Boom Times for Kids' Products

The 35.8 million U.S. kids aged 3 to 11 will push the market for food and beverage products targeted specifically to that demographic from $15.1 billion in 2006 to more than $26.8 billion in 2011, according to "Kids' Food and Beverages," the latest market research from New York-based Packaged Facts. The report looks at projected growth in each of 11 categories, including cereal, lunch kits, frozen desserts, snack foods, dairy and others.

The market research firm cites many factors contributing to this substantial growth, especially the increased awareness of nutrition and health, plus parental and governmental concerns about childhood obesity. This results in a rising demand for more healthy--including natural and organic--products.

"Marketers have the unique challenge of balancing fun food formats, 'wow' packaging, and continuously changing variety, with parent-friendly fare that's high in nutrition, convenient, and easy to prepare," notes Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts. "Creating a connection and building a brand relationship is far more difficult with today's multicultural, media and technology saturated kids than it was even a decade ago."

The company identifies some of the challenges in coming up with kid-friendly concepts. For example, products considered kids' domain 10 years ago may no longer qualify. The company says macaroni and cheese is no longer classified as a "kid food," unless it contains noodles shaped like cartoon characters or the formula is enhanced with nutrition geared to kids.

The report points out that, to qualify as a kid-oriented food or beverage, products must appeal specifically to kids and not contain enough appeal to register with adults. The word kids might be in the name, the tagline, or in flagging a product's nutrients for proper growth. One example of this concept is Tropicana Pure Premium Essential "Healthy Kids" variety of orange juice, with its kid-friendly graphics and added calcium and vitamins A, D and E. The manufacturer claims the juice is "specially formulated with a taste kids love" and "has essential vitamins and minerals to support their growing bodies."