Attracting kids' smiles in more supermarket aisles

Prepared Foods, May, 1994 by Martin Friedman

Kids aren't kidding around when it comes to spending money on food. According to American Demographics magazine, the 33 million children ages 4 to 12 are the major decision-makers for a humungous $9 billion in food purchases each year, with $2 billion ear-marked for candy, soft drinks, frozen desserts, fruits, potato chips, popcorn and peanuts.

Entire product sub-categories--such as fruit snacks, refrigerated desserts, toaster breakfast foods, string cheese, etc.--have been developed in the past few years just to attract these coin-clutching or prod-the-parent consumers

Designing foods for kids is definitely not a no-brainer. Many smart marketers thought they could just sweeten up a product, put it in a colorful package, create a cartoon spokesperson and poof!--kids would scream for the new item. The road to kid-product success is littered with such potholes as Kraft's Koogle sweet peanut-butter spreads, Heinz Happy Soups and Tyson's Looney Tunes frozen dinners. However, with a rising birthrate at least among children of baby-boomers and billions of dollars in prospective sales, many companies continue to develop new food products aimed at sophisticated little shavers.

Categories such as candy, cookies, frozen desserts and breakfast cereals always have a sizeable percentage of business coming from kid-directed items. Now, virtually every section of the supermarket contains new products designed to catch small fry's eyes.

DAIRY DELIGHTS

In the dairy case, General Foods, Hershey and Hunt-Wesson's Swiss Miss offer single-serve refrigerated puddings. New configurations include Swiss Miss Chocolate and Vanilla Swirls and Hershey Free Tapioca Pudding.

The current move is toward refrigerated and shelf-stable gelatin desserts. General Foods has moved nationally with a line of Jell-O ready-to-eat gelatins with Berry Blue and cherry as the latest flavor extensions. Hunt-Wesson also has moved into the dairy case with Swiss Miss Gels in four double-flavor varieties, such as Strawberry Blast and Razzin' Berry. Nabisco is testing Life Savers packaged gelatin dessert mixes, including Outlandish Orange and Wacky Watermelon flavors.

The success of string cheese snacks has encouraged other new cheese treats for children. Fromageries Bel markets Laughing Cow Cheese Wackies, fun-shaped, single-serve cheese snacks molded in circus character designs. General Mills markets a Trix Yogurt which uses its Trix Cereal Rabbit as the product's spokesbunny. Dannon offers Sprinkl'ins, a lowfat yogurt with an accompanying packet of colorful candy spinkles. Also aimed at youthful "yogurteers" are granola-topped products from General Mills (Yoplait Crunch 'N Yogurt) and Bison Foods (Astro Yogurt). Kraft USA distributes a line of Light 'n Lively Kid Pack Yogurts.

Hidden Valley Ranch (Clorox) has introduced a line of pourable Ranch Salad Dressings for Kids, in four "fun flavors," including pizza, taco, nacho and Super Creamy. Mothers will appreciate these items, which encourage children to eat more salads and vegetables.

Super Spreaders, from J. M. Smucker, are described as "Fun Fruit Spreads." ("Fun" usually means a product for kids, since adults, presumably, never have "fun" anymore.) Super Spreaders are more spreadable, contain less sugar and more fruit, and are enriched with vitamin C, according to the company. Cherry, orange and grape flavors are offered in test markets.

A pickle for kids, from M.A. Gedney, Chaska, Minn., is called Minnesaurus Dill Picklodon, and comes in a "prehistoric" size.

PASTA PIZAZZ

Canned, shaped pastas for children have provided Campbell Soup, American Home Foods and others with a huge sales opportunity, and have supplied time-stressed parents with very easy meal preparation. Under its Franco-American label, Campbell is marketing Where's Waldo canned pastas in new varieties called Adventure #1 Deep Sea and Adventure #2 Meanie Genie.

Also new are Franco-American Pizza O's Pasta. American Home Products has countered with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Versus Shredder Pasta (your kids will understand) and Sir Chomps-A-Lot Microwave Meals, canned pasta for kids in microwavable cups. Hanover Brands, a regional marketer, offers such canned pasta varieties as Wheelies, Hot Notes and Go-Go's.

Pelican Bay, a Clearwater, Fla.based company, offers three products aimed directly at kids: I Can Bake Sugar Cookies, I Can Bake Dirt Cake with Mud Frosting, and Ooey Gooey Chocolate Mud Pie. The products are all self-contained in a plastic pail and generally only require the child to add water before asking a grown-up for help with the hot oven. Also new are Pillsbury's Slice and Bake Dinosaur and Teddy Bear cookies.

Kraft General Foods has extended its Oscar Mayer Lunchables line with a Fun Pack. Each box contains lunch meat, American cheese, crackers, candy and Capri Sun natural fruit drink. The back of the box offers games, riddles and trivia.

Not to be outdone, Sara Lee's Bryan Packing has introduced Lunch 'n Munch Lunch Box, also with a fruit drink (Minute Maid) and dessert.