Snacks are an essential part of children’s lives. Six in 10 8-9-year-olds (60%) and 47% of 10-12-year-olds eat a snack every day, according to Technomic and branding agency Creative Consumer Concepts (C3).
Snacks can be hot or cold, healthy or not, large or small. The snack category truly represents what kids like to eat when they’re given the freedom to choose.
Kids select snacks largely as a way to connect with others and to demonstrate that they are fun and cool, according to Smarty Pants, a marketing agency specializing in youth and families. Taste overwhelmingly drives snack food preferences, with cost a third to half as significant, and “coolness” a distant third.
What Kids Like
One of the key factors in drawing kids to snack brands is the perception that the brand “is for kids my age,” says Wynne Tyree of Smarty Pants. Children are far less concerned than adults are with snacks’ nutritional content or environmental friendliness, or with comparisons to other snack options.
As for specific brands, Oreo tops the list, regardless of age or gender. In general, kids tend to favor cookies and chips. Although all make the top 10, Doritos is slightly more popular than Cheetos, and Lay’s edges out Pringles and Sun Chips.
There are some subtle differences depending on age and gender. The younger the child, the more likely he or she is to eat a relatively healthy snack, because moms have greater control over younger children’s eating habits than they do over teens’ habits, according to Marketing to Moms Coalition.
That said, moms are less rigid about their children’s snack preferences than they are about food choices at other meals. “From the mom’s standpoint, the ideal snack fills her child up enough to last until dinner, but… not so much [that] he or she is no longer hungry enough to eat a full dinner,” says Tuning Into Mom author Teri Lucie Thompson, who is also a member of the Marketing to Moms Coalition. “There is a demand for healthy snacks, but less-nutritious alternatives like cookies and crackers are considered acceptable given the limited role the snack is perceived to play. [However,] many draw the line at candy bars.”
Children certainly have more control over their snack selection than they do over food options. More than half of elementary school-aged children (52%) ask their moms to purchase specific snack brands, finds the Marketing to Moms Coalition.
The only “healthy” snack brands among the top 10 brands for those ages 6-8 are Fruit Roll-ups and Fruit by the Foot.
Contacts and Connections: Creative Consumer Concepts, Shad Foos, VP Client Services, 10955 Granada Ln., Overland Park, KS 66211; 913-327-2295; shad@c3mail.com; www.c3brandmarketing.com.
Smarty Pants, Wynne Tyree, President, 14 Dove Tree Ln., Jonesborough, TN 37659; 203-847-5766; wtyree@asksmartypants.com; www.asksmartypants.com.
Tuning Into Mom, Marketing to Moms Coalition, Teri Lucie Thompson, Purdue University, VP Marketing and Media, West Lafayette, IN 47907; 765-494-2082; tlthompson@purdue.edu; www.marketingtomoms.org.
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