most of the toys are cheap and mindless. If I were to care, companies would have to set up there quality and themes for a non barbie and hot wheels centered generation (I believe he was referring to McDonalds.)”
Is there a homemade form of snack that you currently enjoy that you wish existed on the market?
This was a follow up question for the Mom, while she mentioned things like granola, vegetable snacks with healthy dips and hummus, the part of her answer that I thought said the most is: “ I cannot say that I have found anything on the market, in terms of healthy snacking, that isn’t just better homemade.”
Where do you usually end up snacking? follow-ups: Is there a particular reason for snacking here as oppose to other places? If you had the option of snacking location where would you like to do it?
The Grandfather: “Its almost always at home. The few exceptions from my life were either family trips to the park, or on road trips.” — “There was never a problem with snacking at home, it was honestly the place that made the most sense most of the time. Our kids came home hungry so we fed them…My grandkids come over so I give them something to eat.” — “I really did and occasionally do enjoy snacking on a park bench. It was a place my wife and I often enjoyed going in the afternoons. Nothing like people watching with a snack.”
OBSERVATION
For my observation, I decided to focus on one category from my mind map: Where do you get your food. The majority of kids get there food from their parents and the majority of parents get their food from the grocery store. Without the parents actually purchasing the snack, the snack experience can’t happen. With this in mind, I decided to observe families as they shopped through Cub foods on North East.
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Here is what I saw:
- The first parent with children I noticed went down to the cereal aisle, grabbed a bag of apple jacks, and cruised right back out.
- A girl lit up as her mother and her passed by the Ice Cream section of the frozen foods aisle.
- A young girl wandering the frozen dinner aisle was drawn to the colorful “Kid’s Cuisine” boxes.
- A mother was walking with her son and she gave him the opportunity to pick out any cereal he wanted (he ended up getting strawberry frosted mini wheats).
- Another father in the yogurt section was looking in the yogurt aisle as his son started yelling about a box of glow-in-the-dark StarWars gogurt (as I’m sure I would have done at his age). The dad glanced over the packaging and handed it to his son who proceeded to carry it around the store.
Most parents I observed seemed like they were there with a burning purpose: Get in…get out. Parents seemed rushed, and looked as if they knew exactly what they wanted, bouncing from item to item and only getting what they came for.
EXPERIENCE
My experience really ended up being a continuation of my observation. Since I was at Cub, I figured it was time to pick up some groceries for myself. While I normally like to purchase foods to be prepared for a meal I figured since I am focusing on stacking it would be fair to look specifically for snacks that caught my eye. I ended up finding a selection of yogurts that come from free range grass fed cows.
While normally that alone would be enough to persuade me into giving them a shot, I starting looking at the flavors and that is what really sold me. Chai Cherry, Agave Vanilla, Strawberry Pomegranate, each one sounding better than the next. Plus they were on sale, which I don’t know how often you purchase yogurt, but 10 for $10 is cheaper than most other yogurt brands out there. So I was sold on buying them, but I also had to taste them and boy I wasn’t let down, they were light, creamy and simple flavors unlike any yogurt I had had previously. And thats when a formula started to appear.
- You have an initial observation. For me it was the treatment of the cows used to make the product. If that works out you move on to…
- Something else that intrigues you about the product. For this it was the unique variety of flavors. Then comes the question that every thrifty shopper knows to ask…
- How does it compare to other similar products? For me this came down to price. I am a poor college student so this one was a no brainer.
- Do you enjoy the product. It is my belief that everything leading up to taking the product home and suing it, simply gets it into your home, what keeps it on your shelf is how much you enjoy having it around.
STORYBOARD
MAJOR INSIGHTS
- People don’t want processed junk food for there kids. -Interviews
2. There needs to be more education about what makes something healthy or not beyond overused phrases like: “Low Calorie, All-Natural, Non-GMO.” What do those things even mean. -Interviews
3. Homemade snacks seem to be the way a lot of snackers are going, the internet has allowed people to learn how to make things we relied on companies to make for many years. -Interviews
4. How can snacking encourage activity, since there is a push for healthier food shouldn’t we be encouraging healthier behavior as well. -Interviews
5. Parents are busy people and don’t always have the time to take personal interest in everything that goes into the shopping cart. -Observation
6. Kids see colorful, fun or relatable packaging, the rest isn’t important until they get home. -Observation
7. Certain products are no-contest sellers. Ice Cream, Pizza, Candy. Its hard not to get kids interested in these products. -Observation.
8. Price Matters. -Experience
9. I takes much more than any one aspect of a product to get it to sell. It is a combination of packaging, health, Animal treatment, Creativity, Design, Pricing, Marketing, etc. that sells a product. -Experience
10. Everything leading up to taking the product home and suing it, simply gets it into your home, what keeps it on your shelf is how much you enjoy having it around. -Experience
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
- There need to be healthy, good tasting, snack options on the market for these companies to remain relevant.
2. Snack packaging for the most part is the same across the board, the only real difference is: Is it marketed to adults or kids. There needs to be more than cute characters and maze games on packages to really get kids interested and adult willing to support them.
3. What happens to the packaging when you are done with the snack. If snacking on the go, it almost alway ends up in the trash. As recycling and composting become more relevant to more people in our society, the world of snacking needs to become aware and proactive about the trash problem in America.
