Introduction
Time pressures have had a significant impact on meal and snack behaviors and attitudes. Consumers are increasingly replacing traditional sit-down meal occasions with grab-and-go or easy-prep/easy-consumption snack foods and meal solutions. For snack manufacturers, the news is good: it translates into broadening opportunity.

But to compete effectively in this complex environment, it is vital that manufacturers understand consumers' changing attitudes and the impact these attitudes have on purchase, preparation and consumption behavior.

As the second in an ongoing series of studies on critical trends in the snack industry, "What Do Americans Really Eat?" builds on findings from SnackWorld 2000, a detailed assessment of how consumers shop for snack foods and which products compete most closely.

What Do Americans Really Eat? is a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of leveraging several data sources combined with high-end analytics to uncover critical insights into industry-shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Key Findings

• Opportunity abounds for snack manufacturers as a significant portion of the population views snack foods as meal-replacement as well as between meal nourishment
• Snack, meal component and meal solution manufacturers are competing in the same consumer consideration set. All should explore meal solutions that act like snacks in terms of convenience and portability, for all meal and snack dayparts
• Though nutrition is important across meal and snack occasions, it is consistently overshadowed by convenience -- and price. This may change as consumer awareness of ubiquitous press coverage of "the obesity epidemic" and obesity-related legal actions increases
• Snack manufacturers must not overlook the 3 SQUARE population, which snacks as frequently -- or even more -- than the general population. Foods targeting the 3 SQUARE population must acknowledge the higher health awareness which marks this important consumer segment

Strategic product positioning is the key to product use opportunity growth.
Americans lead exceptionally busy lifestyles. Mealtime, once a time for rest and relaxation, has become eating: just another in a long list of "things to do today". In fact, one-third of Americans indicate that they do not have time to eat as well as they would like.

American eating habits- and attitudes- have been greatly impacted by on-the-go lifestyles. Snacks often completely replace traditional meal occasions. Consumers still seek nutrition, but- more importantly- consumers seek convenience.

The ability to understand consumer attitudes across dayparts and strategically position products to meet consumers' demanding lifestyles is a distinctive competency of those competing effectively in today's complex snack/meal environment.

Nutrition is important across meal occasions; however, convenience is the driving force in the snack decision-making process.
Though consumers show a preference for fresh- but easy-to-prepare- meals, snack occasions are clearly dominated by ready-to-eat solutions. Consumers consider price when selecting snack solutions, but convenience clearly outweighs price in importance.

Consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay two-to-three times higher prices for convenient versions of their favorite products. By contrast, consumers are not necessarily willing to pay more for better nutrition.

Obesity rates have reached an all-time high. Prevalence of overweight and obese population has doubled- tripled among children- since 1980¹.

Drastic changes in consumer attitudes toward nutrition- and associated behavior- may result from intense scrutiny of growing obesity trends and associated obesity-related law suits targeting "big food" manufacturers.

In our time-crunched society, more than one-third of consumers regularly skip meals. Frequently these are replaced with snacks.

Only two-thirds of the population regularly eats three meals daily. Interestingly, these consumers snack as much as- even slightly more than- those who do not eat three meals daily.

Generally speaking, 3 SQUARE eaters follow a healthier diet versus the remainder of the population. Fruits and vegetables are consumed with more frequency, high-fat foods are more often avoided. Their attitudes and behaviors vary rather markedly in some respects.

Increased time pressures, evolving family values and nutritional education will likely continue to have a significant impact on consumer attitudes and behaviors toward food. Maintaining a pulse on these driving forces is a difficult- yet critical- aspect of competing successfully in the snack arena of tomorrow.

Conclusions and Recommendations
It is a time of great opportunity for snack, meal solution, and meal component manufacturers. Americans' increasingly time-crunched lifestyles have led to a powerful convenience mantra, and the line that distinguished snacks and meals yesterday has all but vanished today, leaving the field wide open for snack and meal manufacturers alike.

Snack and meal solution manufacturers are now competing in the same solution set. A comprehensive understanding of consumer attitudes across dayparts is critical to the ability to strategically position products to meet the dynamic needs of consumers today.

Though snacks are ubiquitous, consumer segments vary- rather significantly in some cases- with respect to snack/meal attitude and behavior. These variations may well indicate that different marketing strategies be required in targeting a single product line to a broad range of consumer segments.

It is also a time which warrants the exercising of caution and vigilance. The "obesity epidemic" is making national headlines on a regular basis, and a handful of law suits have accused fast food restaurants of knowingly putting profits ahead of the greater good of the consumer.

Intense and increasing time-pressures, societal and governmental concerns about nutrition and obesity, the growing American trend toward self-health care and other forces will all have a profound impact on the snack landscape of tomorrow. Consumer attitudes and behaviors relative to selection, preparation and consumption across dayparts are continually evolving these days. Now, more than ever, it is critical for manufacturers to keep their finger on the pulse of the consumer- rapid response to changing consumer demand will enable manufacturers to effectively capitalize on opportunities across numerous- sometimes all- dayparts.

How to Learn More

Full Study Findings
For a full presentation of IRI's What Do Americans Really Eat? study, which contains a comprehensive overview of motivating and mitigating factors impacting the selection, preparation and consumption of meal and snack foods, contact your IRI client service representative. Should you have specific questions regarding contents in this document, please email Susan Viamari at susan.viamari@infores.com.

IRI Products and Services
IRI offers a comprehensive array of products and services snack foods industry designed to address sales tracking, consumer insights and pricing and merchandising analytic needs, including:

BehaviorScan® Testing: In-market testing of new products and/or advertising, including: design, execution, and analysis of store, household panel and frequent shopper data

Shopping Basket Profiler: Traffic-building insights based on the entire shopping basket by leveraging information from IRI's Combined Outlet Consumer Panel of 70,000 households

New Product Benchmarking: Detailed results of every new product introduced in a specific category over the past several years

Promo Drivers: Quantifies and predicts incremental sales lifts of trade promotion for features, displays, temporary price reductions and special packs via proprietary modeling methodology

Date sources include the following:

• InfoScan® Supermarket, Drugstore and Mass Merchandiser (excluding Wal-Mart)
• Detailed internet-based survey of 1,000 consumers
• SnackWorld 2000 Market Structure
  • 28,000 IRI household panelists
  • 20 snack categories
  • 52-week period

¹ Chicago Tribune- December 2002