Strategies for Managing Food and Drink Flavor Portfolios

Summary
To build up the case for the "how to" guide, this report reviews strategies and techniques for flavor range optimization. Flavor portfolio evaluations and case studies are applied to specific categories and product lines, and the learnings generalized to the larger food and drink sector as possible. Likely future trends and opportunities with respect to flavor portfolios are also presented.


Synopsis
- Understand current thinking and practice with respect to applicable business models and the factors affecting choice of a flavor portfolio.

- Assess a selection of marketing and consumer research techniques and tools that can be used to manage and optimize flavor portfolios.

- Through case studies, examine the strategies used for range development and optimization in several categories and product lines.

- Consider future trends and opportunities with respect to flavor portfolios.

Reasons To Buy
- What are the main opportunities and major limitations with respect to flavor portfolios for food and drink products?

- How can a product line appeal to a range of consumer segments through its flavor range?

- What are the main factors that affect portfolio choice and what are the implications of each?

- What are the differences in flavor ranges between larger players and smaller or more innovative manufacturers within a category?

- What are the options with respect to number of flavor variants, combination of flavors to offer, and when to introduce and discontinue flavors?

Key Highlights
A general rule is that the number of variants in a flavor portfolio should be the amount necessary to establish reach and meet the needs of enough consumer segments to make the line profitable, but without starting to cannibalize the core flavors or impact negatively on profits because of excessive operational costs.

In general, newer flavors are chosen to coincide with global events, general food and drink trends, and ingredient and health trends. Newer flavors chosen by the larger players create fun and diversity within the product line, whereas completely new entrants may offer flavors that are disruptive to the category.

Online food and drink shopping is already a major channel. The Boston Consulting Group (2013) has predicted that the online grocery market will reach $100bn by 2018. Therefore it is logical to assume that many product lines will start to use more flavor extensions and to increase their reach to a wider range of consumer segments.