Consumer taste trends are moving to healthy and natural foods. Organic and non-GMO healthy snacks are a growing industry segment that is particularly appealing to Millennials and Generation Z.
What should a company do to take advantage of the new industry and market segments? While companies can develop new products, market adoption of the new products can take valuable time, and development itself takes resources and money away from a company’s established products. A faster way to enter a new market with a new product is through acquisition. Case in point is PepsiCo’s recent purchase of snack manufacturer Bare Foods Co. to help bolster Pepsi’s health snack offerings.
Bare Snacks was founded in 2001 by a family-owned organic apple farm in Washington. It began by selling baked apple chips in local farmers’ markets. Today, the Bare line of fruit and vegetable snacks are sold at Starbucks, Costco, Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, and more. The products are made from simple ingredients that are baked (not fried) and are officially non-GMO verified. Bare Snacks is a certified B-Corp and reflects its values statements in its products: simplicity, goodness, be real, and live fully.
Bare and Pepsi – an unusual, but winning combination.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
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- Discuss the four primary marketing strategies: market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification.
- Which strategy did Bare Snacks use?
- Which strategy did PepsiCo using?
- Show Bare Snacks Web site: https://baresnacks.com/
- Show PepsiCo Web site: http://www.pepsico.com/
- Compare the two sites, products, and messages.
- Divide students into teams. Have each team select one of the four different strategies and explain why that strategy could be used to market Bare Snacks
- Have each team determine the marketing mix (4Ps) to support their strategy choice.
Source: Brandchannel.com (25 May, 2018). PepsiCo adds Bare Snacks to Frito-Lay Portfolio.
