COVID has changed our lifestyle. While staying in, many people indulge in snacking. About eight out of 10 Indians are replacing at least one meal with a snack, and nutrition is slightly less important than flavour and enjoyment during indulgence for a majority of consumers, says a new study by Mondelez International and The Harris Poll.
Indian consumers are seeking snacks for a host of reasons: convenience, comfort, and whether a snack is fun to eat, even as they look for fresh and convenient options. As many as 92% of Indians who participated in the survey said in the survey that they enjoy food content on social media, a significantly higher figure than the global average of 62%.
In fact, 77% of Indians say social media has inspired them to try a new snack in the past year, compared to 55% world-wide.
Anil Viswanathan, vice-president – marketing at Mondelez, said, “Social media is impacting the entire conversion from discovery to purchase. Earlier, it was largely focused on discovery, but in the face of digital and social media, quick commerce is picking up. The trend was going up, but it accelerated post-COVID. ” They add that in the wake of the pandemic’s pause, consumers in India are reassessing what snacking looks like, tastes like, and what it means to them in the context of their lives.
As a result, over 83% say their definition of what a snack is has evolved over the past three years to include more or different types of foods and occasions for eating. Also, more people in the country are looking for snacks to improve their emotional health instead of their physical health. Against the global average of 65%, nearly eight in ten Indians are looking for snacks that help them improve their social health and crave bite-sized ways to connect with others.
The role that a snack plays in India in terms of building a social connection and the context being a social context is the single biggest difference in India compared to globally, where it has an individual context. Tracxn, a market intelligence provider for private company data, said nearly 1,500 companies have entered the food and beverages (F & B) segment, raising $1.6 billion over the past five years, according to Tracxn.
While the inflow in the F & B segment is excessively higher compared to the home, personal, and lifestyle categories, companies feel most consumers are still focused on taste, as healthier brands or segments are gaining limited traction. While snacking is highly impulsive, consumers’ stickiness is largely driven by flavour and taste.
Even when consumers are looking for nutritional products, repeat purchases are always influenced by taste, even if the first engagement on retail shelves is due to packaging or price tag.The report also said Indian consumers’ habits indicate that both sustenance and indulgence are part of a balanced lifestyle. Eight in 10 say they eat at least one snack for sustenance and one snack for indulgence each day (81%), with the former being more popular earlier in the day, and the latter being more popular in the evening.