Go On, Add On-the-Go

Snack bars are a hot item at retail, according to the Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory group at financial services company Rabobank. Knowing this might make you want to add selected snack bars to your merchandise mix. Knowing why this sales boost is happening might lead to you augmenting certain other on-the-go features of your business.

• The U.S market for snack bars has more than doubled over the past decade, with an average compound annual growth rate of about 6.4%. It dwarfs the 2.4% average CAGR for packaged foods overall. Although the best-selling snack bar brands come from Kellogg’s and General Mills, the manufacturer most responsible for the outstanding growth is Clif Bar & Company, with their Clif, Luna, and Mojo brands. The Rabobank report says this is because Clif has been especially successful in positioning their company’s bars as containing the highest quality ingredients. Consumers will settle for lower quality in pursuit of portability. Screen size on the latest mobile devices lacks the visual pizzazz of a desktop monitor. However, all else being equal, a higher-quality portable item is preferred. 
• For portability, small can trump all. Were the signals there decades ago with Steve Martin’s 1978 Grammy-award-winning album “Let’s Get Small”? Come to think of it, Mr. Martin did allude to the mobility payoffs from miniaturization when he riffed on getting arrested for being too small while driving: “And they can't put you in a regular cell either, because you walk right out.” 
• Assisting the popularity of snack bars is that they appeal to a range of demographics and psychographics. Athletes who want to bulk up and couch potatoes who want to avoid a trip to the kitchen when hungry, even if it means bulking up. Soccer moms and professionals who operate nonstop. And snack bars fit with a variety of store identities. They’re being sold in gas stations as well as groceries, dollar stores as well as delis. What portable-use items can you feature as impulse buys when the shopper is ready to get back on-the-go? 
• Multichannel retailing appeals to the portability mentality. Accommodate it at each stage of consumer behavior. Think of ways you can enable your customers and potential customers to be flexible in when and where they seek out information about you and your products; complete a purchase; use the product; and dispose of the product, such as making a return or exchange. 

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Get Small with Big Convenience 
Provide Portability for Your Shoppers