Study identifies levers to drive opportunities in natural flavour solutions
Consumers love the taste of nature and are increasingly demanding more naturalness, a study conducted by Symrise has found.
The global study on the perception of naturalness covering Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Africa and Middle East as well as Latin America found companies are catering to this need with natural product solutions but find it challenging to meet consumer’s expectations and comply with a complex regulatory environment.
Symrise’s Global Sensory and Consumer Insights in Asia, Symrise has “decoded” the key consumer wishes across four product segments: flavored water, ready to drink (RTD) tea, drinking yogurt and ready meals.
Key insights from Symrise Asia Pacific Customized Consumer Naturalness Study are:
- In APAC as in other regions, the new era of naturalness is evolving fast and in diverging directions. What “natural” means to consumers ranges from knowing exactly the type of ingredients, where the ingredients in their food come from and the preparation method.
- Market segments that are potentially more willing to pay a premium for products with natural taste solutions include ingredient source seekers, quality seeking affluents, health conscious shoppers and ultimate truth seekers.
- In all countries, “no additives” is one in the top three attributes driving naturalness perception in all categories. The second most frequent desired attribute cross-country and cross-category is “contains real ingredients” (e.g. fruit extracts or natural fruit juice).
- Among the different categories, beverage is the one where the potential to leverage naturalness as a purchase driver is larger, especially in flavored water, with high opportunities in all countries.
- Both in Japan and Australia the size of opportunity looks high for flavored water and medium for RTD tea. Flavored waters are particularly expected to be safe for long term consumption, with strong interest for “organic” and “low/no sugar claims”.
- In RTD tea, there is a lot of emphasis on “taste authenticity” (e.g. “freshly brewed taste”) and on “organic”, especially among ingredient source seekers and health conscious premium.
Further insights both global and regional will follow within the next months. A summary of the key insights from the Symrise customised consumer naturalness study is available at www.codeofnature.symrise.com.
