Millennials have been the driving force behind shifting consumer trends, affecting nearly all industries, including food manufacturers.  Marketers spend increasing amounts of time and money researching this demographic and trying to understand their buying behaviors.

Here at TH Foods, we did some research of our own to find out what millennials think about snack mixes.  We wanted to know what kinds of flavors, textures and shapes they prefer.  When do they like to snack? And, what are they looking for in a new snack mix?

What Millennials Want

So, what kinds of insights did we gain from our research? Well, as it turns out, millennials love to snack.

In fact, according to Mintel, millennials are more likely to snack four or more times per day compared to the generations before them.

As for snack mixes in particular, millennials have a lot of opinions. Our findings indicated that variety is an underlying theme and an important factor in choosing snack mixes.

In the texture category, millennials want crispy and crunchy snack mix components.  As for shapes and sizes, the group generally likes bite-sized pieces in a range of shapes like twists, rounds and squares.

When it comes to flavor, most millennials prefer that each individual piece of a snack mix has its own flavor.  The importance of variety is evident again as millennials took an interest in a range of flavors including, cheese, salty, bold, sweet, roasted, fruit and smoked.

High-volume snack mix consumers showed a particular interest in flavor fusions. Sweet & salty, sweet & heat and sweet & savory were the three highest ranked combinations among this group.

Nutrition is also very important to the millennial consumer base.  Buyers are looking for snack mixes with high protein content and components like super-grains, seeds and nuts.

New Snack Mix Component Creations – Crafted with Millennials in Mind

Inspired by this research, our skilled artisans crafted four new snack mix components.  We’re excited to introduce:

• Cinnamon Bun Snack Sticks – The great taste of a gooey sweet cinnamon bun made with real honey, brown sugar and sesame.
• Super Grain Quinoa Corn Sticks – The great taste and benefits of power grain quinoa lightly salted and packed into a thin, crunch stick.
• Vegetable Red Beet Corn Sticks – A brilliant red color from real beets, this lightly salted stick features simple ingredients including corn, quinoa and beets.
• Pineapple Habanero Honey Sticks – Sweet meets heat! The sweet taste of pineapple and honey with a kick of habanero.

Contact us to learn more or request your free sample.