CPGmatters: Frito-Lay's Plan - Attract Female Shoppers With New Products in Redesigned Snack Aisle
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from the monthly e-zine, CPGmatters.
New shopper insights have told Frito-Lay that women really want their own desires for nutritionally-oriented products to be addressed in the supermarket salty-snack aisle, but typically don't find that to be the case. So the new program involves Flat Earth baked vegetable crisps, a young brand, as well as a complete overhaul of the SmartFood popcorn-based snack brand, its 100-calorie packs of many products, and new flavors of baked versions of venerable Lay's, Fritos, Ruffles, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos snacks.
"Women are heavy snackers," Julie Saliba, director of marketing for Frito-Lay's women's portfolio, told CPGmatters. "In our aisle, she didn't see offerings she was looking for. It's not that she wasn't looking for them."
Frito-Lay is rolling out its new aisle scheme nationally in all of its major outlets, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drug and club stores, in cooperation with retailers, of course, and with Frito-Lay's own category management and planogram teams.
Right now, Ms. Saliba conceded, the products and brands that women are interested in purchasing for themselves are scattered throughout the salty-snacks aisle and largely undifferentiated from other snacks.
"We know consumers appreciate this type of product, but they're spread out all over the place and getting lost," Ms. Saliba said. "Even baked snacks basically just disappear into the aisle because the packaging is similar to other products and because they don't necessarily cue things to women that are associated with the snacks.
"So we're increasing the visibility of these lines by getting rid of clutter and focusing on what she's looking for when she's looking for baked."
Specifically, in the store, Frito-Lay is clustering its better-for-you brands together on the shelves for the first time. In "traditional" stores, the cluster will tend to be located in the center of the aisle, Ms. Saliba explained, while in more health-oriented outlets, Frito-Lay will group better-for-you items close to one of the aisle ends.
"People who are more focused on shopping for a variety of snacks for their families are going be coming down the aisle anyway, and our variety packs on the ends will draw her into the aisle - and she'll see that the middle of the aisle is 'for me,'" as Ms. Saliba put it. By contrast, women shopping more health-oriented outlets will find Flat Earth, SmartFood, 100-calorie packs and all of the company's baked chips at the end of the aisle - though not on end caps - so they can see them more clearly.
"The overarching key," she added, "is that we're trying to make it easier for her to find what she's looking for."
Discussion Questions: How would you rate the women better-for-you snack food opportunity? What do you think of Frito-Lay's' move to cluster its better-for-you brands together on the shelves for the first time as part of a more focused approach toward women?