Expo West 2018

Most of the year, we spot upcoming trends by walking through the grocery store, scrolling our Instagram feeds, and testing new dishes at restaurants. Then we dive into research, scouring articles and looking for data. But in March, everything changes. We go straight to the source: the Natural Products Expo! There, we walk miles and miles of booths looking for what’s new. What stood out in a sea of over 3,000 exhibitors? That’s what this special edition trend report is all about!

Thirsty?

After grabbing your fifth water sample of the day, you have to wonder, how do they differentiate themselves? Water is water is water, right? Each brand offers something slightly different, but if you can’t convey why your water is special, you’re not going to make it. The same is true across the entire packaged goods industry, and in our interviews we found this to be a recurring theme. In order to survive, you need to stand out.

We saw booths for Kid's Water (sugar free, of course), Birch Water and Boxed Water, to name a few. While they seem similar, each audience is trying to solve a different problem. When you really start comparing brand to brand, you see each one is presenting a different set of features and benefits. Kid’s Water, for example, is targeted toward health-conscious moms. It comes in kid-friendly flavors (Paddleboard Punch and Biking Berries) and is sold in small boxes that are easy for little hands to hold. Birch Water, on the other hand, is sold as a coconut water substitute (again, less sugar) and targeted toward consumers on the hunt for functional ingredients. Each bottle is infused with adaptogenic herbs to balance your immune system.

Despite negative press around how much waste bottled water creates, we continue to see a trend toward premium water in bottles and cans (and boxes!). This may be related to consumers’ interest in finding low-sugar but delicious drink alternatives and innovations that have made drinks like Waterloo satisfying—without the sweeteners, caffeine, colors or other “crap.”

What This Means For Brands

Understanding your audience, their pain points and how you can help is as important as ever. Water is just one example of a crowded market where differentiation is key. Make sure you know what you’re selling and why it’s helpful, then communicate those points.

New Fruit on the Block

You may have heard of this while traveling through the tropics. More commonly known as dragon fruit, Pitaya is named after its pink and green rind, which resembles dragon scales. It’s mildly sweet with small edible seeds and tastes like a kiwi/pear hybrid. Like many tropical fruits, it’s high in vitamin C, antioxidants and several B vitamins.

The biggest hurdle? Its 4-6 week shelf life. When factoring in harvest and shipping time, consumers only have about a week to buy and enjoy it fresh. By freezing it, much like acai, you can extend the shelf life and make it easier for retailers and consumers to buy. As consumers’ tastes continue to evolve, demand for tropical fruits increases. One more factor has primed it for success in 2018: Instagram. Pink is in and will make your images stand out in a feed. For the record, not all dragon fruit is pink on the inside and the outside -- but we expect the pink variety to take off before the white because of its vibrant color.

At Expo West, we spotted Pitaya Plus sampling their frozen pitaya smoothie packs. If you’re lucky, you can also find it fresh at your local grocer.

What This Means For Brands

It may seem obvious, but it’s all about the color. For Pitaya Plus, pink represents its product (it’s pitaya’s natural color), and that is reflected in its branding. By owning this color, any smoothie-savvy Instagrammer will see a hot pink smoothie bowl and immediately think of them. They also make their product work for them—a testament to the value of an ownable look and feel (T-Mobile also uses this same strategy!).

You’re Sweet, Date Syrup

One way brands are leaning into the low-sugar fad is finding ways to replace sugar with alternatives. You’ve likely tried stevia, had a beverage sweetened with monk fruit (whether you knew it or not), but have you tried date syrup? Several date syrup brands inhabited booths at the Convention Center this March. Dates, which are naturally very sweet, can be blended with water to create a paste or even a syrup. Stir it into drinks, add it to your cooking, or bake with it: the syrup has all of the nutrients naturally found in the fruit, including potassium and magnesium.

Contrary to what one might think, the term “sugar-free” has been steadily losing search volume for the last decade. This may be because the term is associated with chemical alternatives, like Aspartame. “Low-sugar,” on the other hand, has seen consistent growth in interest, reaching new highs just this year.

Have Your Cake, and Protein Too

Adding protein to treats is just one-way brands are making the foods you crave functional, so you can indulge but still stick to your healthy eating plan, too.

If you walked the floor at Expo, you saw hundreds (if not thousands) of ways to consume protein -- cookies, pancake mixes, innumerable bars and shakes, and even water. Most of these take the form of something sweet and come in crave-able flavors like peanut butter chocolate. Interestingly, we noticed interest online for protein treats (pancakes, cookies) start to grow in 2012. Around this same time, low-sugar diets (like Paleo) came into vogue. The copious number of products touting their protein content is likely a reflection of consumer demand. All trends have a lifecycle, so has this one hit its peak?

Low-calorie ice cream is nothing new (remember this from 2016?), but this year, several brands have debuted their own low-calorie frozen treats, including traditional ice cream brands, trying to get in on the market Halo Top has carved out. Try Slim Twin from Three Twins Ice Cream, or even Ben & Jerry's new line. For those of you thinking there is nothing like the original, try out Cool Haus Milkshake & Fries Ice Cream.

What This Means For Brands

It’s true—consumers are looking for low-sugar, high-protein foods. But as the space is becoming more and more crowded, consumers are getting pickier. They no longer want (or have) to sacrifice taste for functionality. They want to have their cake and eat it too. And when it comes right down to it, don’t we all?

Chocolate’s Newest Job

At Room 214, we spend a lot of time thinking about the job your product does for consumers. This theory is called Jobs To Be Done. When you take a moment to think about chocolate, you might think the “job” in question is pretty simple: satisfy a chocoholic (hi, that’s me). But we’ve seen the chocolate industry go in two staggeringly different directions over the last several months, which were on full display in the Anaheim Convention Center this March.

If you’ve perused your local gourmet chocolate aisle recently, you’ve noticed bean-to-bar brands listing -- similar to a bottle of wine -- where the beans were grown and even the tasting notes you’ll find in each bar. These are for the finer moments in life: the end of a small dinner party or by yourself after a long day with a glass of your favorite pinot noir. It’s chocolate to savor. Try Loving Earth Chocolate, Raaka Chocolate, Pacari Chocolate, or Ritual Chocolate.

At the same time, we see other gourmet chocolate brands going down a different path towards more casual opportunities. Taza Chocolate, Theo Chocolate, and Alter Eco all recently launched new barks and clusters for that mid-afternoon sugar slump. They are just as delicious as the aforementioned tasting bars but have a totally different competitive set. Snacking chocolate may compete with a Snickers or even a bag of popcorn on a quick grocery run.  

What This Means For Brands

Chocolate isn’t the only product with multiple jobs. Consider all of the occasions your product might be consumed. Are they all equal? What might a consumer use instead in each of those situations? You may find that your competitive set is not what you originally thought.

Can’t Sleep? Eat This

It’s no secret that 21st-century living leaves many of us stressed and maybe a little over-caffeinated. Both of these can make it hard to get a good night’s sleep. This trend was apparent in Anaheim last week, as a number of products shown were intended to help consumers get back to their pillows—naturally.  

According to the WHO, nearly two-thirds of adults in developed nations are not getting their full eight hours of sleep a night. It is a complicated issue -- one that is tied to our culture, our readily available access to light and our jobs (stress, sitting all day or working off-shifts). These are things that are hard to solve for overnight or even over the course of a month.

There are many pharmaceutical options, but these come with risks, including dependency, sleepwalking and other long term effects, according to Harvard. Given the pitfalls of OTC and prescription sleeping pills, it’s easy to see why consumers would be looking for more natural alternatives. In Anaheim, we spotted several, with many using melatonin as the active ingredient (a non-habit-forming, quick-to-process hormone that helps regulate sleep). Brands include Good Day Chocolate, Dream Water and Berry Sleepy.

What This Means For Brands

Increasing awareness around insomnia and other sleep disorders may educate consumers around when they use their devices (avoid blue light before bedtime!), what they consume when (avoid caffeine in the afternoons) or even their perspective on life (they may opt to take things slow and aim to worry less). Keep a pulse on your target consumer and how they adjust—you may learn the best time to reach them or understand their priorities in a new way.

Sophisticated Sippers Seek Botanical Flavors

From elderflower lemonade to rose water and ginger blossom soda we’re seeing botanical flavors crop up across the beverage industry. These sophisticated takes on traditional drinks make for refreshing afternoon sippers and great cocktails.

Seasons for More Than Just Coffee

Perhaps taking a note from Starbucks’ success, we see brands introducing seasonal products, like Gingerbread & Pumpkin Spice RX Bars (yum!).

Cauliflower Stays Strong

We’ve seen it as rice and pizza crust, but now brands are turning it into flour and putting it in pretzels and crisps.